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The Hong Kong Association of Business and Professional Women (BPW Hong Kong) had a virtual 90th birthday celebration of BPW International with members from all walks of life on 26 August 2020. We cheer, hurray and salute to women of now and then who contribute to advocate for women’s rights and feminist movement.
The International Federation of Business and Professional Women (IFBPW) was founded in Geneva, Switzerland, on August 26, 1930, on the initiative of Dr. Lena Madesin Phillips. As President of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs of the United States of America, she organized several “Goodwill Tours” to Europe in 1928 and 1929. Hundreds of American women participated in these tours with the purpose of meeting business and professional women in Europe and promoting affiliation with them. The founding member countries of the international federation were Austria, Canada, France, Great Britain, Italy and the United States of America. Dr. Lena Madesin Phillips was elected as the first IFBPW President and served until 1947.
Looking back to the notable progress made by BPW International and many wonderful women associations on closing gender gaps over not only the past 90 years, but the past 100-odd years worldwide. Let’s spend a couple of minutes on women’s history 101, shall we?
The first wave of feminist movement was largely concerned with the suffragette struggle for the vote during early 1900s. In 1918, after World War I, with all the sacrifices and efforts of the Suffragettes, the Representation of the People Act 1918 finally gave women rights to vote in Great Britain. Before that, women were not free to decide what they wanted their country to become and who they wanted to lead the nation.
The second wave focused on both public and private injustices, demarcated from the 1960s to the late 1980s. During most of American history, married women’s lives in most states were restricted by common law, marriages and property laws, which stipulated that a married women did not have a separate cultural and legal existence from her husband. A wife was the husband’s property till the emergence of a reaction to women returning to their roles as housewives and mothers after the end of the Second World War. The men returned from wars, while women were expected to quietly resume their lives as loyal and subjugated wives. However, women didn’t want to and shouldn’t resume these roles after having worked and been independent of male dominance.
The third wave would go on to embrace all kinds of women. Scholars coined the term intersectionality to describe the ways in which different forms of women oppression intersect – steering to help to ensure that women are not left out or forgotten due to differences in race, religion, class, education level, ability level, nationality, age, sexual preference, and many other identifying factors.
The fourth wave has been thriving in recent years as #MeToo and Time’s Up pick up momentum. Media coverage, digital movement and propaganda catalyze women empowerment in Hollywood and across all national borders, holding the culture’s most powerful men accountable for their behavior. The Oscar-winning film Bombshell (2019) gave an account on the women at Fox News who set out to expose CEO Roger Ailes for sexual harassment.
The past century have seen important progress for women and girls. Still, United Nations reported that with the current rate of change, the global gender gap will not close for another 100 years – “change is coming at a pace that is too slow for the women and girls whose lives depend on it”.
Happy 90th Anniversary!!!
On 26 August 2020, BPW International held its first Virtual Global Candle lighting ceremony on the occasion of its 90th Anniversary. International President Amany Asfour called for presidents of BPW Affiliates from Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America and the Caribbean and lots of BPW members worldwide attending to give warm wish for BPW International 90th Anniversary and light the candle online. It was a heart-warming moment. Yet, it’s a challenging moment – having inherited the great work done by our past BPW big sisters, the current and future BPW women support sisters all over the world while BPW International continues the great work to empower women for another century to come.
Today the International Federation of Business and Professional Women is also called BPW International, which is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that has had Consultative Status with the United Nations through the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 1947. At present there are a total of twenty-one members serving as representatives of IFBPW at the United Nations and its subsidiary organs, specialized agencies and related organizations.
#bpw90, #bpwday and #bpwpride
Judy Tam
倡議工作小組主席 Advocacy Taskforce Chair
香港商務及專業婦女協會 The Hong Kong Association of Business and Professional Women (BPWHK)
www.bpwhk.net