My article in today’s Outreach features Bella Abzug. Read on to learn more about this truly extraordinary woman.
It began with Bella
Rachel Molly Gurney, Stakeholder Forum
Over the last two days, we’ve paid tribute to Rachel Carson and Anil Kumar Agarwal. Today, Rachel Gurney memorialises Bella Abzug in her column…
Attorney, New York Congresswoman, and social and environmental activist are just among some of Bella Abzug’s many titles. Known for her outspoken character and fondness of large hats, Norman Mailer said Abzug’s voice “could boil the fat off a taxicab driver’s neck.” However, without such passion she could not have spent her lifetime fighting so fervently for the values she believed in: justice and peace, equal rights for all, human dignity, environmental integrity and sustainable development.
Bella Abzug’s courage to stand up for what was right, but not always popular, propelled her into the political spotlight. She was the first in Congress to suggest many changes that later gained popularity, such as the call to end the Vietnam War and support of the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1970s. Although Abzug’s opponents called her a “liberal radical” and criticized her feminism during a pivotal time in America’s struggle for gender equality, the term “radical” never insulted her. In her last campaign for Congress in 1986, she proudly remarked, “I am not a centrist.”
Her wits always about her, Abzug never backed down from a fight. In 1995, Abzug led a conference of NGOs that paralleled the UN’s fourth World Conference on Women, in Beijing. When Former President George H.W. Bush’s private visit to China coincided with this conference, Bush was quoted as saying at a meeting of food production executives, “I feel somewhat sorry for the Chinese, having Bella Abzug running around. Bella Abzug is one who has always represented the extremes of the women’s movement.” When told of Mr. Bush’s remark, Ms. Abzug, at age 75 and in a wheelchair, retorted, “He was addressing a fertilizer group? That’s appropriate.”
A staunch believer in the power of organizing and coalition building, Abzug spent much of her time changing the hearts and minds of those she met.
“She’s fierce and intense and funny,” longtime friend Gloria Steinem told the New York Times in Abzug’s obituary. “She takes everyone seriously. When she argues with you fiercely, it’s because she takes you seriously. And she’s willing to change her mind. That’s so rare.”
No matter the obstacle, Abzug never wavered in her ongoing pursuit to bring her vision of a more equal world to fruition. Feeling strongly, we must “empower women as decision-makers to achieve economic, social and gender justice, a healthy, peaceful planet, and human right for all,” Bella Abzug co-founded the Women’s Environment & Development Organization (WEDO) in 1991.
The year of its inception, WEDO organized the World Women’s Congress for a Healthy Planet, bringing together 1,500 women and 83 countries to work together on a strategy for the Earth Summit in 1992. The result was Women’s Action Agenda 21, an outline for a healthy and peaceful planet based on the introduction of gender equality, in the Earth Summit final documents Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration. This was the achievement that labeled WEDO a pioneer in international women’s rights.
As WEDO plans to celebrate its 20th anniversary in tandem with Rio+20, it is fitting that we recall Bella Savitsky Abzug and all she stood for. Bold and unapologetic, she was resolute in her mission to make just the unjust. We must consider gender equality a key part of the solution to environmental challenges, and continue to incorporate women in this very important discussion.
