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December 13, 2007
Courtesy of Anne Firth Murray

Anne Firth Murray, former Ipas board member and Founding President of the Global Fund for Women, begins her latest book, From Outrage to Courage: Women Taking Action for Health and Justice with this harsh dose of reality: "Being born female is dangerous to your health." This reality, she says, may not be true for many readers, “but for most women living in poorer countries around the world, it is devastating.”

Indeed, women of the world face myriad injustices every day — two million girls in Africa are at risk for genital mutilation each year; HIV/AIDS is spreading fastest in adolescent girls and young women; more than half a million women die each year from preventable childbirth-related injuries; almost one half of the women in the world experience violence at the hands of an intimate partner; and more than 66,000 women die each year from unsafe abortions.
 
Murray's book does just what she hoped it would do — it makes injustice visible. The book is partly based on what she teaches in her hugely popular classes at Stanford University on women's health and rights. In her teaching and writing, she looks at women's health through a lens of human rights. “There are lots of things written about women's health for women — such as how to stay healthy — but nowhere could I find a book or article that really illustrates the kind of unrelenting discrimination against women that goes on across the board in every country," she notes.

"One of the reasons I wrote it was to say, 'This systematic discrimination and indifference and lack of caring about women is outrageous.'"

True to the title, Murray showcases the outrage and the courage of women around the world. Throughout the book are more than 100 stories of women taking action for their human rights. Almost all of these stories, she says, came from women she met during her travels or from the Global Fund for Women — a grant-making organization Murray co-founded in 1987. "Most of these are groups that have received money from the Global Fund; but these 105 examples are a drop in the bucket...there are so many more examples of women's groups working on women's issues around the world," she says. Indeed, the Global Fund alone has awarded grants to thousands of groups.

In spite of the Global Fund for Women and other like-minded organizations, Murray says the struggle to make women's rights — including access to safe abortions — recognized as human rights has only just begun. "We've got a long way to go," she says. "Thanks to Ipas and other related organizations and new technologies, things are changing positively. For example, the two simplest tools to deal with maternal mortality are access to safe abortion and medications to stop postpartum bleeding. Community-based providers can be taught to use these tools and can make a big difference," she adds.

Making a difference isn't a new concept for Murray. Through her work reviewing grants for the Hewlett Foundation, the creation of the Global Fund for Women, her classes at Stanford, her first book, Paradigm Found, and now this book, From Outrage to Courage, Murray's mission has been clear: to build awareness of injustices against women and spark action and courage in those who seek to make the future brighter for all women.

 

 

 

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258