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1992 Global Summit of Women Press
"We know a great deal about how to get things done outside the stale
male mind-set," organizer Irene Natividad declared in opening remarks at
the historic Abbey Theater.
"We are strong, we are persistent, we are smart," the American feminist
said. "There are more of us, and we live longer."
Such wry observations were punctuated by serious calls for assertive
steps to change the traditional structure and values of a male-dominated
world power system.
"Women must be very cautious when embarking on a leadership path,"
warned Iceland's President Vigdis Finnbogadottir, one of two female
heads of state addressing the conference.
"If you do something wrong," she said, "you will be attacked with the
strongest weapon - mockery."
Unlike for men, Finnbogadottir said, mistakes made by women inevitably
reflect on all women.
The chief prejudices women must combat, she said, are that "women are
not competitive enough or women do not understand economics."
Under the theme "New Visions of Leadership," the four-day conference is
expected to include among its guests Betty Friedan, founder of the
National Organization for Women; Cai Jinqing, a student leader during
the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, and former U.S.
representative Bella Abzug.
But some of the biggest names the forum promised to draw dropped out for
"various reasons," said spokeswoman Geraldine McInerney. Among the
missing were writers Alice Walker and Susan Faludi, former Pakistani
leader Benazir Bhutto and actress Olympia Dukakis.
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