League of Women Voters
www.lwv.org

Despite its current problems, this organization has the most old and historic tradition. It came into being with voting for women and was not long ago a leader on government issues. It used to host the televised US Presidential debates until that function was usurped by a mostly-male commission many see as controlled by the major parties. Since that occurred the League's situation and empowerment may be slipping, and members may be involved in internal struggles for and against becoming co-opted by bipartisan forces to the exclusion of independents, third parties and unaffiliated; its main office is in Washington DC, so it has been caught under the pressure of beltway male-dominated US politics. The League has nothing available on gender balance in government on its national website, and many of its members, totally uninformed by the censorship on gender and government stories in the US media, are not being informed by the League, either about the French elections, and gender balance progress in India, Asia, Africa and other continents and nations. The section of its website on democracy is mostly isolationist, and the section on international connection and links has NOT ONE MENTION of Parite in France, NOT ONE MENTION of Nordic gender balance in government, and NOT ONE LINK to a gender balance organization anywhere in the world. Does such a website mean the League is coopted, or just uninformed? The League needs international input in order to do Good again, and to remember in considering its history that voting rights of women in other countries assisted its founding activists to bring the right of US women to vote The League needs a defined pro-women men's connection, as well, and European Pro-feminists like men in Nordic countries and France need contact with the organization, which has national, state, and local offices listed in our links section.

National Organization for Women
http://www.now.org

This large group, which also has state and local branches, has also not yet made gender balance in government a priority. It has NO apparent commitment to live up to its name, NOW, for the immediate presence of a critical mass of gender balance in the US government, and literally, has not one staffperson focussed on such an essential issue, even though its central office is in Washington DC and it involves itself in other national lobbying. It failed to publicly encourage qualified political women to run for President in the last election cycle, and did not mobilize women to call forth any well qualified women in the US outside of the political parties, such as public interest and health heads of organizations, to enter the political arena, as they have done in other nations. NOW supported thewhitehoseproject very weakly and overcautiously. In its media appearances, it has been colluding with major partyized women into deluding women that trickling gradualism and tokenism is progress, and encourages them to toward isolationism and to ignore most international women as equals. The only exception to this in its media work has been overfocussing on Afghani women, particularly as unrepresented victims, without informing US women that their nation has fallen to a lowly rank of 49 among nations, and last among wealthy post-industrial nations, when it comes to the number of women in the US Congress. It's news section has nothing about the upcoming Gender Parite election for the French National Assembly on April 21st, and makes it easy to forget that Frances cities are now lead by about 50-50 men and women. Is NOW becoming more and more isolationist and at times, like a proxy battleground for major party male panderers,(and a few self-interested ambitious women), instead of acting as a voice for the national mass of women, who would likely have already supported Parite just as much as Frenchwomen if NOW would just let them know about it, thank you? But World of Good has plenty good to say about NOW. Its members are highly motivated and well known, and could easily make a transformation to parite and gender balance consciousness quickly. It does have linkage with non-sexist men, such as NOMAS which is included in our links section, and some basic connection with women's groups around the world. NOW needs international input and caring national and international confrontation in order to be effective good again.

WEDO
http://www.wedo.org

This groups has excellent coverage on Gender Balance in Government issues, especially on its website. Needs more women focusing full-time on gender balance and government, although the staff who are, are dedicated and accessible. Based in New York, it focusses on the UN but generally ignores the US per-se, and has recently expressed private concern about the lack of parite consciousness and information among certain US women leaders. Despite the difficulties, WEDO needs greater focus on the big ol US, and to work with international women and pro-women international men to reempower the more prominent but self-tokenized US women's organizations, like the League of Women Voters and NOW, forthrightly and publically, as one WEDO's outspoken founders, Bella Abzug, would have. More statements from male pro-feminists, such as best selling author Michael Moore and NOMAS in the US, Europe and India would round out website and empower the 50-50 agenda more winningly and boldly. WEDO's website needs a quick little updating regarding the French March 2001 election so that everyone who visits their website learns quickly that women now hold 47.5% of all municipal offices and seats in France and are expecting the same in the upcoming April 21-June National Elections and runoffs. WEDO's website needs a banner headline about the French Parliamentary Election, and the impact of this election on Gender for the European Union, on the US, and thus, the entire interconnected, world visible when you access home page, that links to 50-50 section. World of Good recommends that the already very good women of WEDO post more and regular messages on Internet newsgroups and other existing and well trafficked mailing lists, in addition to their own listserve, so they ran rountinely reach scores if not hundreds of thousands. We also suggest they use a definitional standard of government that requires at least a critical percent number such as the 37.5% minimum of the , so that instead of just climbing uphill to 50-50 one nation at a time, women activists and pro-feminist men are assisted by WEDO's empowering voice to unite quickly behind a definition of human government that simply does not legitimize residually monogender and unbalanced officialdoms as governments

WILPF/WAND
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
http://www.wilpf.org
Women's Action for New Directions
http://www.wand.org

While WILPF has deep and broad international connection, it redundantly focuses on helping women as victims, or as lobbyists/ witnesses of conscience outside of dominant male dominated government, but ignores the importance of women in government and representational gender balance. It needs a pro-women male wing, and since it was founded by a social worker, Jane Addams, WILPF may easily find pro-feminist men in the international social work profession to grow with its female members into a focus on gender balance and empowerment of women as equals and partners to men in self-governance. WAND often works with WILPF on domestic US issues and does focus on bringing "More" (numbers and percentage undefined) women into government in the US, but has no international connection, and many of its staff appear oblivious to the gender balance growing in Europe and other nations far faster than in the US. WAND needs international connection, especially France and England and England's other former colonies such as India, due to its home near Boston and US revolutionary history, if it is to be a more effective group for doing Good. France' Parite is a Second and more Peaceful and Successful French Revolution, and it is ironic and contextually blind that a group such as WAND, near old US revolutionary Boston, should not tell visitors to its Website about Parite. But WAND has shown past excellent leadership on gender numbers and government, compared to other groups in the US, and can take pride in having done so. It simply needs to slightly more empower these efforts, and get past any illusion that women in a global world can remain isolationist in their focus on gender and government.

Feminist Majority
http://www.feminist.org

The Feminist Majority may be beginning to notice international gender balance movement, though still overfocussed on important but ultimately symptomatic issues, like abortion rights. This organization needs more prominent international input and cooperation, especially from Nordic countries, to better articulate connections between specific issues, like reproductive rights laws, and gender. representation in its media appearances. The organizational name suggests an ability to link with European pro-feminist men on the critical mass numbers of pro-feminist men and feminist women in office. The office is in Washington DC, and the organization does not have state or local branches, so it may fall prey to Beltway male dominated and prima donna-token dominated politics. But it's office is centralized, so contact with its leaders is easy. Certainly, a group with this name should have had a banner headline ongoing about Parite in France, and there is no reason one cannot be put up immediately, to draw attention to the April 21st election, the day before Earth Day. There is no statement of the founder, Eleanor Smeal among recent news about Parite, yet there is one about Afghani women - why focus only on the victims and not also on the already victorious models of the majority who can uplift the victims? But of course, Smeal is a terrific person. She just needs to connect with the undeniable movement toward gender numbers and 50-50 now. If she doesn't, we will speculate she is emotionally exhausted, does not want Feminist Majority to reach the finish line of its agenda, she has somehow become "institutionalized" or "habituated" like some prisoners, to a failure or "minority" status. That would be a tragedy for Feminist Majority, but the actual human females and males who love females, the partner majority of however many at present but everyone soon, will certain achieve its victory, and so Feminist Majority can look to increased support from many in the US and outside of it to get back on track as soon as Smeal figures this out.

Equality Now
http://www.equalitynow.org

This newer and smaller organization has a promising name for connection with gender balance activists around the world. However, its current activities have less to do with equality than with basic non-victimization, particularly ending violence against women. The organization staff seems to not have made the conceptual insight that increased women in government means better ways to protect women against violence; so activities are lobby and activist oriented, disengaged from concepts of democracy at all levels, and the gender group dynamics of law-makers. It's list of women's actions rightfully includes the women's vote in Kuwait, but ignores French women in office at 47% under Parite, Nordic Women and the European Unions issue on gender, and ignores the important upcoming April 21st election that will bring Parite to the French national government. The effort of its website to inform does nothing to overcome the male-dominated US media blackout on Parite. Still, this group is very well motivated, and may be in a fresh and open state of mind that enables it to moved forward quickly. Because it is small, friendly and empowering, input and connection from and with international gender balanced government liasons and organizations might have positive effect quickly.

American Association of University Women
http://www.aauw.org

This organization can potentially reach quickly into a powerful constituency of thousands and indeed millions of US women professors, deans, and students, many who are already oriented to international cooperation, since the organization has international affiliates. However, as of a month ago, staff at their main office had never heard of the French Gender Parite 50-50 election. It is clearly therefore imperative to educate these otherwise highly informed women about gender balance worldwide, and about just how terribly censoring the US media has been about gender and government news. They are oriented to empowerment, and offer their members a teeshirt and bumper stickers that read "Future President". You can help them make that, AND full representation of women in Congress a reality, by bringing international and global cooperation to their work on women and government.

Emily's List
http://www.emilyslist.org

This organization seeks to fund campaigns of women and recruit women to run for government office. It currently uses as criteria of endorsement of pro-choice policies that will keep abortion legal as its only major criteria for endorsement of woman candidates. It has utterly failed to address the importance of a critical mass percentage of women in government as a necessary prerequisite of women's protection of reproductive, or any other rights, such as civil rights and discriminatory protection. It focuses on the US, but in a domestically preoccupied way, and appears to be out of touch with women in other nations who have gained higher numbers of women in national governments by attention to standards or quotas of reasonable democratic representation. Emily's List needs international attention, confrontation, support and reempowerment to help its assistance to women move from gradualism and funding preoccupations to full and rapid empowerment and election candidate list access of an approximate 50-50 gender standard. Under its watch, the US still remains below 49 other nations in the number of women in its national government. It's time for Emily's List to face what it has been missing, and learn from other nations.

Large Women's Internet Communities that include US posters of email:

soc.women (newsgroup)
Abigails-L
Ecofem
Women's Studies mailing lists
and others:

Regular press releases from gender balance organizations and about gender balance news in other nations to these lists will likely reach thousands of women and pro-women men, and are a good source for international empowerment and open minded people seeking global telecommunication friendship.

The following other groups are important in the US, and all are attempting to reform US and International governance. Few if any, have staff who are knowledgeable about gender balance currently, but these are all well motivated and will likely respond well to international linkages and alliances:

NAACP
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
http://www.naacp.org

Common Cause
http://www.commoncause.org

This is a large government and election reform organization that has been oblivious to the importance of gender in governmental functioning and citizen participation. It should be targeted by all international leaders on government and gender balance as a potentially important ally in the US, and it's women should be empowered on the issue and mobilized to educate the men, so they can empower each other toward good government via gender balance. There is no coherent reason for Common Cause to ignore elections in France impacting on the European Union, which will affect the future of every American. Democracy is an international Common Cause, not an Isolationist, Uncommon One, Common Cause needs more connection to others in our Global and Interconnected World. Slightly better is The Center for Voting and Democracy, which does have a section on gender and racial representation in US officialdom, but it too appears oblivious to French and Nordic achievements of 50-50, and is keeping South African and other more gender representative balanced nations' statistics a secret to their members and all Americans who are desperately in need of raising their sights beyond the continental borders in a global world. The same isolationism problem regarding democracy and inspiring it in the US is at The Alliance for Democracy. These are idealistic organizations, but they quickly need strong and concerned input from outside the US to become effective and really Good.

Essential Organizations
http://www.essential.org

This is a set of issue oriented reform organizations that focus on a large range of issues and government reform. It's awareness of gender dynamics and fairness appears limited currently but potentially good. Members are generally younger and receptive to international linkages and input. There is a lot of idealism in these groups, which sense the pitfalls of dominator-male government, but the style appears more unisex than gender balanced. Members may take for granted current freedoms for women because they have not yet entered family building responsibilities that focus older people on the need for gender balance in government in order to protect and extend family leave and balance of family and work. These organizations may respond well to feminist and ecofeminist economist input and how it can be empowered by gender balance in government. They have been interested in protesting globalization, but not with transforming globalization into global good and democracy, which demands greater focus on representation of women.

World Federalist Organization
http://www.wfa.org

This organization, with local and national offices in the US but based in Washington DC, has many international linkages and focuses but is extremely weak on gender and government issues. It's staff may need information about gender and government in Europe that they are ignorant about because of the censorship' of the US dominator-male-dominated press. Despite active Women's Developments at the UN, the organization seldom discusses these development in its publications, let alone doing so regularly, and has no full time staff attending to the issue. It is our belief that world governance or UN empowerment require a gender balance and representation universal standard, but this discussion has been neglected at wfa. It is amazing that a world oriented organization has virtually nothing about gender parite in France and its importance to the European Unions, and by connection, with the US and every nation. However the staff and members are idealists, friendly, and will motivated and will likely respond welcomingly to international connection.

Peace Action http://www.peace-action.org

This organization is also entirely missing a gender-aware understanding of human aggressive and violent tendencies. It actively protests the lack of peace in many areas, but its Real Solutions to a More Peaceful World make no mention of gender imbalance in decision-making on military expenditures and government, even though the most peaceful and peace-promotive nations of the world, the Nordic nations, have been actively promoting gender balance in national policy for years. This group mobilizes many US women, without empowering them beyond the fund-raising and lobbyist level. The women on staff are probably uninformed about Parite in France, and numbers of women in Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and other Parliaments which are essential in giving rise to their nations' important peace work. The group hasn't figured out that a US Congress that is only 13% women and 87% dominant male is not about to follow its recommendations, and its headline focus on Israel and Palestine is premature and mentions nothing about the lack of enough numbers of women in all Mideast officialdoms. With its patriarchal past, the Mideast is very needful of every Sarah, Hagar, Mary to work together as equals in equal numbers at conference tables with their Abrahams, Isaacs and Ishmaels and Josephs if their is to be peace in the Middle East, and this will only happen when groups like Peace Action take a good hard look at the gender realities of their own American land first, and its own callous disinterest in the gender balance in government.We suggest that Peace Action immediately undertake contact with Norwegian woman El Taller, founder of the World Court of Women Against War, which has actively worked with Desmonde Tutu and others in bringing non-violent solutions to tense areas, and with gender ombudspersons who monitor the gender balance of Nordic governments, as well as gender parite author Sylvianne Agacinksi of France and/or her sisters in the French legislature and in now 47% of officeholders in French government, both Jewish and non-Jewish, and highlight the necessity of Israeli and pan-Arab women working as sisters instead of focussing on the territorial dispute that is overintensely reported by the male dominated news and being manipulated by the US male-dominated political scene and all its mostly male players, and a few of the usual aggressive male hot-heads on all sides. These are included in our links section.

Globalize This http://www.globalizethis.org

This is a coalition of mostly US organizations, but many international, planning a major march and protest in Washington DC April 19-22, 2002. What was lacking in many of the participating organizations until now is a mature, comprehensive gender balance awareness which could transform "globalization" into global-awareness: world spiritual and human rights unity in real and human prosperity, instead of just reactively protesting the playground of aggressive, dominant-male run corporations. The gender balance awareness of even these idealistic, protesters has been poorly developed to date, because the US has lagged severely behind Europe and other places in dealing with gender equality, and has one of the most tokenized and/or gender divisive political and even protest environments in the world. US groups have not yet realized many of the points discussed in our section comparing and contrasting effective and less effective concepts of various groups and activists on women's representation and gender. This is the underlying reason why US trade policies remain overaggressive and te$to$teronized by the most aggressive males who run corporations, political parties and ignore protest groups who haven't caught onto full gender representation. Talk about a Tale of Two Cities, this is planning for Washington but ignoring Paris - It is striking that the Globalize This website does not yet even mention the fact that the protest is occurring during the first gender parite election of the French National Assembly, which is an epochal change in global herhistory and should be HEADLINES on a website concerned about global and human issues. The protest certainly should highlight parite author Agacinski and her candidate-husband Prime Ministre Jospin, as well as third running Arlette Laguiller and a another candidate Christiane Labiqua (an African woman immigrant to France). The French Election will have enormous impact on the EU, and therefore, on all hemispheres. Ignoring the her-historic French Election on the Website would be very unwise for those who claim to be watchdogging globalization processes.

Still, some of the participants of this appropriately globally concerned protest may indeed be promoting government gender representation at parity and balance. But at the date of this writing too many seem oblivious to this critical dimension, and the noise made without a gender-consciousness may drown out the simpler, deeper and less blaming transformation to gender equality and the justice it brings. The massive gatherin is occurring in a Capitol that should have had a female President, and, at best, female and male together in Highest Executive partnership, in over 200 years, as many nations have, but instead the US has yet another dominant male set of officials seated by disqualifying the votes of most women, and men who work well with women, throughout the election cycle. Yet the gender issues running rampant in US society amd politics are nowhere headlined on the Website Front Page.

If the full gender representation linkages are not made here, this protest would likely not achieve its goals, and could inadvertently set progress back a little by setting up anticipatory countermoves on the part of currently gender-imbalanced "powers that be", while making gender representation take a back seat when it should be first in human consciousness since it concerns the largest number of unrepresented human beings, and those most well equipped to bring nurturing concepts into the halls of "power" to benefit both genders.

However, we think that the global gender parity cooperation linkages with France, Nordic, South African and other nations can and still be made before April 19th, AS you are reading this. Indeed, the date of Earth Day, on 4-22-2002, numerically spells out the strength of gender mutuality and partnership thinking that is a quaternity of mutuality, of self and other in cooperation, when the genders operate 2x2 in decision-making. Linking this mobilization with that 2x2 consciousness will bring it greater success and international human and spiritual power.

World of Good believes it is GOOD and empowering for all activists, working on a variety of issues to reform national, multinational and global institutions and cultures, to have regular telecommunication contact and conversation with gender and government activists. The compartmentalization of reform issues without an interface with gender in decision-making bodies, is we believe, like hands without thumbs attempting to function: they can point, push, yell and wave toward reform, but cannot shake hands as well, cannot (up)lift, cannot support weight as they leap over obstacles, and cannot hold the reforms of good will in place. Until they acknowledge the anthropological gender aspects of human problems, they cannot bring systemic change, and will forever move from symptom to symptom to symptom, such as peace groups that can focus on this or that hot spot, but cannot find the conceptual key to lasting peace with certainty in any place and cannot bring forth world peace everywhere at once.

This is especially true for women's organizations. A woman's organization without adequate staff that teleconnects with gender balance numbers concepts and internationals working on the issue, is like a brain functioning with its corpus callosum removed - it cannot connect its wisdom with the big picture, it will be easily coopted by undemocratic forces, and may eventually stop growing, causing attrition, disallusionment and cynicism regarding its mission, and encountering increasing hostility to its other issue activities. Such organizations may still be able to generate funding, but not significant or safely lasting change. Without gender balance in government, such organizations always have to make unnecessary trade offs among priorities, for example, safeguard reproductive rights at the expense of civil liberties and rights, focus on one nation but avoid discussing others, sacrifice on family and labor issues, and forget gender's relation to diplomacy and peace issues important to all, work for a 10% increase of women in office instead of more, etc.

Because of large American nations often being bounded by oceans and sharing borders with only each other, International Gender Balance Activists in Europe, Africa and Asia Need to Forge Better Human Telecommunication Linkages, and Cheerfully but Persistently Give More Honest Feedback as well as Caring Support and Empowerment to Organizations in the Americas. It may be easiest, and strategically imperative, to start with North America (Canada, US and Mexico), and especially urgently with the United States because of it enormous economic and political impact on other nations, and the fact that the US is nearly last in gender balance in government of wealthy nations.

And the opposite need for connection is also true. Organizations, particularly women's groups in the US cannot afford to be over-focused domestically and isolationist, because their national government is a global power, and without internationally oriented women's groups, has already developed a profile as a decidedly and overly dominator-male global power, with all the inherent danger to humanity as a whole, in and outside of its national geographical boundary, that implies.

There are many more worthy organizations that will reach their goals far more easily as they exert the good will and full power of gender balance, But this is a beginning sampler. Finally, again, all these groups' websites and other activities can be constructively reviewed, compared and contrasted according to the GOOD criteria that will help them reach their most important empowerment and good government goals.