A Chance For Women To Share Power Pro-Conference Human Rights Abuses In China Should Be Exposed To The World

Look at the sunset tonight. Keep it in mind as you ponder the upcoming United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing. We’ll explain the connection in a minute. In September, thousands of women from all over the globe will tackle these issues: the human rights of women, violence against women, equal access to health care and how to strengthen families.

The conference is making some powerful men very nervous. Conservative columnist Cal Thomas recently said U.S. women shouldn’t attend because all the women will be anti-family feminists. The Vatican issued a statement decrying the conference’s agenda, though the pope later called for universal recognition of women’s equality. (Still no change, however, in his views about women priests. Still waiting.)

This is the sunset effect, folks: Power is shifting. White men traditionally have held it, but now women and minorities are stepping into leadership roles. And the power brokers are fighting back. Social scientist Jean Houston described this “sunset” phenomenon last February in Seattle at the Northwest International Women’s Conference, one of 11 conferences held in preparation for Beijing.

“What happens when the sun goes down? It blazes out. When something colossal is about to happen, everything rises to stop it. But there is no turning back. Women are joining men in full partnership.”

Women should see it as a good omen that some powerful men are nervous. Their discomfort means this conference might change things. It might mean less violence toward women and recognition of women as equal partners in families, workplaces and communities.

Most of the women who will attend are wives and mothers who love their husbands and their children. They will not OK an agenda that destroys those they love. Painting the women as rabid feminists out to sabotage families is simply a smoke screen, hiding those who fear women in power.

The argument that China should be boycotted because of its human rights record is another smoke screen. What better way to expose a country’s ills than for the media of the world to descend?

Those men worried about the conference should relax. As power is shared globally with women, men’s burden will lighten. Relax and enjoy the break.

, DataTimes MEMO: For opposing view, See headline: A chance for world to snub radicals

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