Throughout his life, President Jimmy Carter truly cared about the challenges women face and how people can implement programs to help end discrimination.
A day we’ve been dreading has come: President Jimmy Carter has died, at the age of 100.
I come from a family of feminists who love Jimmy Carter. I have watched President Carter work tirelessly to protect women’s rights, magnify our voices and transform our lives. I met him almost 15 years ago and was then asked to serve on his Board of Counsellors and Ambassador’s Program at the Carter Center in Atlanta. The invitation was a thrill of my life, and each and every time we worked together, his wisdom and insights inspired me—and will continue on throughout the rest of my life.
One day, I picked up my phone and it was President Carter thanking me for supporting the incredible projects of the Carter Center and asking that I get more involved with one of their campaigns. I experienced firsthand how the Center’s Transforming Women’s Lives campaign focused on expanding women’s rights and ending discrimination around the world. Its impact was felt from small municipal government services to national policies, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jordan, the United States, Argentina, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Guatemala, Uganda, Peru, Liberia and Brazil.
When we first met, President Carter had been working to launch a small, but influential group: The Elders. Along with Ireland’s Mary Robinson, South Africa’s Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annan and others, The Elders was launched in 2007 and today has six program areas, one of which is Equality for Women and Girls.
Two years later, in July 2009, The Elders made a major announcement by calling for an end to harmful and discriminatory practices that are wrongly justified on the grounds of religion and tradition. At the time, Jimmy Carter was a lead spokesperson, stating that The Elders call upon “all leaders to challenge and change the harmful teachings and practices, no matter how ingrained, which justify discrimination against women. We ask, in particular, that leaders of all religions have the courage to acknowledge and emphasize the positive messages of dignity and equality that all the world’s major faiths share.”
Ending child marriage and stopping female genital cutting were two key activities by helping to start Girls Not Brides, an international group working around the world to end harmful and discriminatory practices, especially those based on the false premise of traditional religious customs.
But one of his many books, A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power, (2014) is what really made an impact on me, my family and many of my friends on the role religion plays both to sanction misogyny and to support gender equality.
He introduces the book by recognizing the “ravages of racial prejudice” growing up in the Deep South and how those who “enjoyed the benefits” of a prevailing racist system carefully selected Holy Scriptures to justify discrimination in the name of God.
President Carter wrote:
“There is a similar system of discrimination, extending far beyond a small geographic region to the entire globe; it touches every nation, perpetuating and expanding the trafficking in human slaves, body mutilation and even legitimized murder on a massive scale. This system is based on the presumption that men and boys are superior to women and girls, and it supported by some male religious leaders who distort the Holy Bible, the Koran and other sacred texts.”
He describes visiting 145 countries with Rosalynn, where they had the opportunity to interact directly with women and girls, often in remote villages, jungles and deserts. They learned about financial inequality that grows more rapidly with each passing decade.
A Call to Action‘s final section, “The Road to Progress,” describes what needs to be done to achieve equality, including adding an Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution—an amendment Jimmy and Rosalynn supported while in the White House and throughout their lives.
As president, he was one of the first heads of state to proudly sign CEDAW, the U.N. Treaty for Women—one of many treaties that the U.S. Senate has not yet ratified, making the United States one of a handful of countries not to have ratified. Soon after taking office, his administration quickly implemented and named commissioners to the National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year. Thanks to Bella Abzug, this commission hosted 50 state and six territorial meetings and a 1977 National Conference in Houston that adopted an ambitious Program of Action to advance women’s rights.
President Carter nominated strong women to the federal courts, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg to her first judicial appointment in 1980 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. At the time, President Carter broke all records for women being appointed judges, to the cabinet and to top administrative positions.
Throughout his life, President Jimmy Carter truly cared about the challenges women face and how people can implement programs to help end discrimination.
I was privileged to share many wonderful, personal times with Jimmy and Rosalynn, and I saw how they both made an extra effort to help all of us. He celebrated our talents and shared our joys. During a visit to Plains, I square danced with him in the town square. Summer humidity and heat wiped me out, but “Jimmy” kept smiling and dancing with other neighbors. He waited at the end of the barbecue line before he got his dinner. He wrote me a hand-written thank you card, and last year sent me a get-well card after I had an accident.
The day following a quick breakfast conversation at an Ambassador’s Circle meeting in San Diego, he stopped in the hall and asked my teenage nephew about his future plans to sell T-shirts to support Nepalese earthquake victims. He brought me to tears as I listened to his loving and compassionate Sunday school lesson at Marantha Baptist church in Plains.
Watching Jimmy and Rosalynn working together, they were the best examples of equal partnership in marriage, soul mates, and wonderful parents and grandparents.
He clearly loved making this world a better place. May all of us continue to carry his inspiration and commitment in our hearts and actions.
