Stirring The Fire: a global movement to empower women and girls

The exhibition, Stirring the Fire: a global movement towards gender equality, is a call to action and a celebration of the women and girls — mostly in developing countries — who have broken through barriers of tradition and oppression to become catalysts for change in their communities. Their stories shed light on specific gender issues worldwide while revealing practical pathways for women and girls to achieve gender equality.

The Call to Action:

Stirring the Fire is designed to inspire action and be a resource for those wanting to get involved with a specific women’s issue by contributing in a way they feel excited and most comfortable.

The specific women's issues covered by the exhibition are:

• Education
• Economic Security
• Health
• Leadership
• Human Trafficking
• Violence Against Women

For each of the issues anyone inspired can choose an avenue of support:

• Donate or Lend Money
• Advocate or Learn More
• Volunteer
• Study Abroad — A resource guide for high school and college students listing volunteer and study abroad opportunities that target women and girl's issues.

Empowering women has been found to be the most effective strategy for addressing poverty and building stability in the developing world. Today the United Nations Development Program, the World Bank, and even the Joint Chiefs of Staff recognize the importance of empowering women as the foundation for development abroad as well as our security here at home. In much of the world women care for their families, grow the food, collect firewood and water and yet they usually face social and economic discrimination that prevents them from attending school, working for wages, and taking part in civic life. Poverty has a greater impact on women, and vice versa, empowering women results in greater and faster progress in reducing poverty.