Posted in Uncategorized on February 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »
With the help and support of our members, Engage Her is doing amazing things around the country!Visit our website http://www.engageher.org/ to find up-to-date information on our leadership conferences, read blogs from our diverse group of regular contributors on health, education, jobs and the environment and learn how to become a part of this fast growing community.
Posted in Uncategorized on February 24, 2009| Leave a Comment »
As President Barack Obama talked about people getting involved during his campaign and now that he’s in office, we need to take his words to heart. It’s one thing to say “Yes we can!” and it’s another thing to figure out “What’s next?” I get invited to a lot of community organizing events that people are developing because we have this overwhelming desire to get involved and make things happen.
For women, I think it’s time that we “Step up our game” and truly take charge and figure out what we can do for our families, communities and the country as a whole. Even as our economy is tanking, people are being laid off by the thousands in all our communities, we can take the initiative and figure out how we can improve our own personal situation and the broader community around us. If you’ve been laid off or your spouse, of course we have to scramble to pay our bills, take care of our families and continue to manage our lives as successfully as we can. We may not have the same kind of disposable income to afford the things we could even two months ago. However, money is not the only capital we have going for us. If we don’t have the money because we’re not being paid, we have something even more important…..time! We now have more time to look around and see how we can improve our families, communities and friends lives by participating, helping out and volunteering with groups that help to improve people’s lives.
Instead of rushing off to work everyday, picking up your kids, putting dinner on the table, helping with homework, etc. why not squeeze in an extra hour or two to volunteer with your local school and help kids to read. How about helping out an elderly neighbor who can’t drive or asking someone within your family or community if you can help take care of their kids for an hour or two while they can take care of other things they never have time for?
We’ve created a whole culture based on paying for services, and oftentimes paying a lot for those amenities. Why not move to a culture of sharing, volunteering and bartering for services? At Engage Her, that’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re creating a lot of opportunities for women to join us by volunteering for activities and helping others out. We’re bartering for services instead of paying for them. For example, we have a wonderful woman who lost her job and wants to become a web/graphic designer. Her skill set was in the print media where she laid out content for a large newspaper. So she’s taking classes in Dreamweaver and web based software to learn new skills so she can compete with the younger web designers. We had a need to create a new extension to our website, so I proposed if she could apply her new skills and help us develop our website, we would help expose her to some brand new technology that would teach her website skills, shortcut her learning path and give her a client that she could apply her skill to. We also could lead her to other clients who are willing to do something similar and help her build a strong portfolio of clients.
Why not explore bartering for services with your friends, neighbors, associates, co-workers and families? If you have experience, skills, and a desire to learn something new, try bartering with people and learning a new skill along the way. Maybe you’ve always wanted to learn how to paint or quilt but never took time to learn it. How about finding someone with the skills you want to learn and bartering for services you can provide in exchange for them teaching you things. You can be their apprentice and they can ask you to help with their marketing, or business plans, babysitting, who knows? You could put an ad into Craig’s List and find a dream match for yourself. You’ll find you’re connecting with people in a totally different fashion and when you take money out of the equation, you’ll be amazed how eager people are to learn something new and to give back to others. It works for us, try it yourself. Mable
Posted in Uncategorized on November 6, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Yesterday was a historic day for millions of people all over the world. Not only Americans, but people who are globally affected by the United States. I’m sure everyone was experiencing a wild range of emotions over Barack Obama’s win to become the next President of the United States.
For my family, watching Barack Obama deliver his speech I sat on the sofa with my two sons, Scottie & Kyle cuddled together and my husband Craig listening intently. It’s hard to describe our feelings but I thought about the future of my children and what the world will look like moving forward. It was fascinating seeing the crowds in Chicago waiting for Obama and for the crowds in Arizona listening to John McCain’s speech.
No matter who you voted for or wanted to win the White House, today is the first day of a new beginning. A new era when people of multi-cultural families and communities will play a critical role in the development of this country. The ability of all our citizens and guests to come together, leverage our contributions, listen and respect each other and move forward will be the foundation for our country’s ability to continually innovate, lead and promote equality for all. I think everyone will remember where they were when they first heard that Barack Obama won the vote to become our President of the United States.
Congratulations to everyone who voted, participated and now our collective work really begins. It is the dawn of a new beginning and we want to thank everyone who helped out to make this a collective victory.
Our Engage Her team is excited and looking forward to working with everyone to make sure we participate and get our voices and actions heard. Mable
Posted in Uncategorized on November 2, 2008| 2 Comments »
As we’re fast approaching the elections, there may still be a lot of people out there who are unsure, undecided or haven’t made up their minds whether or not to vote. Maybe you’re voting but you want to know what else you can do to get more people to vote. Or maybe you’re thinking of voting, but you’re confused or unsure of the voting ballot. A couple of ideas:
1. Vote for your choice for our next President. If you’re unsure of all the issues on your voting ballot, don’t be discouraged. Just vote for the things you know about and skip the rest. People don’t seem to know that you don’t have to know everything about all the issues. Just vote about what you care about.
2. If you’re at the polls and you’re running into problems or hassles with your name on the polls, ask someone for help. Ensure that you get the right to vote. There are more people going to the polls and monitoring to make sure everyone who is registered has the right to vote. So don’t get discouraged, don’t give up, ask for help and demand that you get to cast your ballot.
3. If you’ve already made up your mind to vote….great! Why don’t you call your family and friends and make sure that they are voting and if they need any answers, or help getting to the polls, offer to help them out. A trusted family member, friend, member of the community offers a lot of encouragement and trust to women voters.
4. How about taking your kids to polls with you on election day? The White House Project is encouraging people to Take Their Daughters/Kids to the Polls and I’m going to do that myself. I’m taking my twin boys who are 5 years old to come with me to my voting location since they’ve been hearing me talk about this election for the past year now. They will remember and they will get to see their Mom participate in the electoral process. It’s establishing a new tradition for our family. Something my parents never did, since they never voted and I missed out on all that education and awareness.
5. Why don’t you call up a friend or a group of friends and watch the election coverage and results together? This is a historic election and there will be a lot of exciting coverage and commentary to hear about. It will give you an opportunity to share the enthusiasm and excitement with others and feel connected.
6. If you’re thinking of sitting out the elections because you don’t like the candidates, etc. think about your parents, grandparents or other family members who sacrificed a lot to bring your family to the U.S. to enjoy the freedom of speech and the right to vote for elected officials. In many countries, people still don’t have the right to vote and participate in democracy. So let’s use our vote and the privilege wisely.
7. How about thinking of the kids and people who can’t vote? Your vote for candidates who represent issues that affect all Americans is a critical one. How about voting for the people who can’t vote or who don’t currently have the right?
This is an exciting time and November 4, 2008 is right around the corner. Mable
Posted in Uncategorized on October 29, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Through EngageHer.org and documentary film Engage Her: Getting minority women to lead and vote, founder and CEO Mable Yee is working to get women to the polls — especially women of color — millions are registered to vote but don’t cast their votes. So why do all those undecideds get so much attention?
Just 10 days to go till the big vote for the next prez. Here’s Mable…
With now less than two weeks to go until the big election day, it seems like every major news network has their own special Ohio independent voters’ focus group. But according to your documentary, Engage Her: Getting minority women to lead and vote, millions of women of color are registered to vote, but aren’t not voting. What are the latest statistics and why do you think the mainstream media is not drawing more attention to these registered voters who don’t feel like they should even vote?
In the 2004 general elections, from the U.S. Census Bureau:
Total: 8.5 million citizens who are women of color could have registered and voted but didn’t.
I think the mainstream media doesn’t cover nor care about these huge populations because women typically are ignored or invisible to the media. In this election cycle first with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, there was a lot of attention paid to women, but it was primarily white women. When the coverage turned to Barack Obama, it was about African Americans/black voters but they covered primarily the men. If they spoke about an African-American woman, it was Michelle Obama and they heaped a lot of negativity and criticism on her, oftentimes ignoring her strong qualities. Oprah is another big factor, but it was all about the celebrity factor.
When you look at the press coverage, it’s about the black voters vs. the white voters. More increasingly they talk about the brown vote, but no major women are discussed. The Asians receive virtually no attention along with the Native Americans, who are routinely ignored.
Yet if you look at the changing multicultural landscape of this country, with California leading the way, we can’t continue to ignore these populations. So called “minorities” collectively comprise the majority in California. By 2042, the Census Bureau is predicting “minorities” will become the majority nationwide.
The impacts and ramifications upon our society will be widespread and far reaching.
We all know that the majority of mainstream media outlets is controlled by white, majority men who dominate and control the news topics, content and distribution. The critical factor is the rise of “multiculturalism” which replaces the term minority and communities of color and how blended or people with multiple ethnic and cultural backgrounds will impact the needs of our country.
Engage Her discusses the different histories and contexts of where many women of color are coming from when deciding whether to vote — racist anti-suffrage tactics in the U.S., corrupt democracies in many women’s home countries, language barriers, sexism — just to name a few. It’s amazing many women even vote in the first place. Can you give some examples of how these contexts play out in real life, and what you think get-out-the-vote groups should keep in mind when trying to mobilize women of so many different contexts?
We learned that women are very focused on the issues that affect their everyday lives. In their 24 hour day “window,” women have to deal with taking care of their families, work, going to school, health, paying the bills, feeding their children and more. The politicians and political campaigns do a terrible job of telling these women how they are going to provide solutions and make their personal lives better. Women care about issues that are immediately on their daily radars:
So get-out-the-vote groups have to relate the everyday issues to voting and the power of the vote. We tell women: You hire and fire the president of the United States. If you don’t like the job that this president is doing, then you fire him/her by not hiring the person who’s going to continue the same policies. You also hire the next president and you have to hold him/her accountable to do the right things for our country and fix the problems that directly impact you, your families and your communities. Vote for the person who’s going to take care of you and your family.
We also tell groups to tell women “You can just vote for the President and skip the rest.” Many immigrants or multicultural women are confused by the ballots, initiatives and are afraid to vote for the wrong person. So they end up not voting at all. We emphasize to keep it simple and vote only for the people or issues you care about.
Emphasizing that younger children help their parents register and inform them about the nominees, issues, etc. and bring them to the polls really helps. Having the encouragement, support and education from their trusted family members makes a huge difference.
Telling women to remind all their friends, families and groups to vote makes a big difference. Women are big networkers and hugely influential in their communities. When the mother votes, everyone votes.
What are some anti-suffrage tactics being used today to prevent certain groups from voting and what should someone do if they suspect their voting rights are being threatened?
We are hearing about people being purged from the polls or hearing Robo calls that can scare them. We encourage that people go to the polls with someone else in case they run into any voter intimidation tactics and they can insist on their rights. Oftentimes immigrants don’t want to raise a fuss or create a problem, but they have to know that they must assert their right to vote. The League of Women Voters publishes an easy voter’s guide that simplifies the ballots and does it in seven different languages. Other groups publish voter’s rights guides so people know to insist on voting in their balloting area.
The important thing is to go to the polls, be patient, wait in line and complain if you think you are being treated unfairly. Many people are going to out of state polling areas to monitor, watch and ensure that fair practices are taking place. Ask for help.
Some women think they shouldn’t vote because they don’t have the authority to vote — don’t have enough information and education needed to cast a vote on a given issue, let alone the highest office in the country. What do you say to women who hold these beliefs?
Vote only for the things you know about. If you only want to vote for the president, then do it. You don’t have to vote for everything and don’t feel guilty if you don’t know the issues. There are plenty of people who know less about the ballot than we do, but they vote because their husbands, church, or associations tell them to. So we tell them to go ahead and vote and ignore the rest of the issues and problems. Feel good about voting and knowing your vote does make a difference.
How did you find yourself launching EngageHer.org and later the documentary? What and/or who was your catalyst?
Having come from a corporate and technology world where I worked primarily with white male decision makers, I always wanted to change and get more women and multicultural women to step up and become leaders. When I saw the numbers about voting participation and how abysmal they were, I knew that I wanted to find out why and then make a documentary to tell the stories of why these women weren’t voting. Unlike the corporate world where there are a ton of issues to keep us from ascending the corporate ladder, voting is an activity anyone can do with virtually no barriers.
I started by finding a filmmaker and teaming up with her to create the documentary which defied all odds and timing. We were told it would take $200,000 and two years and we did it in nine months with zero outside funds, a lot of help, volunteers and supporters. Along the way, all these women wanted to join us because we were awakening a social consciousness within them and making them think about why their mothers, grandmothers and parents didn’t vote when they came to this country or when they grew up. As a result, we decided to launch an online organization called EngageHer.org to educate, activate and motivate women of all races and colors to join us and collectively use the Internet to make a difference. We have young, old, first to fifth generation immigrants, all types of women who want to join us and make a difference. It has been an overwhelmingly positive and movement whose time has come.
Do you remember the first time you voted for president? What was your context?
I first voted in 1972 when Nixon ran for re-election against George McGovern. Coming from the whole Vietnam War demonstrations, Third World Liberation, etc. you can imagine which way I voted. It was a tumultuous time. In addition, my parents both came from China and never voted, never talked about voting and never stressed the importance of civic engagement. It was not until I went to UC Berkeley in 1969 at the height of the Vietnam War’s escalation that my social and political consciousness took a big awakening.
Any last words on the right to vote?
If you are happier off today than you were in 2000 when there was no Iraq war, gas cost less than $2.00, No Child Left Behind didn’t exist and we had a federal surplus, then you know who to vote for. If you are worse off, then you know who to vote for. However, if you sit out the vote, then you just voted….automatically. You voted to continue the status quo. Because change is going to require a lot of votes in one direction or the other.
Vote for your children, yourself, your families and your future.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Add new tag on October 18, 2008| Leave a Comment »
October 17, 2008
At great consequence to our nation, appallingly high numbers of women of color have not felt compelled to go to the polls in the past. The author set out to find out why and what to do about it.
This election cycle, media pundits and analysts have blanketed the coverage ad nausea with discussions of the black versus the white vote. They occasionally address the brown vote. But the conversation remains largely superficial: What happened to the women?
How come no one ever hears about the Asian American women and other women of color who happen to number over 30 million registered voters in the United States today? Perhaps it’s the startling revelation that in the 2004 elections 70 percent of Asian Americans, 69 percent of Latinas and 40 percent of African American registered women voters FAILED to vote.
Think back about the 2000 elections and how the United States Supreme Court stopped the recount and declared Bush the winner by 537 votes. What kind of impact could these women of color have had on our 2000 elections if even 2 percent more women turned out to vote?
After learning about the high percentage of women of color who failed to turn out to vote, I spent nine months exploring the complex reasons why this large portion of our population doesn’t vote. After many interviews, we were able to produce a documentary called “Engage Her.” The reasons we discovered are complex and fall into three distinct areas: cultural, social and political.
We found cultural constrains among women emigrating from countries where there was no democracy, where they lived under dictatorial leadership or tyrannical despots that seized political power by force. They learned to distrust the government and never developed a sense of civic engagement or individual power exercised through voting.
On the social level, many women traditionally didn’t vote in their homeland countries or even when they emigrated to the United States. Their parents may never have voted and therefore didn’t reinforce the civic duty to vote.
Beyond the immigrant community, political habits and gender politics also affect women. They told us their husbands oftentimes discouraged them from voting by saying that their votes wouldn’t count and that they shouldn’t even try.
For each of these categories, there are far more reasons to be explored. But for some women whom we learned about in our interviews, the reason was amazingly simple: no one asked them to vote.
In order to engage this electorate, the most important thing to recognize is that women of color and ethnicities are not monolithic cultures. Take the Latinas for example. Latinos or Hispanic is a convenient label the government puts on people who grow up with a Spanish heritage. Yet Puerto Ricans differ greatly from Peruvians or Mexicans. While they may speak Spanish as a common denominator, their cultural differences can be quite vast. Asian American/Pacific Islanders is an even more complex group of cultures. We’re talking upwards of 26 different ethnic cultures including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Laotian, and Malaysian and so forth. Unlike Latinos, they don’t even share the same language in any unifying fashion. Is it any wonder that the AAPI communities are so diverse and difficult to coordinate as a large voting bloc?
Why is this important and why should we care? In most families, women are the caretakers, nurturers and the major decision maker in the household. If the women vote, they will influence their husbands, children, sisters and communities—and future generations as well. More often than not, women of color occupy the lower half of the socio economic scale, so issues of survival, putting food on the table, educating their children and finding adequate housing is uppermost in their minds. They are also concerned with the environment and such social justice issues as immigration and reproductive rights.
But when politicians and media commentators talk about the “$700 billion bailout for Wall Street” or the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, how relevant is the presentation of such issues to helping these women solve their everyday concerns? Do they care more about whether Sarah Palin shoots moose from helicopters or making sure their children get adequate education from the failing public school system?
We continue to ignore or fail to engage this large population of voters and household decision makers at great risk to our democracy. In the U.S. population today, minorities represent 34 percent, but that will grow to a majority within a few generations. By 2042, Latinos are projected to account for 30 percent overall, African Americans 14 percent and Asian American/Pacific Islanders more than 9 percent.
Still, when the mainstream media do get around to the issue of women’s needs they generally survey non-minority women. They rarely talk about women of color unless it is a report that is specifically focused on them. Because most of the traditional media just “doesn’t get it,” women of color become further marginalized and disenfranchised.
We women of color need to be “Invisible No More” and work together with all women to demand that attention be paid to the issues that are of paramount concern to our families, children and communities. That means identifying key concerns, seeking solutions to our problems within our communities and compelling the media and politicians to take notice. Our influence in terms of consumer buying power, increasing representation in the work force and demand for services will only escalate in the decades ahead. We need to be “at the table” to demand our fair share of both government investment and media attention.
Posted in Uncategorized on October 16, 2008| Leave a Comment »
The best part about attending the screenings of our new documentary, Engage Her: Getting minority women to lead and vote, is the opportunity to talk to a wide variety of audiences. On Wednesday, October 15 we had 4 different screenings in a diverse group of settings. It was screened at De Anza community college, at a Silicon Valley business women’s network meeting, St. Peter’s Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and at a jointly sponsored screening by the Equal Rights Advocates, Women’s Foundation of California and Pacific, Gas and Electric. I was able to attend two of the screenings and answer questions from the audience about the film and the issues that it raises. I was also amazed at the diversity, reach and appeal for our film from the grassroot communities, community colleges to the corridors of Corporate America.
Most importantly, I find that I have to prepare for each screening’s post discussion in a different fashion. I’m constantly framing the issues that are of utmost importance to my audience and tying the power of voting as the answer for addressing many of these issues. For example, at the college campuses, the students constantly hear people saying “You need to register to vote” or “It’s your duty to vote”. After a while, the call falls onto deaf ears and the kids become numb because there’s no specific benefit tied to the action of voting. Instead, I have to look at those issues that are going to severely impact these students. I have to explain to them if the next President who goes into the White House doesn’t make decisions nor support issues they care about, what the dire effects would be.
For example, students don’t realize that the recent analysis of the $700 Billion bailout is indicating that all taxpayers may be paying a $200,000 tax bill over the years ahead to paydown this bailout. That’s an eye opening comment when students realize that they personally are going to be be hit with this enormous burden. They will have to bail out investment bankers and financial institutions that were allowed to operate in an unregulated fashion making incredibly bad business decisions. They are going to be stuck having to pay for these irresponsible mistakes. That $200,000 tax bills translates into a longer time for the students to pay off their own student loans, or impacts their down payment and mortgage payments for the first home they dreamed of owning after they graduated from college and started working.
You can see it in their eyes in the audience when they hear this statement and they shake their heads in disbelief. Nobody’s really “connected the dots” for them. Nobody’s telling them that the repercussions of a government that is not doing their job and regulating critical business institutions will seriously & negatively impact their daily lives and their future dreams. We need to wake them up to this reality and explain to them that voting gives the students the ability to put into our White House, Congress and Senate responsible leaders who will help re-build our country and set us all back into the right path. When the issues are framed in a manner that relates directly to their daily lives, people get fired up and walk out of our screenings determined to vote and tell all their friends, families and communities the real reason why they need to vote.
That is our job. All of our jobs. We all need to be informed on the issues, translate the actions of elected officials into the effect they are having on our daily lives. It is astounding to me that nobody is demanding that this current administration be held accountable for the damage and destruction of our core democratic ideals and the erosion of our economy that they inherited with a surplus in 2000. It is time for all Americans to rise up, vote and demand action to solve the problems that affect us all so drastically. We all need to reach out to other family, friends and even strangers to discuss these issues. We need to make everyone aware of the direct translation of how their votes will empower putting someone into the White House who can change our downward path and most importantly hold them accountable for the next four years moving forward. Mable
Posted in Uncategorized on October 9, 2008| Leave a Comment »
As I watch the debates and listen to the media talking about the campaign, I can’t help but notice how there’s such a huge disjoint. While the media headlines talk about $700 Billion bailouts for catastrophic business decisions and practices that is taking our economy to its heels, where is the attention paid to the reality of the people in their homes? As a mother, the purchaser of the family goods and the decision maker of the household, I go shopping everyday. It’s unbelievable to see how all the prices of commodities, foods, gas, heating bills, basic services have increased dramatically. As I fill up my gas tank and it costs $78 because the price of gas has risen precipitously, the loaf of bread that I never thought about costs $4.49… I hate to even think about my winter heating bills that we will have to face.
Where is the relief for all of us, the voters, the middle class, the lower socio economic class that is struggling to make ends meet? Everyday while I’m out talking to women, men, voters, non-voters about what the upcoming elections, or talking to parents while I drop off my kindergarteners, we’re all astonished at the spiraling costs of daily living costs. While Wall street and the bankers are being bailed out with our future tax money, who is helping us out?
I hear people talking every day about how they have to make conscientious decisions of what they’ve got to cut back in order to pay their monthly bills. We’re talking the basics here. Not whether or not they had to forego expensive vacations and drove somewhere this summer because they couldn’t afford expensive airfare. We’re talking the basics. Like, having to delay paying their energy bills so they can make their mortgage payments or having to cut back on the types of food they buy at the grocery store and keeping to the basic items. Even though they know that organic foods are better for their families, they simply can’t afford the $2.49 head of romaine lettuce for their family salads and lettuce for their kids’s sandwiches.
I can’t help but think about these politicians who probably never have to fill up and pay for a tank of gas, or pay for expensive healthcare premiums, or buy their groceries, or buy clothes and shoes for their children, or take care of their aging and elderly parents. For people, especially women who are the major caretakers in our society, we’re being squeezed,,,,,hard. Where is our relief from the effects of the recesssion that the politicians are loathe to talk about, but we all know we are living in our day to day lives?
In order for us to get help from our elected officials, we need to help ourselves. We all can do that by looking at the issues we care about, inspecting the track records of the politicians that represent us and how they’ve voted on issues that are important to us. You can’t listen to the rhetoric and the campaign promises they all make. If you look at their track records and see how they’ve voted, you’ll have a far better indicator of what they will be doing on our behalf in the years moving forward.
There has never been a more critical and historic election than the one on November 4. Our economy is in tatters, our children aren’t getting the education we were all promised and are taxed for, people are being foreclosed and evicted from their homes, record unemployment and people losing jobs by the thousands across our country and we face two wars overseas. Young voters who can vote for the first time and the young people under 30 will have a major impact on this election because they are registering in huge numbers across the country. Moving forward from this election, they will become the significant group of voters who will make the huge impact on elections as they grow and mature in future election cycles. As the baby boomers age, this group of voters will exercise their clout and determine the issues in the years ahead.
It is critical that all people, women, men, young first time eligible voters, occasional voters, non-voters make sure they get out there and vote for the people who will go to the White House, the Congress and the Senate to represent and vote for laws that will help provide us relief and services in our daily lives. For the communities of color, infrequent voters or first time voters you can’t sit back and think you’re vote doesn’t count. It does…in a big way. It’s the one important thing that we all can do to exercise our power and authority, by voting the next set of elected officials, from the President, Congress representative, Senator all the way down to your local officials who are going to make a difference for us. We can’t sit back and complain any more. We have to do something, and that something is to vote.
Let’s all make a difference this time and make sure you go out and tell 10 more people they’ve got to vote and help make the change we all need. Get activated, care about our future join and help us convince more people to that together, we can all create the solutions we so desperately need. Take care….Mable
Engage Her 