Rural Development Leadership Network


Rural Women at the UN


Grassroots U.S. Rural Women Against Poverty - Beyond Exploitation and Harassment -

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), part of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), was established in 1946 to promote women's rights around the world.

CSW monitors the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, works to mainstream a gender perspective in UN activities and endorses progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals, as part of realizing gender equality and the empowerment of women.

During the annual two-week session of CSW representatives of UN Member States, there are "parallel events", organized by Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) like the Rural Development Leadership Network. We organize a panel on the CSW theme for the session, presenting the perspectives of diverse grassroots rural women on that topic.

Click on speaker videos below. Then click "Youtube" for larger window.

Gardenia White

Former Executive Director,
Institute for Community Development, SC;
Former Advisor for an RDLN Leader,
Board Member of the Southern Partners Fund


  • Introduces Moderator

Teresa Younger, Moderator

President and CEO,
Ms. Foundation for Women


  • "This panel is really about listening to experts..."

Michelle Cole Barnes

LPN; Ordained Minister;
Adult Group Home Owner,
Credit Repair Specialist


  • "We have a terrible history of oppression and discrimination..."

Leticia Carreón

Bernalillo County, NM


  • Immigration
  • "I came to the United States undocumented when I was fifteen years old..."

Mily Treviño-Sauceda

RDLN Board Member and Graduate;
Vice President, Alianza Nacional de Campesinas


  • Farmworker Women, Growing Up,
    The Union, Sexual Harrassment

Amber Bell

Program Director,
Southwest Georgia Project
(headed by RDLN Vice Chair and graduate Shirley Sherrod)


  • Building a new food system

Shirley Williams McClain

RDLN Graduate, Playwright
Former Executive Director, NC Hunger Network


  • Sharecropping Family,
    Organizing, Older Women