CWA Newsmakers

The International Women's Democracy Center honored CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling in March 2002 with its Global Democracy Award, introduced this year to recognize women who "demonstrate an unfaltering commitment to strengthening women's global leadership." Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) presented the award to Easterling, the first woman to be CWA's secretary-treasurer and who was also the first woman to serve as AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer. In 2000, Easterling was elected president of the World Women's Committee of the Union Network International. IWDC, established in 1995, honored her along with Bronagh Hinds, deputy chief commissioner of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. McCarthy called them both "world-class women and first-class examples of what women can do for all of us." Noting "the shameful economic and political gap that exists between men and women throughout the world, including here in the United States," Kennedy said both women "have worked tirelessly to close that gap. Together, with the IWDC, we recognize their historic efforts, and their historic lives."

-- CWANews, April 2002