Greetings!,  

It's that time of year when many here in the U.S. focus on the approaching holidays. The celebration of Thanksgiving certainly draws our attention to those things for which we can be grateful.

However, at times our ability to give thanks is tested. That was the case when the world learned with horror of the October 9 attempted assassination of a 14-year-old Pakistani girl. Since she was just 11, Malala Yousafzai has blogged about life under the Taliban and worked tirelessly to advocate for girls' education.  

Malala's perilous journey to recover from Taliban-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head and neck has taken her to the U.K., where her father talked to reporters. "They wanted to kill her. But she fell temporarily. She will rise again. She will stand again," he said.

Malala's valiant struggle against gender-based oppression reminds us to take nothing for granted. But it's often easy to do just that. Women have had the right to vote in the U.S. for not quite a century, but those who were involved in that struggle are no longer with us. Federal legislation like Title IX that helps to ensure equity in resource allocation for women in education has now been in place for decades.

However, as a recent conference in Auburn made clear, those who would abuse, oppress and enslave women are all around us. They constitute a real and present danger to women and therefore,  to a free and open society. Regrettably, stories of violent attempts to prevent girls and women from exercising basic human rights - stories like Malala's - continue to fill the media.  

As we give thanks for what we have and remember those who have so much less, we are pulling for Malala - and for everyone around the world who recognizes that women and girls should have every opportunity available, regardless of gender.

Sarah Ruef-Lindquist

CEO