by NATALIE ISAACS
From global women leaders like our international champion Mary Robinson, to members all around Australia, the defining characteristic of 1 Million Women is a passion for living better for us, the planet and future generations.
Sometimes this comes as truly transformative visions for the future, while at other times it can be the most simple of changes in our daily lives, like backyard chooks and easy-to-whip-up leftover menus, and there’s everything in between.
Whether grand or micro, these are ‘recipes for change’, and we’ve been gathering them informally ever since 1 Million Women first launched in mid-2009.
Now, with about 77,000 members and a thriving Facebook community, it’s time to turn them into a women’s handbook for a better world, which we’re calling Recipe for Change.
Over one big weekend in November, from Friday the 16th to Sunday the 18th, we’re asking the women and girls of Australia to ‘get together’ to create their recipes for change, and to share them with women everywhere.
Our target is 1000 or more ‘girls get-togethers’, all feeding in their ideas, questions and solutions for saving energy and cutting waste and pollution, across our food, our transport, our fashion and all the things we do and buy.
1 Million Women will pull all of the recipes for change together and publish them as a free e-book for International Women’s Day in March next year, and we’ll use Recipe for Change to engage women around the world.
Mary Robinson – one of the founding members of The Elders inspired by Nelson Mandela, the former head of the UN Commission for Human Rights, and the first woman President of Ireland – helped us to launch Recipe for Change at a special 1 Million Women event in Sydney.
Her recipe is the power of women to see the need for change, and to drive it, coupled with the amazing opportunities we have to live differently. ‘It’s women who have to create the urgency because we are resourceful and intergenerational,’ Mrs. Robinson told our audience, ‘Water is the oil of the 21st century and waste is the gold, because we can turn it into energy.’
Recipe for Change is drawing support from women leaders across society, from Prime Minister Julia Gillard and NSW Environment Minister Robyn Parker, to popular singer-songwriter and new mum Melinda Schneider, much-loved actor Noni Hazlehurst, original Master Chef winner Julie Goodwin, surfing legend Layne Beachley, young community leader Samah Hadid, science broadcast journalist Bernie Hobbs, celebrated film-maker Rachel Perkins and many more.
To register to host a get-together with your girlfriends – it can be a cuppa, a meal, a drink or anything you like, at home, in your workplace or in your local community – just go to www.recipeforchange.com.au and follow the prompts.
When girls get together we can change the world.
Recipe for Change is happening 16 – 18 November 2012. Follow us on Twitter – @1millionwomen. Join us on Facebook – facebook.com/1millionwomen
Top Comments
Most important things people in the west can do about climate change. Vote green, have a max of only two children, do not fly internationally. Fighteverywhere for a much lower population. This is the most important factor in the climate change debate. We are heading for a 6 degree world maybe as early as 2060. The consequences are a world that would maybe support 300m people not the current7b. Ido not think many people understand what this means.
My tumble dryer broke a few weeks ago.
Now I'm feeling good because I am line-drying the towels.