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Women’s Study Into Action (2025)

Third Act Upstate NY’s “Women’s Study-Into-Action” group met to consider our desired legacy and build our sense of collective power.

Over the course of the year, a group of elder women gathered together to look at some inspiring actions of other older women and have thoughtful conversations.

Our guiding question: As elder women, how can we best draw on our accumulated wisdom, creativity, caring, knowledge and skills to nurture our communities and nation, particularly as it impacts climate justice and uplifting democracy?

Conversations were facilitated by Liz Evans, Margo Hittleman, Karen Friedeborn and Marjorie McCoy.  Sessions were planned (see resources below), and we also “made the road by walking it”, i.e.,  co-creating this group to meet the needs of those participating.

As you browse the resources below, feel free to contact us via upstateny@thirdact.org.  The facilitators would be happy to connect with Third Actors interested in this program.

Women’s Study-into-Action Resources by Topic:

1st Gathering – Welcome & Series Framing

2nd Gathering – Arts, Creativity & Collaboration

3rd Gathering – Wisdom from Spiritual & Ethical Traditions

4th Gathering – Strikes Boycotts & Vigils

  1. The 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott was conceived, organized and led by women – particularly Jo Ann Gibson Robinson and the Women’s Political Council, with Dr. King coming onboard only after they announced and started it. Unfortunately, except for Rosa Parks, their role is typically written out of the story.
  1. Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, started in 2003, focused on requiring the country’s male political and military leadership to end the Civil War. Thousands of Muslim and Christian women from various classes mobilized and staged silent nonviolence protests that included a sex strike and the threat of a curse.
  1. Women-led Bread boycotts: Throughout the early 20th century, women led repeated and impactful break boycotts protesting the price of food.
  1. Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Asociación Civil Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo) is a human rights organization with the goal of finding the children stolen and illegally adopted during the 1976-1983 Argentine military dictatorship. It follows on the better-known Vigils held by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo during the years that their children were “disappeared.”
  1. Iceland Women’s Strike in 2003 to push for an end to unequal pay and gender-based violence. The walkout was billed as the biggest since Iceland’s first such event on Oct. 24, 1975, when 90% of women refused to work, clean or look after children, to voice anger at discrimination in the workplace.

5th Gathering – Legal Approaches

  • Video: Case Studies: KlimaSeniorinnen & NY Green Amendment (12 min 28 sec)
  • Slides: Kinds of Cases Filed Under NYS GREEN AMENDMENT (M. McCoy)
  • 9.14.25 Legal Action Run of Show
  • Recommended Reading/Viewing (annotated by M. Hittleman)
    • We will look at a case successfully brought by the KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz, a group of Swiss women over 64 who sued their government in the European Court of Human Rights. In April 2024, they won an historic victory. The Court ruled that “Switzerland is violating the human rights of the older women because the state is not taking the necessary steps to combat global warming.… The Court also found that the association, which currently represents over 2,500 women aged 64 and over, has victim status.” 
    • The Swiss women’s website: https://en.klimaseniorinnen.ch/.  It has a wealth of info on who they are and what they did, and many interesting links to the case. It also includes a link to a TED talk by one of their leaders.
    • We will discuss this case in the context of New York‘s Environmental Rights Amendment to our State Constitution (aka “The Green Amendment,” passed in 2021) and the State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act passed in 2019. Among the most ambitious climate laws in the country, the 2019 Climate Law requires New York to reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent by 2030, and no less than 85 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels.
    • An excellent introduction to New York State’s Environmental Rights Amendment and what it means for protecting our communities: https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/20230209_green_amendment.pdf
    • A summary of the NYS Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act: https://www.nyrenews.org/clcpa
    • A 10-minute video of the July 2024 rally demanding New York enforce The Green Amendment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TaDx6tfnMM 

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