Sonia Corrêa, Brazil

"I'm one of the few Brazilian feminists who has been doing global work systematically since the mid-eighties. Awareness of the larger world is part of my family history. My parents met in New York during the Second World War. My mother, a North American of Russian descent, traveled on her own to Brazil by ship to marry my father. My mother's mother married on Ellis Island, but two years later returned to Russia for a couple of years because she missed the wheat fields back home. She returned to the United States after two years. Moving around the world is therefore a strong part of my family's biography and mythology. Most important, however, is that as my parents' only daughter I have gained an incredible sense of belonging, solidarity, and strength from the women's movement in my many years of global feminist work. This confirms something I learned from my father. Friendship is one of life's greatest riches; it is more stable, more enduring than passion or power. I have close friends, people I can rely on, all over the world. This is not minor in a world of insecurity. It is a wonderful privilege."

About Sonia

Sonia Corrêa presently coordinates the Gender Initiative at the Brazilian Institute for Social and Economic Analysis as well as sexual and reproductive rights for DAWN, the southern-based, feminist network of scholars and activists committed to working for economic and gender justice, and democracy. She is a founder and board member of SOS Corpo, a feminist organization located in Recife, Brazil, that promotes women's sexual and reproductive rights. Sonia is also on the board of the Brazilian Interdisciplinary Association for HIV/AIDS. As a leading activist for women's rights worldwide, she participated in follow-up analyses of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development for the Ford Foundation and the United Nations Population Fund in Brazil. In addition, she is a member of the Brazilian National Commission on Population and Development, the government body formally responsible for implementation of the conference Programme of Action. She is the author of Population and Reproductive Rights: Feminist Perspectives on the South.

>>More profiles