Honoring Jimmy Carter: A Life Dedicated to Transforming Women's Lives

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PUBLISHED 1/1/2025 by Raydean Acevedo

Throughout his life, President Jimmy Carter truly cared about the challenges women face and how people can implement programs to help end discrimination.

A day we’ve been dreading has come: President Jimmy Carter has died, at the age of 100. I come from a family of feminists who love Jimmy Carter. I have watched President Carter work tirelessly to protect women’s rights, magnify our voices and transform our lives. I met him almost 15 years ago and was then asked to serve on his Board of Counsellors and Ambassador’s Program at the Carter Center in Atlanta. The invitation was a thrill of my life, and each and every time we worked together, his wisdom and insights inspired me—and will continue on throughout the rest of my life.

One day, I picked up my phone and it was President Carter thanking me for supporting the incredible projects of the Carter Center and asking that I get more involved with one of their campaigns. I experienced firsthand how the Center’s Transforming Women’s Lives campaign focused on expanding women’s rights and ending discrimination around the world. Its impact was felt from small municipal government services to national policies, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jordan, the United States, Argentina, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Guatemala, Uganda, Peru, Liberia and Brazil.

When we first met, President Carter had been working to launch a small, but influential group: The Elders. Along with Ireland’s Mary Robinson, South Africa’s Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annan and others, The Elders was launched in 2007 and today has six program areas, one of which is Equality for Women and Girls. Two years later, in July 2009, The Elders made a major announcement by calling for an end to harmful and discriminatory practices that are wrongly justified on the grounds of religion and tradition. At the time, Jimmy Carter was a lead spokesperson, stating that The Elders call upon “all leaders to challenge and change the harmful teachings and practices, no matter how ingrained, which justify discrimination against women. We ask, in particular, that leaders of all religions have the courage to acknowledge and emphasize the positive messages of dignity and equality that all the world’s major faiths share.”

Ending child marriage and stopping female genital cutting were two key activities by helping to start Girls Not Brides, an international group working around the world to end harmful and discriminatory practices, especially those based on the false premise of traditional religious customs. But one of his many books, A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power, (2014) is what really made an impact on me, my family and many of my friends on the role religion plays both to sanction misogyny and to support gender equality.

https://msmagazine.com/2025/01/01/jimmy-carter-president-women-equal-rights-amendment/

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1. President Carter appointed Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

RBG was later elevated to the Supreme Court by Bill Clinton.

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2. I'm putting together a collection of Carter quotes

And came across this:
The truth is that male religious leaders have had--and still have--an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter.

Love this one too:
I've never won an argument with my wife; and the only time I thought I had, I found out the argument wasn't over yet.

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3. Thank you for this post. President Carter and Rosalynn

have my deepest admiration, and their work for women's rights was a gift to us all.