Irene Natividad: Fighter for Gender Equality
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French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron’s personal emissary, Ambassador Muriel Pénicaud, presents the Legion d'Honneur award to Irene Natividad at a decoration ceremony held at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 10. (Photo by Michael DiBari, Jr.)
Natividad, 73, was given the top award during a ceremony on September 10, 2021 at the Embassy of France in Washington, D.C. Ambassador Muriel Pénicaud, France's former Minister of Labor, came from Paris on behalf of French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron to personally “pin” the actual medal.
“Irene is an activist who fights for gender equality on an international scale,” Pénicaud said. “Her particular focus is the inclusion of women in corporate leadership – a value testified by her work in the Global Summit of Women and the Corporate Women Directors International.” Pénicaud noted that in 2019, Prime Minister Macron appointed Natividad to the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council, which was tasked with providing recommendations to President Macron to advance women's equality during the year of France's Presidency of the G7.
‘Life of grand achievements’
Only occasionally awarded to non-French nationals, Natividad’s accolade is shared by Eleanor Roosevelt, Bill and Melinda Gates, Sir Paul McCartney, Jesse Jackson, Toni Morrison, and General Dwight Eisenhower.
For having been elevated to this prestigious order, Natividad said: “How generous are the French to recognize a women's rights activist and a foreign one at that with their highest civilian honor. I've been fortunate to receive awards during my four decades of advocacy but this Legion d'Honneur tops them all because it recognizes my life's work.”
The French Ambassador, Philippe Etienne, congratulated Natividad on her “life of grand achievements” and graciously opened up the residence for a reception attended by over a hundred family, friends, and colleagues, many of whom flew across the country to share the special day with the honoree. Among them: US Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA); US Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton; Former Secretary of Commerce Barbara Franklin (Bush I); Former Chair of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Cari Dominguez (Bush 2); First AAPI woman Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch (Reagan); Newly appointed US Ambassador to Asian Development Bank Chantale Wong (Biden); Former Commissioner for Civil Rights Karen Narasaki (Obama); Former WH Director of Legislative Affairs Regina Montoya (Clinton); DNC AAPI Caucus Chair Bel Leong Hong, and lots of corporate executives and Asian American community leaders.
President Obama greets Irene Natividad at a White House event in 2016. (White House photo)
“The Davos for Women”
Based in Washington, D.C., Natividad is the driving force behind the 31-year old Global Summit of Women, informally called “The Davos for Women” by past participants for the caliber of its attendees and presenters, as well as its mix of business and government leaders. The summit, which has focused on women’s economic empowerment, provides a forum for women leaders to exchange best practices in accelerating women’s economic progress. In other global forums such as the OECD, World Bank, UN agencies, the European Forum for New Ideas, and Global Solutions Forum, her leadership always gives prominence to women’s voices and issues.
In 1985, Irene Natividad marched for women’s rights with National Organization of Women (NOW) leaders Gloria Steinem, Gaye Williams and Eleanor Smeal. Her last protest march was on January 21, 2017, the day after President Trump was inaugurated, when more than 200,000 rallied from across the nation. “This surge of women's global activism warmed my heart and makes me feel good that we will stand TOGETHER to fight against the ongoing barriers to women's equity,” she said. (Photo courtesy of NOW).
“She knows her stuff! She knows what is happening and where and where there is no action and what needs to happen to get movement,” says Barrie Zucal, a business leader and entrepreneur who knows Natividad from the Global Summit of Women. “She is a dedicated, focused professional and a gift to women's rights worldwide.”
Political Power
Her commitment to promoting women, nationally and internationally, stems from her decade-long involvement with the National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC), a 50-year-old bipartisan organization dedicated to electing and appointing more women to public office. “Political power is the road to equality for women,” she says, a belief she demonstrated with energy and passion during the four years she was NWPC President, one of the most influential positions in the U.S. feminist movement. Her high profile as the first Asian American leader of a national political organization moved those issues affecting women to the forefront, such as childcare and underemployment. Her advocacy of economic equity issues continued through the nineties, when she assumed the chairmanship of the National Commission on Working Women.
In the Asian American community, she has focused her energies on politically empowering a group frequently referred to as “the invisible minority.” She served as Deputy Vice Chair of the Democratic Party’s Asian Caucus from 1982 to 1984, and has continued to organize numerous Asian American groups at all levels. Currently, she is Co-Chair of Endorsements for the Asian American Action Fund, which supports Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders for public office.
Fighting a cause
Natividad’s activism has its roots in the counter-culture of the 1960’s. As a college student, she was introduced to politics when she passed out leaflets for Eugene J. McCarthy’s presidential bid in 1968.
Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to the US Congress in 1968, was an inspiration to Irene Natividad because “she paved the way to equality in her own unique way. She was one of my political 'mothers', who inspires me daily to do what I can to advance women.” In 1987, Chisholm nominated Natividad for her second term as head of the NWPC. (Photo courtesy of Global Summit of Women).
“Somehow I just keep getting involved,” she said to Filipinas Magazine in a May 1993 interview. I didn’t just want to just watch and observe. I wanted to be in the middle of it. The tendency to organize was always there. The one constant in my life is that I find I could get people together to fight a cause. That was my gift.”
She paid dearly for some of her early organizing efforts. “I was waiting on tables while in college. There was an event that went on too long. So I asked the manager to give all the waitresses a raise. The next day, he fired me but gave them raises.”
Personal history
In her acceptance speech at the decoration ceremony, she thanked Andrea Cortese, her husband of 56 years. “I wouldn’t have been able to do this without an understanding and supportive spouse,” she said. Cortese is director of Digital Communications Services for the Communications Satellite Corporation. They have a 36-year-old son, Carlo Natividad Cortese.
French Ambassador to the U.S. Philippe Etienne congratulates Irene Natividad. By her side is husband Andrea Cortese. (Photo by Michael DiBari, Jr.)
Born in San Fernando, Pampanga, Natividad was five years old when her family left the Philippines. Her father, a chemical engineer, worked for an American firm. He moved his family several times because of his job, first to Okinawa, then to Iran, India, Greece, and finally Canada. Natividad, who speaks six languages, was educated mainly in American-run international schools.
At 18, she moved to New York to study. She graduated valedictorian of the class of 1971 from Long Island University, which later awarded her a Doctorate in Humane Letters for her global work on behalf of women.
In 1991, after stepping down from her leadership of the National Women’s Political Caucus, Philippine Ambassador Emmanuel Pelaez talked her into “using what you know about the American system to help the Philippines.” In response, she set up the Philippine American Foundation. Mt. Pinatubo had erupted months earlier. It was the world’s largest volcanic eruption to happen in 100 years. Hundreds of lives and thousands of livelihoods were lost in the devastation.
As its executive director, she immediately went to work, setting up “Shelter the Philippines” programs, among one of many relief and rehabilitation projects undertaken by the foundation. “I’m grateful to Amb. Pelaez for adding another layer of experience to what I have already done before,” she said in her interview with Filipinas Magazine. “This has made me look at the Philippines in ways that resonate with me.”
Filipino American values
Natividad gives much of the credit for her achievements to strong Filipino-\American values inherited from her Filipino parents. “I think the tendency to believe more in communal effort, the persistence and hard work that I’ve put into my job are Filipino, very Asian,” she said, shortly after her reelection to a second term as NWPC President.
Now in her 70s, Natividad shows no signs of slowing down. “I’ll always be doing what I’ve been doing no matter what,” she said 30 years ago. “My causes are women, the Philippines, Asians, and Minorities. If I get to live longer, I’d organize the old folks for better housing.”
For now, she is committed to “maintaining our gains, taking charge of our political destiny and becoming increasingly responsible for our political futures – as voters and as candidates.”
She adds: “I'm not about to hang up my hat, because the last time I looked -- women still don't have equality!"
Irene Natividad hosts a fundraiser for Gina Ortiz Jones (center) , who ran for Congress in 2016. As Co-Chair of Endorsements for the Asian American Action Fund, Natividad works hard to see more Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in public office. (Photo by Jon Melegrito)
Jon Melegrito is a son of a Filipino World War II veteran and the Executive Secretary of the Filipino Veterans Recognition and Education Project (FilVetREP). For more information, go to www.filveterep.org
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