Educating Girls - Our Responsibility in Afghanistan?

From Marjorie Regan:
I am sending a link to this column (excerpt below) by Thomas Friedman from the NY Times since its about the book, Three Cups of Tea, which we will be reading for October.

Teacher, Can We Leave Now? No. - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com: "I watched Greg Mortenson, the famed author of "Three Cups of Tea," open one of his schools for girls in this remote Afghan village in the Hindu Kush mountains. I must say, after witnessing the delight in the faces of those little Afghan girls crowded three to a desk waiting to learn, I found it very hard to write, "Let's just get out of here.""
...
"It is no accident, Mortenson noted, that since 2007, the Taliban and its allies have bombed, burned or shut down more than 640 schools in Afghanistan and 350 schools in Pakistan, of which about 80 percent are schools for girls. This valley, controlled by Tajik fighters, is secure, but down south in Helmand Province, where the worst fighting is today, the deputy minister of education said that Taliban extremists have shut 75 of the 228 schools in the last year. This is the real war of ideas. The Taliban want public mosques, not public schools. The Muslim militants recruit among the illiterate and impoverished in society, so the more of them the better, said Mortenson."

Read the whole column to learn Friedman's rationale for why our work isn't finished in Afghanistan.

What do you think? Add your comments to this post.

2009 -2010 Kingston Branch Officers Elected

Congratulations to our new 2009-2010 AAUW Kingston Branch Officers and many thanks to those of you who completed your terms -- Garnette Arledge, Denise Springer, Liz Rosen

Image by lumaxart

2009 -2010 Officers
President - Bette Nitzky

VP, Programming - ViVi Hlavsa
Asst. VP, Programming - Beverly Sloane
VP Membership - Suki Kerr & Jean Semilof
Treasurer - Doris Licht
Recording Secretary - Susan Holland (June-Jan), Carole Leib (Jan.-June 10)
Corresponding Secretary - Joan Reis
Committees
Bus Trips - Vivi Hlavsa and Pat Whelan
Communications - Ruth Wahtera
Directory - Sheila Beall
Diversity - Arlene Bruck
Educational Foundation - Doris Goldberg & Irwin Rosenthal
Historian - Bernie Carpino
Hospitality - Pat Stedge and Ginger Yaples
Legal Advocacy Fund - Dolores LaChance
Publicity - Carole Leib, June - Jan.
Public Policy - Irene Miller
Telephone Tree - Virginia Kohli

Note: Thanks to Doris Goldberg and Susan Holland who co-chaired the board while Bette Nitzky was on-leave.

See your directory for phone numbers and email addresses. We'll be adding links as we complete more profiles.

Women have equal rights, right?

Image by dbking via Flickr

Think again.

The last time around (1972-82) we couldn't even get the 38 states required to pass the Equal Rights amendment. Will we be more successful this time?

Check out the World Economic Forum's rankings below regarding our status as women if you think this is an overblown and unnecessary issue.

Equal Rights Amendment Reintroduced Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Judy Biggert (R-IL), and more than 50 co-sponsors reintroduced the Equal Rights Amendment today in the House of Representatives. The amendment would add the following sentence to the US Constitution: "Equality of Rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex".
....

Feminist Majority President Eleanor Smeal said, "Although women in the United States have made considerable gains in the last 40 years, we are now lagging behind the rest of the world in closing the gender gap. According to the World Economic Forum, the US ranks 31st of 128 countries overall, but 76th in educational attainment, 36th in health and survival, 69th in political empowerment, and 70th for wage equality for similar work. In the representation of women in our Congress, we rank 71st. Clearly, the US needs an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution to help women overcome systemic sex discrimination in our nation".

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• The Return of the ERA (blog-aauw.org)

Read with the AAUW Kingston Branch

Reading List for Sept. 2009 to June 2010

The daytime book group meets at 1 pm, usually on the third Tuesday of the month, at the Kingston Library. Contact Marjorie Regan with any questions.

Cover via Amazon

September 15, 2009 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

A young Jewish youth escapes Nazi ruled Czechoslovakia to become a cartoon artist in New York City.

October 20, 2009 Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. Mortenson tells the story of his time in Afghanistan winning over tribesmen and building schools for girls despite the dangers.This is a book in a bag selection. Don’t buy the book. You will get it Sept. 15^th.

November 17, 2009 As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. Commentary from the Web: The Bundren family makes a perilous journey to Jefferson to bury their matriarch, Addie, among her people. This novel explores grieving, community and family.

December 15^th, 2009 Japanese Inn by Oliver Statler .Five hundred years of Japanese history, from 1500 to 2000 is told by a series of Innkeepers. James Michener called it a minor classic.

January 19^th, 2010 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Vicente Blasco Ibanez. This story follows the members of one French family and their different experiences in World War 1.

February 16, 2010 The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines. The main character is a child at the time of the Civil War and lives to be over 100. She reflects on the events she has lived through and makes intelligent and hopeful interpretations.

Cover via Amazon

March 16, 2010. First Mothers: The Women Who Shaped the Presidents by Bonnie Angelo. Interesting stories of our Presidents’ mothers and how they raised their sons.

April 20, 2010. Vivi Hlvasa will select a book to be read by the whole community

May 18, 2010. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Cover via Amazon

by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. This fictional story is told through letters. It begins in January 1946 when English writer Julie Ashton receives a letter from a member of the GLPPPS. She learns of the World War 2 German occupation of the island of Guersey and how the book club helped the British on Guersey to psychologically survive the War.

June 15, 2010. Peony In Love by Lisa See. This is a Chinese Romeo and Juliet story with a wealthy Chinese cultural background. It explains how religion affected daily life. This is the 2^nd book by the author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.

Teacher, Can We Leave Now? No. - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

From Marjorie Regan:
I am sending a link to this column by Thomas Friedman from the NY Times since its about the book, Three Cups of Tea, we will be reading for October.

Also, since we read Lolita a few years ago, you may want to catch the movie. It's on PBS this Sat. July 25th at 9pm. It's 2 1/2 hours long.

Teacher, Can We Leave Now? No. - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com: "I watched Greg Mortenson, the famed author of “Three Cups of Tea,” open one of his schools for girls in this remote Afghan village in the Hindu Kush mountains. I must say, after witnessing the delight in the faces of those little Afghan girls crowded three to a desk waiting to learn, I found it very hard to write, “Let’s just get out of here.”"
...
"It is no accident, Mortenson noted, that since 2007, the Taliban and its allies have bombed, burned or shut down more than 640 schools in Afghanistan and 350 schools in Pakistan, of which about 80 percent are schools for girls. This valley, controlled by Tajik fighters, is secure, but down south in Helmand Province, where the worst fighting is today, the deputy minister of education said that Taliban extremists have shut 75 of the 228 schools in the last year. This is the real war of ideas. The Taliban want public mosques, not public schools. The Muslim militants recruit among the illiterate and impoverished in society, so the more of them the better, said Mortenson."

Read the whole column to learn Friedman's rationale for why our work isn't finished in Afghanistan.

What do you think?

Meet Carolyn Garfein, new president of AAUW

One of the great things about the internet is the growing ease with which we can see and hear the people who used to be so far away. Here's the first message from AAUW's new national president. It's just under two minutes -- a fast way to get to know Carolyn Garfein.


Carolyn H. Garfein, of Alpharetta, Georgia, was recently elected to a two-year term as president of the AAUW Board of Directors. The election was held at the 2009 AAUW National Convention in St. Louis, Missouri, which was attended by more than 1,000 members representing more than 1,300 AAUW states and branches.

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Weight discrimination -- we always knew it!

Image via Wikipedia

Here's a form of discrimination against women that is pretty hard to fight. But, I guess it's a bit like the research about tall men versus short men, only we're supposed to have some control over our weight.

Weight discrimination could contribute to the glass ceiling effect for women, study finds | MSU News | Michigan State University: "The different results for women and men suggest weight bias may contribute to the glass ceiling on the advancement of women to the top levels of management, said Mark Roehling, MSU associate professor of human resource management.

“The results suggest that while being obese limits the career opportunities of both women and men, being ‘merely overweight’ harms only female executives – and may actually benefit male executives,” he said. “This pattern of findings is consistent with previous research indicating that, at least among white Americans, there is a tendency to hold women to harsher weight standards.”"

Yes, Times Do Change, Check out this picture.

White House Photo by Pete Souza

Hat tip to Nancy Shoemaker

It took 67 years to be recognized, but yesterday President Obama signed the Gold Medal Bill, S. 614, to honor Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). From the Political Hotsheet, CBS News

WASP was established during World War II for the primary purpose of flying non-combat military missions for the U.S. in order to free the male military servants for combat. Between 1942 and 1943, more than a thousand women joined, flying sixty million miles of non-combat missions. An estimated 300 are still living today, the White House says.

WASP were the first female pilots to fly almost every type of military aircraft operated by the United States Army at the time. Although 38 of them lost their lives for the missions, their efforts went largely unrecognized. The pilots were not acknowledged with veteran status until 1977.

These women broke through barriers. Congratulations and thank you.