Raising Girls

Here's a new PBS special. Guess I won't watch it tonight, but I'll catch it on the web sometime soon.

in reference to: A Girl's Life . Raising Girls . PBS Parents | PBS (view on Google Sidewiki)

All Eyes on Madeleine Albright � AAUW Dialog

“But grandma, I don’t get what the big deal is with you being Secretary of State — aren’t all women secretaries?”
—Madeline Albright’s four-year-old granddaughter

AAUW Leadership Programs Fellow Zabie Khorakiwala recently had two opportunities to hear Madeleine Albright talk about women in politics. She shared her impressions on the AAUW Dialog blog.

All Eyes on Madeleine Albright � AAUW Dialog: "Albright shared some of her own insight on why so few women hold political office:

* Self-doubt
* Struggles regarding self-promotion
* Fundraising challenges
* Difficulty navigating family-work responsibilities

Albright’s thoughts correspond closely with the research of Jennifer Lawless. While women who run for office are as likely to win and raise the same amount of money as men, they are far less likely to have a spouse or partner who is responsible for most household tasks or childcare. Women are less likely to be encouraged to run for office and feel less confident about their overall qualifications.

Through Campaign College, AAUW and our partners at the American University Women & Politics Institute (directed by Jennifer Lawless) and Running Start hope to combat some of these issues early on and provide young women with the knowledge and skills they need to run effective campaigns on campus. The program encourages women to run for student government and, eventually, for political office."

Just an aside -- during the ice breaker at our branch holiday party we identified four members present who had run for public office -- two for Ulster County Legislature -- Anne Gordon and Irwin Rosenthal -- and two for their library boards (Kingston and Woodstock) -- Jane Riley and Doris Goldberg. Anne ran three times and won once. Irwin lost his race. Jane and Doris currently serve on their library boards.

When we reminded folks that AAUW has initiated Campaign College to support and encourage young women to run for campus and public office, the group broke into spontaneous applause. Our membership knows how important that support is.

Thanks for putting Campaign College in place, AAUW. Now we need to ensure that some of our local college students attend.

Like being in on the ground floor?

Image via Wikipedia

AAUW and AARP are researching the best ways to educate women about planning for their long-term needs. Want to be a leader or participant in a focus group? Here are the early details:


Goal: The long range goal of this research is to implement a new education and awareness campaign for women in the Baby Boomer age group (ages 45-64) on the need to plan for future long-term care needs, and to create materials that will effectively educate and support individual women’s personal planning.

Study Design: AARP and AAUW will collaborate to assess long-term care resources and messaging by fielding a baseline study that involves a minimum of 250 AAUW members (there is no cap to the number of participants).

Expectation: This partnership to establish a truly accessible model for women’s long-term care planning represents a unique opportunity for AAUW to break through both educational and economic barriers for women in a health care arena—long-term care—that has been in the shadows for decades. AAUW’s selection as a partner by AARP attests to the position of stature and respect AAUW holds as a nationwide community working on behalf of women.
 
Leaders’ Role: Please help us identify AAUW members/branches that may want to participate in this baseline study—which is primarily a willingness to participate in four webinars and answer four sets of questions over the next year. (All this can be done from the comfort of their own homes.) We are also looking for half a dozen women who would like to be facilitators in this endeavor, and would like to be trained to provide support to members as they go through the baseline study process.

More details on this partnership with AARP, a webinar and a Program-in-a-Box will be forthcoming in early 2010.

Fortunately, there is no cap on the numbers who can contribute to this extremely important initiative. Please contact Cordy Galligan at galliganc@aauw.org 

12/10/09: CEMAC meeting

Important! Come to the:

Citizens' Election Modernization Advisory
Committee Meeting
Thursday, December 10, noon
NYS Board of Elections
40 Steuben Street
Albany