Show your support to rescind these regulations

Help Rescind Harmful Reproductive Health Regulations	Take Action!
Image by Getty Images via Daylife This week the Obama administration proposed a rule that would rescind a harmful regulation targeting reproductive health and family planning services published in the final hours of President George W. Bush's term of office. This Obama administration action is a critical first step, a response influenced by the vocal opposition of AAUW Action Network members and others, but now we must take the next step by responding to the administration's call for public comments. Act now and support rescinding this harmful regulation. The Bush administration ignored opposition from citizens, members of Congress, physicians and women's health groups, and even officials in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission when it finalized a midnight regulation that would severely limit women's access to reproductive health and family planning services, including some of the most common forms of birth control. In contrast, this proposed new rule and public comment period highlight a new outlook on reproductive rights and women's access to health care services and information. The Bush "conscience" regulation allows health care employees to refuse to provide any health care service that is in any way contrary to their personal beliefs, without any consideration for patients' guaranteed access to medical care and complete health-related information. This allows individuals to withhold crucial information about health services and refuse to refer patients to other locations where such services could be obtained. It also grants refusal rights to any member of a health care facility's paid or voluntary staff, from appointment schedulers to janitorial staff. Further, the rule may undermine state laws protecting women's access to reproductive health care, including those requiring health insurance plans that provide drug benefits to cover contraceptives as well; laws that require hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape survivors; and laws that require pharmacies to fill patients' valid medical prescriptions. Act now and support rescinding this harmful regulation.

More Spaces Available for Val-Kill tour

Image via Wikipedia

Eleanor Roosevelt’s Leadership Skills at Val-Kill

The National Park Service has opened up the tour for more people to participate in the house tour at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 28th following the 10:30 am to noon presentation by Kathleen Durham, Executive Director of Val-Kill. She will discuss Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way - Timeless Strategies from the First Lady of Courage by Author Robin Gerber, historian and leadership educator, Senior Fellow, Academy for Leadership, University of Maryland. Bring a box lunch; we'll provide drinks & desert. Enjoy the grounds. The tour of Val-Kill Cottage at 1pm is also free of charge. Reservations required to AAUW, please contact President Garnette Arledge at 845-201-0001 or kaauw12401@gmail.com. ###

Another Woman Who's Making a Difference

This week was International Women's Day and the premiere of A Powerful Noise. I had a particularly challenging and over-scheduled work week, and I missed participating earlier. I can't let it pass without comment though.

Here's to all the women who work to make this world a better place. It gets discouraging, no doubt. But there are many who inspire us. Today, the NY Times profiled Ela Bhatt and the Self-Employed Women's Association she founded in India.

The Saturday Profile - An Empire for Poor Working Women, Guided by a Gandhian Approach - Biography - NYTimes.com: "THIRTY-FIVE years ago in this once thriving textile town, Ela Bhatt fought for higher wages for women who ferried bolts of cloth on their heads. Next, she created India’s first women’s bank.

Since then, her Self-Employed Women’s Association, or SEWA, has offered retirement accounts and health insurance to women who never had a safety net, lent working capital to entrepreneurs to open beauty salons in the slums, helped artisans sell their handiwork to new urban department stores and boldly trained its members to become gas station attendants — an unusual job for women on the bottom of India’s social ladder."

Read her story. Ela Bhatt inspires me. Maybe she'll inspire you, too.

Celebrate International Women's Day March 5th

A Powerful Noise- The impact of one voice; the power of many -
Hanh is an HIV-positive widow in Vietnam. Nada, a survivor of the Bosnian war. And Jacqueline works the slums of Bamako, Mali. Three very different lives. Three vastly different worlds. But they share something in common: Power. These women are each overcoming gender barriers to rise up and claim a voice in their societies. Through their empowerment and ability to empower others, Hanh, Nada and Jacqueline are sparking remarkable changes. Fighting AIDS. Rebuilding communities. Educating girls.

This live event in theaters across the country will bring together women and girls to celebrate and gain strength from the stories of three women in very different worlds who empowered themselves to fight poverty and change the world.

Thursday evening, March 5th.

The closest theater for us: Crossgates Stadium 18 - Albany

Sponsored by CARE and AAUW.

Human rights & Greg M. @ the UN

On January 30, I was fortunate to be able to attend Protecting Human Rights: The United Nations – Our Schools, at the UN Headquarters in New York City. This event, the 11th in a series of annual conferences for educators and concerned citizens, was organized by the Committee on Teaching About the United Nations (CTAUN) and the UN Department of Public Information (UN/DPI).

A record 800 people attended (32 were AAUW members). As we filed into the huge conference room, we each received a handy tote bag. Inside, I discovered a folder chock full of useful handouts, and a lovely surprise, a copy of Three Cups of Tea, a gift from the keynote speaker.

The full-day program focused on what each of us can do to promote an understanding of human rights. In the morning, Craig Mokhiber, Deputy Director of the NY Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, gave an impassioned talk on The 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Challenges and Opportunities. The afternoon session included a panel on Teaching about Human Rights with the dynamic Shulamith Koenig, President of the People's Movement for Human Rights Learning and a live, interactive videoconference with students and teachers in British Columbia, Cameroon, and Pakistan.

This year’s keynote speaker was Greg Mortenson, co-author of the bestseller Three Cups of Tea (which just came out in a young readers’ edition and a children’s picture book edition) and co-founder of the non-profit organizations Central Asia Institute and Pennies for Peace. We learned in his introduction that he had just come from Washington, D.C., where he was meeting with members of the U.S. Senate and Congress, as he is being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work.

Greg spoke and showed slides about his background and the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and showed a brief video about Pennies for Peace. Afterward, various schoolchildren who had been collecting for this worthy cause presented him with checks from their fundraising efforts.

During his talk, Greg noted that the publishers of Three Cups of Tea insisted on using the subtitle One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism … One School at a Time on the book cover. He was not happy about this and met with them to tell them so. They informed him that he didn’t know anything about the publishing business. He made a deal with them – if the hardcover didn’t do well, he wanted to use his subtitle on the paperback. Hardcover sales were not as brisk as expected, so when the paperback came out, Greg got his wish. The paperback's subtitle is: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace … One School at a Time. Book sales skyrocketed!

At the end of the day, I took the opportunity to browse through the UN Bookstore. By the time I closed it down and returned to the conference room, the book-signing line was down to a dull roar. I queued up, and was thrilled to meet Greg, shake his hand, express my heartfelt thanks for all he has accomplished, and get his autograph on my book. What a great day!

Where Are All the Women?

AAUW Dialog has an interesting post about women in engineering. This is a good, lucrative career interested in recruiting more women. There are good scholarship resources available. Pass the link on the the young girls in your life.

Where Are All the Women? � AAUW Dialog: "In 2007, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that women made up only 13.5 percent of the engineering workforce, more in some fields like chemical engineering and less in other fields like mechanical engineering.

Why is this? As AAUW reported in Where the Girls Are: The Facts about Gender Equity in Education, girls earn higher grades on average than boys in high school, even in math and science classes. But research shows that even very capable girls are less likely to express interest in an engineering career than are boys. In one study of mathematically gifted individuals, David Lubinski and Camilla Persson Benbow found that women were more likely to secure degrees in the humanities, life sciences, and social sciences than in mathematics, computer science, engineering, or the physical sciences; the reverse was true for men. Jacquleynne S. Eccles’ suggests that part of the reason for this difference is that women are more likely than men to want people-oriented jobs that provide direct benefits to society.

Engineers design pretty much everything we use from computers and cars to diapers and dishwashers. When women aren’t involved in the design of these products, women’s perspectives are not brought to the design table (or computer screen)."

Read more of the post. You'll find links to videos about young women engineers and to resources for programs to interest girls in careers in engineering.

Lever Update: Dutchess County Considering Suit

Joel Tyner has asked for support. He wants us to write letters to the Dutchess County Legislators. The resolution has many "whereas" clauses, but here's the Resolved and a link to read the whole resolution.

Save NY's Lever Voting Machines: "RESOLVED, that the Dutchess County Legislature form a bipartisan committee to consider joining the lawsuit being developed by the Election Transparency Coalition of New York, and urging other counties to join the effort, as is now under consideration in Nassau County,"

Here's the Citizen Speak address where you can tailor and send a letter to the Dutchess County Legislators. Or, send your own letter to countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us

LWVUS Voting System Standards never were intended to apply to lever voting machines

Image via Wikipedia

At Kingston AAUW we've been concerned about being at odds with the League of Women Voters over their position in favor of optical scanners over lever machines. These are people we usually collaborate with. It's like a family feud.

This morning I came across this statement posted on the Internet by Teresa Alice Hommel on February 12th, 2009. She is commenting on the paper published by New Yorkers for Verified Voting and the League of Women Voters of New York State in opposition to lever machines.

Teresa worked to write and pass the LWV national position in 2004 and 2006. She states the following:

LWVUS Voting System Standards never were intended to apply to lever voting machines: "

However, the League’s standards that the paper quotes are an out-of-context portion of the League’s position--which I worked to write and get adopted--that was never intended to be applied to non-computerized voting technology.

MY [Teresa's] STATEMENT

As a member of the group that worked to wean the League of Women Voters of the United States away from paperless DREs, I attest that no one foresaw or intended that the 2006 position would be applied to non-electronic voting systems such as mechanical lever machines."

Her statement tracks the history of the LWV efforts to unify against DRE's by developing standards for "electronic" voting systems. Unfortunately, they left out the word "electronic."

I encourage you to read her statement directly.

Workplace Stalking Case Update

AAUW has been following harrassment and stalking suits in the workplace. This month, Dawn Martin has requested a re-hearing before the Supreme Court in her case Martin v. Howard.

Here's an update and a link to a fascinating interview (streaming video) with Dawn, Derek Bell, and others supporting her case on Insider Exclusive TV.

The case, short version:
Ms. Martin was stalked at Howard Law School where she was on faculty by a deranged homeless man who believed she was the physical embodiment of a fictional woman in a novel by Derek Bell. Howard did not take reasonable steps, or follow its own security procedures, to protect her and refused to renew her teaching contract because, Martin alleges, she asked for on-campus protection.

In 2006, after a trial, the jury agreed with Prof. Martin that harassment did create a “hostile work environment” for her and that Howard did not take reasonable steps to end it; yet, the jury verdict was for Howard. With insufficient legal instruction from the Court, the confused jurors found that the harassment was not based on sex; Prof. Martin’s complaints were not therefore not “protected activity” under Title VII.

The Supreme Court initially declined to review Martin, but nine days later, it decided Crawford v. Crawford which clarified that “protected activity” under Title VII is a question of law for the Court, not a factual question for a jury.

On February 9, 2009, therefore, Ms. Martin filed a motion to supplement her Petition for Rehearing, to include the law set by Crawford. Under Crawford, the jury should never have been required to decide this legal question.

The Supreme Court has never addressed the issue of workplace stalking. The application of “gender profiling” to sexual harassment cases will also set precedent for racial, ethnic, religious groups in profiling harassment cases under Title VII and other EEO statutes.

For more details and links to other cites discussing the case, see www.dvmartinlaw.com/MartinvHowardU.

Kingston Branch Loves NY Lever Machines!

Image by harold.lloyd (regicidal) via Flickr

Thank you, Kingston AAUW Branch, for your support on saving NY's lever machines, and Happy Valentine's Day!

Resolution Passed
The Ulster County Legislature passed the resolution on Wednesday, sooner than we thought. We haven't heard yet what happened in Columbia County. Greene County will vote next Tuesday.

Of course, it's not over yet. The NY State legislature must act. But, every county that passes the resolution increases the pressure for the state to reverse ERMA -- the NYS Election Reform and Modernization Act of 2005. And every person who who contacts their state legislator helps build momentum, too.

Results of the Branch Poll
The result of our branch poll: 90.5% in favor of advocating to keep our levers, 4.8% opposed, and 4.8% no opinion. With your support, then, the Kingston Branch will continue to work to keep our lever machines.