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

Thoughts about playing bridge

I'm not a bridge player. In fact, I have some negative feelings about bridge players. You see, when I was very young, living in a small town on Crete, among the ex-pats there were three avid bridge players -- one of them my now ex-husband. They were desperate for a fourth and I was pressured into learning the game.

For love, peace, and to please my friends I worked hard at learning the game. Everyday they cajoled, coached, and took turns suffering as my partner. Until the day it happened. Yes, the doors to the once-daily bus opened and, wonder of wonders, a bridge player emerged.

I'll never know how they recognized him as a bridge player within five minutes, although I suspect they took turns meeting the bus and interviewing any likely candidate..."Excuse me, but do you, by any chance play bridge?"

My brief life as a bridge player was over. I was summarily dismissed, never to have a seat at the table again. I felt... well, a strange combination of relief and rejection.

But this article in the Wall Street Journal started me thinking about it again. Our AAUW branch has both a morning and evening bridge group.

I wonder if they'd offer an opportunity for beginners?

in reference to:

"My ideal bridge four? W.H. Auden, me, Woody Allen and Barack Obama, who strikes me as being the sort of person who is considerate—and a listener. I'm not sure whether the current president plays bridge; he has other things to do, I suppose. And my least ideal bridge four? Saddam Hussein (an unforgiving partner), me, Marilyn Monroe (bad memory for cards), and Gandhi (not competitive enough).
— Alexander McCall Smith is the author of more than 60 books, including the "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series."
- Alexander McCall Smith on Bridge - WSJ.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

The WSJ article offers some links for new and experienced bridge players and some interesting observations on the game, its history, and it's players. It's good reading.

Photo: Associated Press  Warren Buffett and Bill Gates play bridge at the Nebraska bridge regional in Omaha in August 2005.

Let the Conversation begin -- What does the Shriver Report mean to us?

The Shriver Report has received a lot of media coverage, but now it's up to us to move the conversations forward.

Next steps?

in reference to:

"Among the findings, is what often happens in the face of sweeping change: Some of our institutions lag behind and don’t yet reflect this new dynamic. Government, business, the media and our faith communities, in many cases, still cling to outdated models of who works and who cares for our families.

For example, men now agree with women that government and business need to provide flexible work schedules, better childcare, family and medical leave and equal pay.

And over 80 percent of men and women agree businesses that fail to adapt to the needs of modern families risk losing good workers.
Only by examining this fundamental shift in how Americans live and do business -- and acknowledging the profound changes it has wrought -- can we grow and flourish.

Let the conversation begin."
- The Shriver Report || A Study by Maria Shriver and the Center For American Progress on How We Work and Live Today (view on Google Sidewiki)

AAUW Member Wins Nobel Prize

AAUW Member Wins Nobel Prize

Carol Greider Shares Prestigious Award for Physiology or Medicine

WASHINGTON, D.C. – AAUW celebrates Carol Greider, AAUW member-at-large and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with her two colleagues, Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak. Greider has been a member of AAUW since 2002.

Greider, Blackburn, and Szostak “discovered that telomeres are made up of simple, repeating blocks of DNA building blocks and are found in all organisms,” according to a Johns Hopkins University announcement. Understanding this biological process has paved the way to deeper knowledge of cancer and cellular aging.

“AAUW has a long history of supporting women in the sciences, and we are thrilled to count another Nobel Prize winner among our ranks,” said AAUW Executive Director Linda D. Hallman, CAE. In 1920, AAUW awarded two-time Nobel Prize recipient Marie Curie a grant to assist with her groundbreaking research on radium. AAUW member Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea, was nominated for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for his work supporting education for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Greider, who holds a doctorate in molecular biology from the University of California, Berkeley, currently works as the Daniel Nathans Professor and Director of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences. She, Blackburn, and Szostak will attend the Nobel Prize awards ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 10.

“Greider and Blackburn have shown that women can break through barriers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics,” said AAUW President Carolyn H. Garfein. “Their accomplishment serves as an excellent example of women making valuable contributions and the need that exists for supporting and encouraging great female minds, as AAUW does with our fellowships, grants, and community of successful women.”

In 2009 a record five women were awarded Nobel Prizes. Prior to this year, only 35 women had ever received the honor. Greider and Blackburn were the first two women to simultaneously win the prize in medicine.

The three other 2009 female laureates include Ada Yonath, who is sharing the Nobel Prize in chemistry; Herta Mueller, who won the prize in literature; and Elinor Ostrom, who is sharing the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Ostrom is the first woman to win the economics prize.

To read what AAUW said on our blog about this year’s Nobel Prize winning women, please visit http://blog-aauw.org/2009/10/12/aauw-member-awarded-nobel-prize/

To view Marie Curie’s page in AAUW’s online museum, please visit https://svc.aauw.org/museum/history/1920_1929/index.cfm

NYTimes Mag Special Issue on Women

This issue, Saving the World's Women, August 23, 2009, keeps coming up in discussions at our AAUW meetings. For those who missed the issue, here's a gateway to the articles and resources on-line.

There's plenty of discussion material here.

in reference to: The Women’s Crusade - NYTimes.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

AAUW ED Attends VAWA Event with Vice President

Image via Wikipedia

AAUW Executive Director Linda Hallman attended an event at Number One Observatory Circle, the residence of the vice president, on Tuesday to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the landmark Violence Against Women Act.

Vice President Biden wrote the act, which provides funding for victim services and stronger enforcement efforts, while serving on the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1994, and AAUW's advocacy was instrumental in the enactment of the law. Although much progress has been made, AAUW and our coalition partners are working to support the International Violence Against Women Act, as well as the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act in 2011.

President Nominates Head of Women's Bureau

This week, President Obama announced Sara Manzano-Diaz as his nominee for director of the Women's Bureau in the Department of Labor.

Manzano-Diaz has served as Deputy Secretary for Regulatory Programs at the Pennsylvania Department of State and as Deputy General Counsel for Civil Rights and Litigation at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Latifa Lyles, who recently ran for president of the National Organization of Women, is expected to become the deputy director of the bureau.

For those unfamiliar with the Women's Bureau, it was created by law in 1920 to formulate standards and policies to promote the welfare of wage-earning women, improve their working conditions, increase their efficiency, and advance their opportunities for profitable employment.

AAUW looks forward to working with Ms. Manzano-Diaz and the Women's Bureau to continue to break through barriers for women and girls.