I network and ramble

Today at a fancy shmancy luncheon for my internship organization, I sat next to Harriet Fulbright. Like the grant. We chatted about my college success, my impending future as a mother, and my ultimate future as a PhD candidate. I told her I had met with my campus coordinator about applying for a Fulbright grant. Hopefully Ms. Fulbright will put in a good word when I apply. I learned her grandson goes to College of Charleston and she has three daughters. She was so nice, incredibly interesting to discuss world peace with, and I was so glad I was seated with her.

The speaker at the luncheon was Helen Clark, the head of UNDP and the former prime minister of New Zealand. She spoke about development (obviously) and how we need to increase ODA funding.

Last week, I met and chatted with Harriet Harman, British MP and leader of the House of Commons. Um, she is hilarious. She's a huge feminist, and apparently there are quite a few male's rights organizations that despise her because once she said that fathers weren't necessary to a family (she was speaking specifically about fathers that abuse their wives and children). She also tried to pass a law that abusive partners are not required to be listed on a birth certificate for their children. She is in fact though, happily married with three children. Awesome enough, the first time she ran for Parliament and won, she was 7 months pregnant. She's big on women being mothers and leaders and combining the two. She said she loves it when female MPs bring their babies to Parliament (I don't imagine it happens too often though...) How awesome would it be if our own female politicians brought their kids to work? One day... I will do it.

I've also been reading Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney's book about women's progress and how we are kidded into thinking that men and women are actually and truly equal in our country. She makes compelling arguments for changing the nature of the workplace, improving health care for women, and encouraging more women to run for public office. I first read up on Maloney for a breastfeeding paper I did; she's big on encouraging working mothers to breastfeed and has introduced loads of legislation on requiring workplaces to have spaces and give breaks for moms to pump, tax incentives for breastfeeding and tax breaks for buying breastfeeding equipment, etc. Did you know that businessmen can write off strip club visits on their taxes as "business expenses" but families can't count childcare the same way? Ridiculous.

Did you know also that if you're married to a man for nine years, raise his children while he works, then he decides to divorce... you aren't entitled to a dime of his social security? Yeah, think about that one for a while.

There are hundreds of thousands of unprocessed rape kits chilling in police stations around our nation. Why, you may ask? No funding to process them. 20/20 did a special on this, and gave the funding the process 50 of these kits in Boston; of the 34 with still-viable DNA samples, 9 returned matches of convicted felons who could then be tried on rape charges. 9 out of 34!! Imagine how many rapists we could get off the streets if we have the funding the process all of the rape kits. Sheesh, and then there is that nonsense that rape victims have to pay for their own rape kits. Can you imagine any other crime where the victim has to pay for the police to investigate? And this does happen, I witnessed it first hand at good old UVRMC when I was a victim advocate.

And if you want to know more about the ridiculous laws in our country that marginalize women... check out Maloney's book: Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated.

We need more women in politics. Because seriously guys on Capitol Hill... what the heck?!