I went to a nice event on Capitol Hill this evening to celebrate the thirty-fifth anniversary of the American Association of University Women lobby corps. I volunteered on the lobby corps for almost three years. It was one of those things that I didn’t have a lot of fun doing, but I was really glad I did it for the learning experience of how things work on Capitol Hill and how service organizations interact with Congress.
I hadn’t seen several of the AAUW members in awhile. But it was good to discuss Budget Justified with them and offer to give a talk about it at their meetings in the fall.
I went to a panel discussion at George Washington University put on by the American Association of University Women. AAUW just published a report on research they had done about how stereotypes affect girls’ and women’s performance in engineering and math. Girls do worse on math tests if you tell them beforehand that girls aren’t good at math.
April of Girls Inc., has a problem with moms who tell their kids “I’ve never been good at math. Go ask your dad.”
One point that was brought up several times was that women who are seen as competent are seen as unlikable. Therefore girls and women are given the message that they have to dumb themselves down in order for people to want to interact with them. Personally, if someone only wants to hang around with me if I’m dumb, then that’s not a someone I want to waste my time on.
Another point that was made – and this gets harped on all the time without asking the right question – is that women need flexible work places so they can sit home and take care of babies. Why doesn’t anyone ever ask why the men refuse to sit home and take care of babies?
I mentioned this to one woman. Her response was that men aren’t any good at it. Well, how the hell are we supposed to get rid of the women-aren’t-competent-in-their-jobs stereotype when we’re refusing to get rid of the men-can’t-take-care-of-babies stereotype?
Just got back from a meeting. Diane E. Kelly, senior policy advisor for the Office of Global Women’s Issues at the State Department, discussed foreign assistance efforts to address violence against women and, empowerment through education and microenterprise. Her boss is an ambassador to someplace in North Africa. I told her about “Budget Justified” (http://budgetjustified.com), my experiences with violence against me, working in the federal government offices here in the US.
When I got home, I had dried chocolate all over my pants and the back of my sweater. Now, I know how the hot chocolate got on my pants because I spilled it there. But what I can’t figure out is, how did it get all over the back of my sweater?
