Friday Femme Fatale: Marriage, Materialism & Matriarchy

Here's this week's Friday Femme Fatale. First off - some frustration in the article - Women Professors Not Being Promoted as Rapidly as Men.

Then, a seemingly archetypal approach to marriage in the Washington Post this week with, Say Yes. What Are You Waiting For? - but take a look at Rebecca Traister's response: Engaged and underaged. As well as this rebuttal, MARRIAGE AND 20-SOMETHINGS.

Another ridiculous musing in mainstream media appears in the New York Times this week where the newspaper blushes over the fact that Michelle Obama, who has a law degree from Harvard, knows how to dress herself! Check out the condescending article here: First Lady in Control of Building Her Image

Other articles of particular interest or annoyance:

• Is That Plate Speaking for the Driver or the State?

• Matriarchal government: NH’s legislature defines “Change”

• Is the ‘Sisterhood’ Over for Women Lawyers?

• Wish List: Make Women Matter In Our Foreign Policy

• Sienna Miller's Travelogue From the Congo

Today we went into the camps. It's incredibly difficult to put down in writing what I saw and how I subsequently feel. I met so many courageous people: victims of brutal rape, mothers of children dying of starvation, and the children themselves. If a woman is married and raped here, most of the time her husband will leave her immediately. If she was too young to be married when raped, she will probably never have the chance to be married at all. It is brutal in every sense of the word. One woman recounted her story to me. She is twenty five years old, and was gang-raped five months ago. It is difficult to hear, but important to know that when women are raped it is sometimes not only by men, but by objects ranging from broken bottles and knives, to the butts of very large rifles. As a result of her experience, this woman will wear a colostomy bag for the rest of her life. I saw the scars, and the bag, and I can honestly say that it is one of the most harrowing images I will ever come across. A woman is raped here every eight minutes. This one, for better or worse, survived.

• Supportive Advocacy and Solidarity

The International Women's Health Coalition works towards this goal in several different ways, including shaping international health policies and funding , and providing support to 75 organizations in 10 countries. One of the things I've been thinking about a lot since I joined the Coalition last October is the ways that support and advocacy can be best offered in the international context. That women's rights organizations in the north want to support women's rights organizations in the south is a given. But how can we bring the voices of feminists from the global south to the forefront without clouding the issues with ideas about what we think is best?

• My Exclusive Interview with Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

Sandra Day O'Connor: I think we may be seeing the beginnings of a resurgence of civic-mindedness in this country. Hopefully the younger generations, which came out in record numbers during the last presidential election, will pass their enthusiasm on to their children. Parents should continue to become more involved with their communities, and more involved in their children's education. In addition, they should include their children in their civic activities by bringing them to the polls and to community meetings. If parents instill a sense of civic-mindedness--and there is no better way to do that than by example--their children will probably follow.

• Reproductive Justice and Obama's First 100 Days

On the 100th day of the Obama Administration, RH Reality Check evaluates whether the Administration makes the grade on these and many other critical sexual and reproductive health issues. After 8 long years of attacks on sexual and reproductive health and rights here and abroad, it is clear that the Obama Administration intends to - and indeed already has begun - to take women's rights and sexual and reproductive health seriously. Even in the first 100 days, progress has already been made in several critical areas. We recognize that this period represents only one-tenth of the entire first term of the Obama Administration and many changes are in process.

Also for those in Washington, DC next week -

HEALTH CLINIC MODEL CREATES "SEEDS OF HOPE"

GW Students to Design Clinic Aimed for Global Use

WHEN: Tuesday, May 5, 2009, 5:55 p.m.

WHERE: The George Washington University

1957 E. Street NW, Room.214

RSVP: The event is open to the public. Members of the GW community and the general public should RSVP to gwuinteriordesign@gmail.com. Please feel free to contact them if you have any additional questions or concerns.

According to a UNICEF report, Haiti's poor suffer the highest maternal mortality ratio in the western hemisphere, but the sad truth of the situation is that the problem already has an attainable solution-Haitian women need affordable and accessible health care. Using an evidence-based process, GW's interior design graduate students created a proposal where the human factor drives the design solutions. Students based their work not only on the most current health care research but on precedent studies, cultural studies and the needs of each Haitian community. Aiming to reach as many women as possible, the health center also will include a model for branch clinics that should be placed in areas surrounding the main facility to create greater accessibility.