Activism Log 4

Activism:
Recently, it's been difficult to make everyone's schedules work together so that we can meet effectively. We've decided to split up the women's studies programs according to the fifty states, with ten states to each person (and Australia for Nina). My states are Alabama through Hawaii. Adam and Jessie are working on getting a list of feminist organizations to send the letter to, and we're going to make a petition in order to begin gathering signatures. In the second wave of letters, we're gong to send a link to the online petition, so that we can get people to sign who aren't in our immediate circle of friends and university community. I don't think our problem is that we're not motivated, because we all understand the real importance of what we're doing, it's more that not being able to meet as often as we should is holding us back some, but we're working on figuring that out.

Reflection: We read "The Mommy Tax" in class this week, and while this topic might not seem to directly relate to our project, I believe that it actually does. Dealing with issues like the disparity between the work situations of men and women due to differing parental roles is just another part of the fight for equal rights in society, which is the same thing that Alice Paul was fighting for. As well as the right to vote, women should have the right to not have to let their reproductive capabilities destroy their career. Children and rights and a career should not all be mutually exclusive. I also performed in the Vagina Monologues this week, which was inspiring because it helped me to realize the struggles that some women endure in other parts of the world, which reminded me how important recognizing and appropriately honoring herstory really is.

Reciprocity:
It's been discouraging while discussing this project with people to realize how little most people know about Paul and the suffrage movement in general, but the ignorance of other just makes me more determined to help educate society about the invaluable contributions of Paul and women like her. I want my potential daughters and granddaughters to have historical figures to look to and be proud of as women.

Works Cited
Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Who Is Your Mother? Red Roots of White Feminism. Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 21. Print.