Connecticut Women's Education and Legal Fund

CWEALF would like to take the opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of Mary Hall, Connecticut’s first female attorney and advocate for women’s rights to practice law.  In 1877, Hall, a mathematics professor from Marlborough, CT, set her sights on the virtually unprecedented career change from teacher to female lawyer.  She tenaciously studied law for the next 5  years, serving first as an apprentice to her brother Ezra, an attorney and Connecticut Senator, and later to John Hooker, the Clerk of the Supreme Court of Errors.

In 1882, 38-year-old Hall’s application to the Connecticut Bar caused quite the controversy.  After passing the Bar examination and receiving a glowing recommendation from Hooker, Hall was accepted by the Bar under one condition: the CT Supreme Court of Errors must rule on the legality of a woman practicing law. 

The Hartford Daily Courant supported Hall’s application, stating “It is hoped that the members of the Hartford County bar will not see fit to put themselves on the illiberal side on the pending application of an accomplished lady for admission to the bar. When women are allowed as physicians and teachers without question, it would be taking a long step backward to refuse their admission to the bar. It would be regarded as an admission of fear on the part of the men.”

The Court ruled in favor of women’s equal rights right to practice law in CT, making the In re Hall decision the first judicial decision in the United States that permitted women to practice law.  Many thanks to Mary Hall for paving the way for today’s women to enter this fascinating and lucrative career!

Photo from Richmond Memorial Library, 1/24/13 Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MaryHall.jpg

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Written by Cassandra Martin. Currently a CWEALF intern, Cassandra is majoring in English and Communication at Boston College and has aspirations of becoming an attorney.  

californiastatelibrary:

Marilyn Reece, Civil Engineer

What do you do when you like math but don’t want to become a teacher? You could be a civil engineer, like Marilyn Reece.

She was the first woman to be a fully-licensed civil engineer in California and she’s featured in our May calendar of women trailblazers in science, tech, engineering and math.

Let’s kick off Monday with an awesome woman in STEM!

(via gender-and-science)

Brilliant Minds: Women in Mathematics

visualoop:

Via

Interesting Infographic!

For those who do not know Equal Pay Day is an awareness day that occurs on a Tuesday in April every year to remind us of the Gender Wage Gap. Tuesday is selected purposefully because that is how many days in to the next week women have to work before they have earned the same amount their male counter parts received the previous Friday. Right now across our country women who have the same job, skills, education, duties, and hours as their male colleagues make on average 23 percent less money. Every time I write these blogs or go to events on this issue or that social problem I get the distinct feeling that the only group listening to the sermon is the choir. Women, many you already know about the wage gap, you are organizing yourselves, taking classes on negotiation, writing to your legislators (if you aren’t,  start) because this is your paycheck that is short $377 dollars a week¹. So this blog is not for the ladies, although of course ladies are encouraged to read, and then send, to husbands, bosses, brothers, sons, casual acquaintances.

MEN, THIS IS HOW THE WAGE GAP HURTS YOU!

• Husbands, boyfriends, other, if you are married, cohabitating, or in any other way sharing expenses with a woman your combined income is down Twelve Percent.
• Fathers with daughters who are just starting out, that extra $377 means she will never have to chose between hitting you up for grocery money and going hungry ever again.
• Sons, the wage gap means you mother retires with roughly Half the retirement savings she should have gotten². Are you able to pick up that tab, or will you have to watch her suffer?  
• Everybody, pay equity, if properly executed, has the potential to stimulate the economy Twice as much as Obama’s 2009 stimulus bill did³.

¹ Catalyst. Catalyst Quick Take: Women’s Earnings and Income. New York: Catalyst, 2013. http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/womens-earnings-and-income

² Johnston, D. (2011, Oct 26). Underpaid women and their men. Reuters. Retrieved from http://blogs.reuters.com/david-cay-johnston/2011/10/26/underpaid-women-and-their-men/

³ Bassett, L. (2012, Oct 24). Closing the gender wage gap would create ‘huge’ economic stimulus, economists say. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/24/gender-wage-gap-economic-stimulus_n_2007588.html

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Blog written by Alessandra Burgett. Alessandra is a CWEALF intern and MSW student.

Ann Richards was a pistol, a real character, and the first woman governor of Texas (in her own right). She was a feminist Democrat from Texas, just like me, and my mom actually was involved with her campaign in the 1990s.

Ann Richards was born in Lakeview, Texas outside of Waco. Waco is where she met her future husband, David Richards, who she married at the age of 19, later enrolling in Baylor University. There, she graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in 1954. While her husband went to law school in Austin, she got her teaching certificate and taught government at a middle school.

She stopped working, but stayed involved by volunteering for political campaigns like those of Henry B. Gonzalez, Ralph Yarborough, and Sarah Weddington. Weddington was a lawyer who had been involved with the Supreme Court Roe v. Wade reproductive rights case. In 1974, Richards became her administrative assistant in the House.

She ran for office for the first time in 1976 against the incumbent Travis County commissioner and won, and was re-elected in 1980. In 1982, she was elected state treasurer, and was reelected in 1986. She was the first woman to be elected to a state office in 50 years in the Lone Star State.

Richards won the election for Texas governor in 1990 against all odds – many people didn’t even think a woman should be involved in politics at all, let alone in a leadership position like that. As governor, she appointed more women and minorities than any other Texas governor had. Having two daughters, she prided herself on helping to break down gender barriers for the women of Texas. During her term she also worked on insurance reform, created a program for prisoners who struggled with addictions, and made an ethics commission, among a number of things.

Richards was smart, and she was fierce. She didn’t take anything from anyone. She’s inspiring to me because she kept fighting for what she wanted and what she believed was right despite everything that was going on around her. I’ll always keep Ann Richards in mind as I strive for my own goals and try to adopt her attitude.

Photo by Kenneth C. Zirkel (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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Written by Brittany Estes-Garcia. Brittany is a student at Arizona State University and is a volunteer with CWEALF.

In the spirit of Pi day, did you know that some recent studies have addressed the myth of gender and math performance? Common myths tell the tale that girls just aren’t as good at math, but researchers suggest this just isn’t so. In reality, a more complex constellation of cultural factors may be at work.

Professors Kane and Mertz from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater comprehensively explored math performance among girls and boys. They tackled the “greater male variability hypothesis”, which states that math ability among males varies more widely (males at very high and very low ability) than math ability among females. In order to see if this hypothesis held weight, they gathered data from over 80 countries around the world and compared the variability of boys’ and girls’ math performance.

Results of their study showed that the variability of ability between genders varied by country. For example, Kane and Mertz indicated that, in Taiwan, eight grader boys’ score varied much more widely than did girls; yet they found that, in Morocco, boys and girls had equal experiences and patterns of school attendance) contribute to variability. In those countries in which women have a high labor force participation rate, and have a small gender wage gap, girls have the highest math scores.

“In summary, gender equity and other socio-cultural factors, nor national income, school type or religion per se, are the primary determinants of mathematics performance at all levels for both girls and boys”.

To read their research, see the American Mathematical Society

To learn more about CWEALF’s work with girls and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) go to our website

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Photo by Paul Smith (originally posted to Flickr as Pi pie) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

It’s Girl Scout cookie season! While you’re off ordering (or dreaming about the delivery of) those rich, decadent Thin Mints, let’s celebrate some of the other reasons why Girl Scouts of Connecticut (and nationwide) are awesome.

1. It’s sort of like the younger sister to CWEALF. If you’ve never been a Girl Scout, you might not know just how closely the organization’s mission lines up with Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund’s. Girl Scouts of Connecticut’s website (where all stats and facts used in this article can be found) talks all about how it aims to “builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.” Sound familiar? If so, that’s probably because those young girls could easily become advocates for CWEALF, which has the mission of “empowering women, girls and their families to achieve equal opportunities in their personal and professional lives.”

2. It reaches out to 65,000 girls and adults each year. In fact, their reach is so far and so influential that the organization has been recognized by CWEALF for its efforts. Last year, Jennifer Smith Turner, president and CEO for Girl Scouts of Connecticut, was named one of the 2012 Marie Miller Stewart Awardees. Smith Turner helped to ensure that each Girl Scout reaches her full potential.

3. It encourages girls to become interested in the government. It’s never too early to get young women interested in politics, and the Girl Scouts of CT take that notion very seriously. In fact, they will be taking a trip to Connecticut’s capitol on Feb. 27, where they’ll speak with legislators and participate in workshops. I see a future president of CWEALF (and maybe even the U.S.) in the making.

4. It helps make science, technology, engineering, and math (also known as STEM) accessible. Girl Scouts of CT provides ample opportunities for its young members to get involved in fields of interest often geared toward boys; there are astronomy clubs, LEGO leagues, and chemistry groups the girls can join. G2O, a program by CWEALF, does the same. G2O - it stands for Generating Girls’ Opportunities - brings STEM to high school girls and helps them transform an interest into a future.

5. The cookies. We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Girl Scouts are amazing because of the delicious goods they sell each year. More importantly, however, is the message and lessons behind the cookie sales. Girl Scouts of CT - and CWEALF, for that matter - are all about providing women with the opportunities to be self-sufficient, strong, and knowledgeable. The Girl Scouts cookie program is a chance to do that. Its five goals include strengthening each girl’s ability to set goals, make decisions, manage money, deal with people, and consider the ethics of business - all skills that extend far beyond a simple cookie sale.

Next time you’re thinking of purchasing a box Samoas, remind yourself of why Girl Scouts is such a lovely program - and feel free to add an extra box to your order (for the greater good!).

Photo by bamalibrarylady, “God bless vegan girl scout cookies!” 2/2/13. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.

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Crystal Maldonado is a writer by day, and super-feminist by night. Find her on Twitter @crysmaldonado, or check out her new online magazine, Positively-Smitten.com.

CWEALF currently has 16 volunteers, some of which are pictured above. They help us with a variety of projects whether it’s tracking legislation, staffing our Information and Referral line, coordinating our STEM Expos, or updating this blog! We couldn’t do all the work we do without their help and we are very grateful to them. While many will be celebrating Valentine’s Day with their special someone, here at CWEALF we have dubbed this week Volunteer Appreciation Week to celebrate the people we love most - our volunteers!

During the 2012 presidential election campaign, one of the biggest controversies concerning the Republican candidate Mitt Romney was the lack of diversity he represented and his outdated beliefs about women in the workplace, illustrated by his comment saying he went through “binders full of women” to find senior-level staff as governor of Massachusetts.

Because of this and because of Obama’s more progressive views on women, Obama greatly benefited from the gender gap during the election, getting the majority of the female vote in the United States.

Unfortunately, Obama is now putting together his second-term administration and so far his cabinet, which includes Vice President Joe Biden, is definitely a “boy’s club”. There are only two women, both holdovers, who are Janet Napolitano of Homeland Security and Kathleen Sebelius of Health and Human Services. This seems especially out of place for Obama, who could have definitely found more qualified women to fill positions for his cabinet.

It seemed like he was going to elect Susan Rice to fill Hillary Clinton’s prior role as secretary of state, but he went with Sen. John Kerry instead. He avoided a conflict with that, but decided to fight for Sen. Chuck Hagel for the Pentagon even though that choice was more likely to lead to an argument than Rice.

Obama can and should do better. Without equal representation, women and girls do not have a voice and as a country that makes it difficult to concentrate on women’s issues and forge ahead for equality. This is related to the Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund (CWEALF) and their work on being a voice for women and girls. CWEALF fights for women and girls to be represented concerning public policy by doing things like providing testimonies at the State Capitol, and getting involved in legal advocacy and coalitions. CWEALF also has Legal Education and Research & Evaluation programs.

Photo by Beverly & Pack, “Official Portrait of Barack Obama,” 1/13/09. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

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Written by Brittany Estes-Garcia. Brittany is a student at Arizona State University and is a volunteer with CWEALF.

A recent article discusses the recommendation that women between the ages of 14 and 46 should be screened for intimate partner violence (IPV) through a standard set of questions when at a doctor’s office or clinic.  This recommendation was made by a panel of medical experts after reviewing dozens of studies and interviews with over 30,000 people.  The task force only found evidence to address women of childbearing age, though screenings for other groups such as men, children, and older women should still be developed.  The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association have similar recommendations for screenings for domestic violence.  Planned Parenthood has been screening women for years and has found the practice to be helpful.

One-fourth of all women and one-thirteenth of all men in the United States experience domestic violence during their lives, according to the Office on Women’s Health.  This is 2.3 million people each year.  Domestic violence is a very complicated issue with just as complicated solutions.  The CDC suggests that prevention efforts would require “addressing change at all levels of the social ecology that influence IPV: individual, relationship, community, and society.” It is at least a positive sign that such task forces and screening recommendations are recognizing the importance of trying to find preventative measures.  Domestic violence affects so many people and it needs to be acknowledged and discussed before anything can be done to change it on a broader level.  The Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund (CWEALF) supports the right of everyone to feel safe in their own home.

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Written by Sarah Trench. Sarah is a student at NYU and volunteer blogger for the Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund (CWEALF).