Path to equal representation

It took close to a century from the Seneca Falls convention to have women around the US participate in political life to vote and be elected. The Women in both the state and the senate at the state house have been active to have the voice of the women heard. I have met with several of the women currently serving at the State house. All of them strike by their commitment to doing their best for the people in their communities.


State Representative Alice Wolf, a former Kennedy School Alumnus, whom I interviewed spoke about the main pathways for women to come to politics. It is important as she says that women get involved with their communities. It is now her 37th year in politics and when she was making her first steps into politics, women used to start by getting involved at the school boards. Over time, things have evolved, the school boards is not the only pathway for women getting into politics. Her advice to the future generation of women ebbing their way into politics is to take up an issue that they feel very strongly for and do the best we can.

Of the different challenges that women face, the different women I have had the chance to interact with speak of a variety of challenges. The first one is raising money. It is always difficult they say to be taken seriously as they start raising money or when they make their first steps into public life. However many of the women cite agencies and foundations such as Barbara Lee foundation and Emily’s List that have assisted women in raising funding for their campaigns at the local level. Secondly, women with children often have to answer the question of ‘who will take care of your children?’. The third biggest challenge is motivating women to stand for an elective office. A son and a daughter raised by the same care, under the same roof, will think of engaging into politics in a whole different way. More often than not, the son will feel a sense of entitlement and will readily be willing to get into politics while the daughter will have to be nudged and pushed to think about politics.

It is therefore not surprising that although we are now closing in to the second century away from the convention and we are still far from perfect proportional gender representation and there are only about 25 percent and in the upcoming elections, this number is likely to go down as several women holding elected office have decided not to present themselves again.


As a result we women getting into politics have a long path ahead and of course it is a huge opportunity ahead for my Oval Office Cohort.

Inauguration of Senate Women's room...

Not So long ago!

Photos courtesy: Jessica Leitz- Women's Caucus

Thé ou Café

Thé ou Café

Coming from a tea drinking country, it is surprising how widespread having coffee is in the US. It is amusing to see everyone walking around with Starbucks or DD coffee in hand.  It is not a fashion statement, it is more like a must do thing, like in Chennai people make a chalk rangoli design in front of their house, or like in France, people go out in the morning to have a Baguette.  In the same way, in the US people walk around with a coffee in their hands.  I always wonder in fact if having breakfast is synonymous to having coffee… Coffee seems to even dictate the language and daily lingo.  Meeting someone for a short here is ‘let’s have coffee’, even if it means not really having coffee, but just talking.  When you meet someone for the same purpose in my country we say meeting over tea. 

So here am I a tea addict… in a coffee country… how did that happen?

We are who we are today largely because of our past, our roots and our history. We, in Mauritius drink tea because we have been under heavy British influence over close to two centuries.  And the Americans drink coffee also because of the British…

I stumbled in the state house’s specials collection library upon a letter by Colonel Barre dating from May 12, 1774, addressed to the Bostonian Gentlemen, which provides the explanation of how the British helped shape the mornings of my American friends.

Here is what the letter states:

By the last advices from London we learn that an Act has been passed by the British Parliament for blocking up the Harbour of Boston with a fleet of ships of war and preventing the entrance in, or exportation of all sorts of merchandize on penalty of forfeiture of the goods and the vessels which carry the; And not only the goods and vessels are to be forfeited but the very wharfinger who shall assist in lading or discharging such groups or merchandize shall forfeit treble their value at their highest price together with his cattle, horses, carriages, implements whatsoever made use of in lading- And under these `grievous and unheard impositions are we to remain till his majesty in council shall be certified by the governor or lieutenant governor that a full obedience is yielded to the laws of a British Parliament & Revenue duly collected and also that the East India Co have received full satisfaction for their teas…

That was perhaps the cup of tea that paved the way to the Tall Dark Latte or the Venti Red Eye… The US seems to have broken away from its umbilical tea cord from then on.

On this let’s have tea… opps sorry, I meant coffee… I have crossed the ocean to Coffee land after all!

Girl's Plight

Girl's Plight

 

Girl’s Plight

Wandering within the great walls of the Boston State house, I came across the Girl’s initiative advocacy day.  Like girls across the world, girls in Massachusetts face specific gender based problems and the advocacy group is working on new policies to bring about a gender-responsive programming for girls. 

At the event I also had the chance to speak with Patricia Driscoll, the executive Director of Girls Inc. of Lynn.  Her institution caters for about 1500 girls between the ages of 6 to 18 in the town of Lynn. The agency believes that it is important to provide a safe and supportive girl-focused environment that empowers the girls to their best potential.  

Girls Inc Lynn

There is a ‘bottom up’ approach and a ‘top to bottom’ approach to women empowerment. Coming to the state house and presenting to the elected officials is a good way to raise awareness and is perhaps a ‘bottom meeting top’ approach.  Although it is a practice that happens, women empowerment literature does not always document the ‘bottom meeting top’ approach except in the form of the clash between the bottom and the top.  An example is the struggle of activists such as Arundhati Roy. 

Perhaps the ‘bottom meeting top’ approach entails that the top and the bottom agree to listen to each other.  In the Girl’s Initiative scenario, there is a good proportion of women in elected positions that understand and listen to the plight of the girls.  Women at the top are then more inclined to take up the issues put forward by those working on the ground with the girls.

What about the girls whose interests are not represented in decision making?  They still face gender specific challenges.  In traditional and very stratified patriarchal societies in the Pacific, girls still have to be given the permission to speak.  In war torn Eastern Congo, sexual violence against women and girls is for the soldiers and militiamen, another weapon of war.  In several states across India, girls are discriminated against even before they are born though female feticide.

Who speaks for these girls?  And the more so, who listens to those who dare speak?

Congo- Why Soldiers Rape

Posted via email from manisha's posterous

Girl's Plight

Girl’s Plight

Wandering within the great walls of the Boston State house, I came across the Girl’s initiative advocacy day.  Like girls across the world, girls in Massachusetts face specific gender based problems and the advocacy group is working on new policies to bring about a gender-responsive programming for girls. 

At the event I also had the chance to speak with Patricia Driscoll, the executive Director of Girls Inc. of Lynn.  Her institution caters for about 1500 girls between the ages of 6 to 18 in the town of Lynn.  The agency believes that it is important to provide a safe and supportive girl-focused environment that empowers the girls to their best potential.  

Girls Inc Lynn

There is a ‘bottom up’ approach and a ‘top to bottom’ approach to women empowerment. Coming to the state house and presenting to the elected officials is a good way to raise awareness and is perhaps a ‘bottom meeting top’ approach.  Although it is a practice that happens, women empowerment literature does not always document the ‘bottom meeting top’ approach except in the form of the clash between the bottom and the top.  An example is the struggle of activists such as Arundhati Roy. 

Perhaps the ‘bottom meeting top’ approach entails that the top and the bottom agree to listen to each other.  In the Girl’s Initiative scenario, there is a good proportion of women in elected positions that understand and listen to the plight of the girls.  Women at the top are then more inclined to take up the issues put forward by those working on the ground with the girls.

What about the girls whose interests are not represented in decision making?  They still face gender specific challenges.  In traditional and very stratified patriarchal societies in the Pacific, girls still have to be given the permission to speak.  In war torn Eastern Congo, sexual violence against women and girls is for the soldiers and militiamen, another weapon of war.  In several states across India, girls are discriminated against even before they are born though female feticide.

Who speaks for these girls?  And the more so, who listens to those who dare speak?

Congo- Why Soldiers Rape

whaling

Dear friends,
The International Whaling Commission is meeting in Morocco to vote on a proposal that would legalize commercial whale hunting. Giving in to commercial hunting is a slippery slope. Once a backing is given to commercial whale hunting. The next step, in a few years, will be for the hunting countries to negotiate a higher level of quota. At what level of quota will the world be able to say no more whaling or no more increases in quota? 
Join me to say no to whaling.
Sign the Avaaz petition (https://secure.avaaz.org/en/whales_last_push/?fp) or join the effort of other anti-whaling organisations; Write also to the decision makers in your country.

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Common Challenges

I am often asked the question ‘what surprised me most when I came to the US?’ My answer would be the similarities.  I have been struck by how entrepreneurs or farmers from Uttar Pradesh, Mauritius or the US face similar challenges in their day to day struggle to make a daily livelihood of their trade.

For everyone there is supply and demand cycles that makes income generation precarious.  No farmer or small entrepreneur wants to deal with loans, they all prefer grants.  For all farmers, transport is a problem, whether it is the fact that there are no roads between the pineapple farm and the market or that the nearest mill is a hundred miles away. For all of them fees and regulations are problems. 

Government departments around the world make regulations that are well intended; unfortunately these cause discontent as it adds a burden to the enterprise.  The doing business unit of the World Bank, has helped many countries around the world reform their way of doing business and address some of these regulatory problems.  Countries have engaged in tedious reforms to strengthen their business sector.

Besides difficult reform process there are other ways to promote businesses.  An example is the Massachusetts Latino Chamber of Commerce, in Springfield.  The chamber of commerce hosts incubators for small businesses and provides technical assistance to its members.

As I compare and contrast my experience around the world, I would like to explore further how the setting up of business incubators around countries in Africa can further boost entrepreneurship across the continent.   

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