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...let's discuss your unease.
(Also: you didn't say whether the event was successful, financially.
Did you raise what you needed/wanted/hoped for?) A very striking
elision, give the goals, and also our week w/ Heidi Hartmann..

...you might have encountered the work of Marilyn Waring? what interests me is the way she moved from the sort of work Heidi Hartmann does to a critique of economic measures.

Waring started out trying to assign value to traditional women's work-->
by calculating the labor of women, she was proclaiming their visibility and worth,
reconceptualizing the household not as a consuming unit, but as a productive one;
measuring economic welfare by what actually contributes to the welfare of us all--
although subsistence production had been seen, macroeconomically, as of little or no importance,
recording the time-use of women (vs. men) revealed the magnitude of women's invisible work:
unpaid work, including reproducing human life, or feeding and nurturing one's own families,
had not "counted "in the conventional measures, and Waring's project was to make such reproduction visible,
to empower women by giving their work a monetary value.

In arguing that the conventional labour market surveys were too narrowly conceived, 
Waring also claimed that they asked the wrong questions: we should ask what economy is for,
how much is enough, what provides joy, happiness, peace, satisfaction...

but she eventually decided that this work of pressing
non-economic values into framework of economic calculus
was always dependent on the values of a participant observer,
and was based on the absurb premise that everything has a price
"uni-dimensional economical fabrication cannot contain our lives,"
she argued, and economics doesn't allow for the introduction of values
that don't find their way into an economic formula.
Waring asked what the "cost" is of visibility in patently pathological value system:
do we want all life commodified in economic model?

HH's work, however, has been explicitly engaged, for decades, in that model,
and her visit showed me that I did have a lot to learn from the work she has been doing,
in particular about the relation (large gap?) between the sort of theoretical questions
we have been asking, and the sort of practice she engages in...

I was particularly interested in this "collective interview" (and thank you again, Carolyn, for finding it).
Here are my reading notes; I hope we can talk through some of them:

“My background in these issues probably starts with growing up poor to a single mother and going to an elite college, Swarthmore, where there were a lot of new Left activities...I didn't get involved in the women's movement until 1969 when I went to gradaute school in economics at Yale. New Haven Women's Liberation was....very much a socialist feminist group...a strong atmosphere of activism...helped me understand that what I was learning in school could actually be useful to women. A heady feeling....Then in 1987, I founded IWPR [Institute for Women's Policy Research].

Although I have written a couple of articles that are well known in socialist feminist theory, I moved into the public policy world soon after getting my Ph.D. I have worked primarily on women's employment and related issues...I am primarily a practitioner in the policy research context. I do not read much theory....'Who reads Signs anymore?'

Maybe professionalization affects what we label as feminist theory. In the old days, we might have called all of the feminist analysis done by activists feminist theory....

[Charlotte Bunch: I do not like the expression the women's movement. Instead, I often talk about women in movement....]

The frustration that we have had at IWPR is that...econmic issues do not seem to get the same priority and visibility...the center of the women's movement is the abortion rights marches...held around court decisions.

[Charlotte Bunch: they are the issues that the social structure is the most resistant ot changing...]

...what a struggle it is just to try to get some unity of identity and purpose among groups based in Washington, D.C. who self-identify as women's groups....We just disappear into the fabric of society.

[Charlotte Bunch: theory about difference can...form a new basis of solidarity [but] has conditioned the student to feel that she cannot have a voice....it has become immobilizing because it has not been done in conjunction with practice....

Roberta Spalter-Roth: it is a good thing to question whether i have the right to speak....to value this process of questioning...self-criticism, humility, and sensitivity to others..]

We had a meeting of the CEOs of some of the Washington-based women's groups who were focusing...on economic issues....The groups that were the better heeled were the least interested in cooperating...it was almost as if the leaders of these larger organizations were saying, "The working women of America? Wait a minute, I am on the way to the White House, puhleeze." So maybe...it would be better if there were more humility among all of these groups in terms of whom they think they speak for and what they should be doing.

[Charlotte Bunch: although separatism is a very good way to learn about your difference and shape your identity, it does not empower you over time. Ultimately, you can become so isolated that you are disempowered ....
Understanding that whenever you speak, you speak from who you are is basic. Nonetheless, each of us needs to try to incorporate as broad a range of understanding of others women's experiences as we possibily can...to speak to issues that go beyond just [our] own experiences. This requires knowing the difference between solidarity speaking, coalition speaking, and claiming or co-opting others' lives.]

IWPR is saying, "We specialize in policy research. Since some of you are in academia and some of you are policy activists, we will be the bridge"....feminist theory should include work...on the different streams of public benefits: the male stream, which tends to be better heeled, and the women's stream, which tends to be less well heeled....we are public policy advocates look to social science rather than the humanities for our theory.... feminist theory is valuable for practitioners insofar as it speak to them [but also responds to problems that they have raised].

We are much more apt, both in practice and theory, to study problems faced by women in other countries, without focusing on why the United States is the leader in pushing these poliicies and what U.S. women can do to improve U.S. policy. For example, what problems are caused by the International Monetary Fund structural adjustmetn programs, and what is the role of the United States in implementing these policies?

We have tried to use international precedent to strengthen our policy arguments... on equal pay for work of equal value ...and comparable worth systems....what can we learn from people in other countries...

We re getting some recommendations out of our collective interviews...enlarge what counts as theory...There is a moral certainty acquired from having a theoretical basis for your action that does give you strength as a political movement...before we create an agenda we need to define principles of femnism....we could develop a manifesto....create structural space for activists to write....broaden the definition of what counts within universities...diversify the formats in which we produce and dissemminate our feminist theories....give money to the causes and organizations you believe in.

found HH's talk sobering and bracing. I'll be curious to hear what happened in her meeting @ Women's Way, and what your co-workers there learned/took away from/contributed to the encounter.

* my moments from her visit (some from my class, some from the talk...):

--What drew you to economics? "Being poor: I wanted to know why some people were and some weren't."

--"We could work on women's issues, if we knew what a woman was," vs.
"What a woman is, is not problematic. It's earning 77 cents on the dollar."

--"I consider myself a radical...[doing liberal work]...this is not about changing the world."
[cf. David Karen, who *still* teaches her 1976 socialist essay,
"Capitalism, Patriarchy, and Job Segregation by Sex," asking
" how would you articulate that argument, to reflect this [more current] data?"

--"I’ve become a Washington creature, coaching arguments differently":
cf. "The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism" (1981) w/ her current focus on capitalism:
"I underestimated then that new economic incentives could challenge the patriarchy;
there are more women working now, and it's easier to get change in the labor market"
(then things will change domestically? hmm....)

--"ask yourself: where do you expect the direction of change to come from?
how do you want to focus your time and energy?"

--"women can have it all...if we arrange social instutitions to get what we want"
[but this does not get us an ecologically sustainable growth rate...]

Perhaps most striking to me was her move from the socialist feminist positions of her early papers to her now much more social Democratic/liberal positioning within capitalist structures, a belief that working for more equity within the labor market will lead, eventually, to changes in patriarchial familial structures...

what do you think of that approach?

you know I can sort of understand why some one would put meds for add in the same category as speed but really its nothing like it trust me I know when I was growing up I have experienced with a lot and im not edgy or irritated some one said its not the drug its the person im not picking at my face and losing sleep I don't even take it everyday and when Im not on it my mind is actually processing on its own its like training my brain please people this is a real jacked up thing to have in todays society it doesn't matter if you sit in front of the class everyone else is getting what the teacher is saying and your still trying to figure out what it was you guys learned chapters ago not even the instructors care feels like us with add are being singled out if my mind were able to process like others since I was young I probly wouldn't be suffering from my actions my heart is for all with add its a pretty big deal we are actually smarter then the average Joe we just don't have what it takes to focus for a test or sit down and read so that we know what's going on in class

Read this & had to reply! I'm 30 w TS and just recently got my license. I got my permit in highschool and did okay but didn't practice much then got into an accident shortly after (not my fault) then completely stopped altogether. Between the accident and the difficulty driving w TS I decided I was never gonna drive. It bothered me so much that all my friends were driving but my Mother didn't want to things uncomfortable for me with me driving so she never pushed me to drive, I think a lot of it was she was just nervous & scared for me to be on the road. Flash forward years later, I met the love of my life at work in SC, well he's from NJ. He ended moving back to NJ where he's from and we did long distance then decided to get engaged and buy a house...in NJ! Well the driving situation then became a SERIOUS situation. I was so nervous, how was I gonna get to work/get around? I was so use to my Mom, friends, and coworkers taking me to work. Well that's when I had no choice but to get out there again and DRIVE!! I was sooooo scared it was ridiculous! I had little no no experience past drivers ed in highschool!! Luckily my fiancé was so patient and supported me. He took me to work was was very stressful considering he had to go to work too, and helped me practiced and learn to drive again. It took me a few times to pass my test and let me tell you the times I failed I was beyond upset but I kept going back til I passed!! The feeling of passing and being able to take myself places is the most amazing feeling in the world! Don't let your daughter give up! PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE AND MORE PRACTICE!!! If I can do it I think anybody can!!! Good luck, thoughts are with you and your daughter!

When it happens to me (I'm only 12) I really didn't wrry about it much cause I could wiggle my toes till I gain strength back in my whole body but this time I saw a very small man grab a baby out of my hamper which scared me but now I know I'm not the only one and I hope to research it more

I'm a retired Baptist Minister with a degree. Don't let me upset you Matt. I'd never intentionally do that to anyone. But Jesus has no wings. As a matter of fact neither do angels. Only cherubim or seraphim have wings. I don't remember which one. You may have had a visit from one of them. A most important verse for you is II Corithians 5:21. Read it over and over till you understand it fully. It will give you perfect peace and could help the sleep problem. Praying for you.

Anthony

I have no idea how to respond to you directly but did receive your question. My surgery will be two years in Jan. it went very well . I interviewed several neurosurgeons before selecting one. My recovery went extremely well. In fact my surgery was on a Monday morning and I was home by Wednesday afternoon. Usual time in hospital is 7-10 days. But I was up and moving by the afternoon of the second day.
As far as whether your son should have surgery or not, that's a tough call. If he has no issues I would say no. I was not diagnosed until I was 59. Led a very active life. Yes, I have since learned and realized issues I had in the past were related to this. Mine was 18 mm . Pretty darn large when ones figures that many times surgery is performed with 5 mm intrusion.
Personally I would say learn as much as you can, stay aware of your sons issues if any . Make sure he fully understands it too ( and dependent on his ability to understand and comprehend) sometimes it's just TMI. This is not a life threatening condition, annoying at times yes. But as is the case with any condition each person and how they are affected is unique .
I had a great doctor, highly recommend if in Texas.
Wish I could reach you more directly but this forum is restrictive in that aspect. Which is not a bad thing.

On Monday, November 18 I started off my day at the office by sitting in with my supervisor and the other member of the department as they discussed plans for the lobby day that our organization will be helping to run in early December.  The lobby day will be held in the state capital, and is intended to encourage the state senators to support SB 75 – the anti-human trafficking bill that we and many other organizations, coalitions, agencies, and individuals have been working on and promoting for the past year. 

The conversation focused less on the logistics of the actual event, and mostly on how we planned to mobilize supporters to attend the lobby day.  The theme that kept arising on that note was that we were less concerned with appealing to individuals in Philadelphia, on the principle that their senators were already largely in support of SB 75 and as such we didn’t want to fatigue those communities with an event where there attendance would not really tip the scale in our favor.  Rather, our efforts should be directed two other ways.  Firstly, we should be focusing our organizational outreach on the other counties we serve, given that the senators for those regions are less homogeneously supportive of SB 75.  Even then, though, our attempts to mobilize support – both for the surrounding counties and Philadelphia – should be saved in part for the spring, when a similar event will be much more necessary to bolster the bill when it gets to the House.  Secondly, as an experienced organization we should dedicate some small amount of time to altering our materials slightly so they can be sent out to smaller organizations that operate in central PA, the senators for which are the most opposed to SB 75; generating representation from those communities at the lobby day is far more crucial to the efficacy of the event than our own.

This concern for conserving not just our own energy, but more importantly the interest and motivation of the communities we work in is a familiar conversation, but one I’ve only encountered in class, and situated in an international context.  For example, “donor fatigue” was a common phrase in my Politics of Humanitarianism class, referenced in relation to the difficulty of inspiring humanitarian action when aid is so frequently called for and need so often demonstrated and used in humanitarian campaigns.  The discussion on Monday, though, was interesting in that it spoke to a different angle: rather than fear of fatiguing donors intended to aid a subject-positioned group, we were cautious about fatiguing the very people we were advocating on behalf of by communicating to them and mobilizing them with too much frequency and energy.  In the face of reality this makes sense – I would think most people are familiar with the dismissal that accompanies frequent pleas for assistance, as well as how updates on the same issue become ignored as regularity becomes banal. 

All the same – and also acknowledging that I absolutely act the same with regard to other issues I care about but am not necessarily involved in – it is ridiculous to realize that we must hold back our advocacy for fear of tiring communities as we work with them to collectively improve a bad situation.  Granted, the involvement is on terms we have set as an organization – we decided that the action would take the form of a lobby day, etc. – but at the same time, it is an effort that many will sympathize with, but if we ask them to help one too many times we will be dismissed, and the cause will suffer.

Also curious to note was when the discussion touched on other supporters of the cause – both from elsewhere in the state, but also within our own coalition.  For one, my supervisor cautioned that we would not be using the event to grow our contact list, as many of the individual supporters coming in from central PA would be religious conservatives, and as such very much opposed to various issues that our organization pursues.  While we may stand with them on the front of anti-human trafficking, we are very much opposed on others.  This decision to not engage these groups is a difficult balance.  On the one hand (and where we have placed ourselves), we don’t want to alienate fellow supporters for this very important cause.  On the other, if we were to engage with them on the full plane of what our organization handles, there is the chance that we could expose them to other positive ideas and causes, and perhaps change their minds. 

A similar balance manifested when discussing other methods for raising awareness for anti-trafficking endeavors.  The coalition we are a part of in pursuit of this issue is financed by one particular organization.  As such, if we were to participate in awareness and fundraising on this front, we would in fact be spending organizational resources on money raising for another organization.  What’s more, this particular organization is anti-choice; so while the funds raised would be in relation to anti-trafficking efforts, it remains that we would be aiding the mission of an organization that in large part is actually contrary to what we stand for and support.  Once again, the dynamics of coalitions among advocacy and community organizations present interesting dilemmas and conflicts of interest, even as we work together.

After this discussion I drafted some basic fodder for our social media in preparation for the lobby day.  When it actually gets posted it will likely be accompanied by images and/or materials that we will create in relation to the event, but I supplied the basic text message that will be put out on Facebook and Twitter.  The various entries were mostly consistent – they referenced the date of the event, its purpose, and most mentioned something about human trafficking itself as an issue in PA.

After this I had a brief throwback to previous weeks, wherein I printed and cut out more SB 75 postcards and continued compiling the spreadsheet of what healthcare plans were offered by county across the state.

Finally, my day ended with attempting to track a bill in the PA House.  An amendment was introduced that afternoon to HB 1603 – a bill related intended to broaden medical staffs’ right to a “conscious objection,” wherein they can refuse to provide various services on the basis of a moral objection.  The amendment would have added abortion to the list of deniable services.  Clearly that is something our organization would be very much opposed to; so I was tasked with attempting to track the status of the bill and the amendment while my supervisor worked to coordinate with other advocates and get the amendment withdrawn. 

The House was in recess for the rest of my time at the office – preventing me from tracking the amendment’s process via a live stream of the floor – and I was unable to even find reference to the amendment elsewhere.  Had I not been told of its existence by my supervisor, I would not have known that such an amendment existed in relation to the bill.  As a citizen, I find this concerning.  Granted, the amendment had only been proposed that day.  Conversely, there was clearly a method by which my supervisor was alerted to it; why could some sort of information then not also be posted somewhere accessible to the average citizen?  Thankfully, the amendment was withdrawn later that night.  My struggles to find any reference to it, though, left me concerned.

In your paper you focus more on the invisibility of learning disabilities and queerness, which relates to my paper because in my paper I attempt to explain that the classroom dynamic needs to change in order to include everyone and that includes people with disabilities that aren't physically noticeable.  

The limitation of a language that relies heavily on gendered pronouns is a strong theme throughout you paper. You bring up questions such as "what happens if you're a gender outlier?" or if you identify as a whole seperate category from "man" or "woman"?  A similar theme prevails through my paper when I talk about how the hearing community is limiting itself by choosing not to learn sign language. Your research of different languages across the globe exemplifies how different cultures adjust foreign languages to fit their grammatical knowledge. For example, some people learning english as a second language will "automatically designate gender amivalent terms to men". It's interesting how in the past hearing people have done some similar to those in the deaf community by imposing oralism on them. Your solution for making gender pronouns more accessible for people of multiple identities is to integrate third gender options (as opposed to just male and female) into official documents like Germany has done with birth certificates and Sweden has done with the incorporation of the pronoun "hen" into their language.

Hello, how has everything been going? Did you get the surgery? My 15yo son was diagnosed yesterday. They said he was born with it. He has 10.8mm. He has NO SYMPTOMS. He got a mild concussion from football and they discovered the Arnold Chiari from there. I dont want to do the surgery , especially since he has NO symptoms. I am scared. Looking for advice. Thank you.

I am a class room aides. I would like some ideals for though actives

Kindasorta forgot the most imporant citation. Sorry..

Ackerman, Diane. Deep Play. New York: Random House, 1999. Print.