Lilly Ledbetter, again

Here's a great op-ed piece from the NY Times on Lilly Ledbetter and other women who have fought to end gender discrimination in the workplace.

Lilly Ledbetter

Since Obama was sworn in, nearly every day has been - as a friend of mine remarked recently on her Facebook page - "like a liberal Christmas". Today, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act into law. Lilly Ledbetter filed a lawsuit against her employer, Goodyear, after she discovered she had been paid less than her male counterparts, but her lawsuit was thrown out because it was filed more than six months after the discrimination occurred. The Act makes it clear that the 180 day statue of limitations begins with each new discriminatory paycheck. I think that the 180 day statue of limitations is still too short, but at least it is now clear that it begins on pay day, not on the day the pay was agreed upon.

Of course, all Senate democrats voted for this Act, but it is especially noteworthy that all female republican senators also voted for it, whereas only one male republican voted in favor (Specter).

Homemade Minestrone

I don't usually cook with meat, but last week I got inspired after thumbing through the Joy of Cooking, and I decided to roast a chicken. Then this week I was about to throw the chicken carcass away when I stopped and thought "hey, I should make stock!" So I did, and the chicken stock actually turned out pretty well, so from it I made minestrone soup:



It is not too bad, if I do say so myself. I put in almost twice as many macaronis as the recipe called for (you can probably tell from the picture) because I like a lot of pasta in my minestrone. I also put in twice the fresh herbs, and a little less broth than the 10 cups the recipe said, so it is quite flavorful.

So. Today begins the last week of my 20s. I am slightly bummed, because I feel like as long as I'm 20-something I can still pretend I'm a kid sometimes. But it's gonna be hard to feel like a kid when I'm THIRTY. I was boosted a bit this morning by some lady at church asking me "how school was going", and when I mentioned I teach at Duke rather than take classes there she said "oh, you don't look old enough to be teaching!" (I've had this conversation with at least 4 people at church, and it always makes me feel better). So I guess as long as I don't look 30, maybe I can get away with continuing some of my 20-something habits. Like wearing a short skirt. According to some magazine or something I read somewhere once (Glamour? Washington Post fashion column?) only women under 30 should be wearing short skirts. At 30 you've supposedly reached some level of maturity that is above the teen/collegiate/20s-look-at-me-I'm-so-sexy look of short skirts. Well, that's a fashion rule I'm gonna break because my legs are too fabulous to not show off once in a while!

At last

After 8 long years, the abortion football has once again been thrown. Obama has repealed the Global Gag Rule. An excellent start in the process of undoing the damage of the past 8 years.

Women in Science

Two posts in a day, how 'bout that! Yesterday's New York Times had a great article on the problem of female shortage in the sciences. The article mentions that "President Obama might be able to change things significantly for young women in science — and young men — by signing an executive order that would provide added family leave and parental benefits to the recipients of federal grants, a huge pool of people that includes many research scientists." Wow! As a young woman who anticipates (well, hopes) to be seeking tenure and raising kids at the same time, I think that would be fabulous. This article states our plight quite well:

...expecting a young woman to sacrifice her reproductive fitness for the sake of career advancement is simply too much, and yet the structure of academic research, in which one must spend one’s 20s and early 30s as a poorly compensated and minimally empowered graduate student and postdoctoral fellow, and the remainder of one’s 30s and into the low 40s working madly to earn tenure, can demand exactly that.

Yes, these are the things that keep me up at night.

Snow!

I love snow! I really do - I think it's pretty and peaceful (although my opinion changes somewhat in treacherous driving conditions). I thought that moving to North Carolina meant no more snow (or least not enough snow to ever cover the ground), but looky what Madeline and I saw out our window this morning:



Yay! I wish I had some cross-country skis (it's just barely enough, I think), but running in it this evening will be fun, too. Hmm, I hope the other Godivans show up for our East Campus run! It is possible these southern folk don't feel the same way I do about running in the snow.

So exciting! Here is my first house experiencing its first snow (with me as homeowner, that is):



I don't own a snow shovel yet, but I think it'll be okay. The snow on the sidewalk is starting to melt already. Here is my neighbor's holly tree with berries and snow:



Here, I was trying to take a picture of the little sweetgum balls with snow caps:



I decided to stay home today and watch the inauguration. Two things that made me happy today: snow and the fact that BUSH IS FINALLY OUTTA THERE! Good riddance, too. I might leave my "Bush's Last Day" bumper sticker up for a while longer, just to prolong the celebration that he's GONE.

Haven't blogged in a while!

To the 3 people who actually check my blog every few days - sorry I haven't blogged in a while! I had a merry Christmas, did you? One of my Christmas gifts was, once again, a digital camera! Yay, now I can post recent pictures of better quality than the one above (that was taken w/ my minolta film camera - it's just not that good). Although, I've only used my new gift a little, so far. Need to put a bigger memory card in it, and my big memory card is somewhere in my closet. So anyway, here are some more pictures from the holidays - pre-digital camera.

Madeline looking creepy:




A red-tailed hawk that my cousin and I got really close to at Thanksgiving:





Life is good - I promise to write a more interesting post later!