The Women's Current

Summer break - Let's revisit in case you missed it

‘A period should end a sentence, not a girl’s education.’

Accepting the 2019 Academy Award for producing the documentary Period. End of Sentence, Melissa Berton, founder of The Pad Project spoke those words. And so it was no leap to turn to New York Times bestselling author of The Red Tent and award winning journalist, Anita Diamant. With the foreword by Melissa, PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE. The Next Chapter in the Fight for Menstrual Justice, Anita explores menstrual issues and period poverty around the globe.

Maggie Smith is the award-winning poet and author of Good Bones. This week saw the release of her latest collection of poems, Goldenrod. Maggie is the author of the national bestseller Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change. In addition, Maggie is the author of The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, and Lamp of the Body,   Maggie’s poems and essays are widely published and anthologized. They've appeared in Best American Poetry, the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and elsewhere. Good Bones went viral internationally when Meryl Streep read it live at Lincoln Center.

New York Times bestselling author Alka Joshi has done it again with The Secret Keeper of Jaipur. A sequel to her award winning debut novel The Henna Artist, Alka takes us on a journey with Malik. A street child in her previous novel, Malik is now a grown man living a life among the wealthy. As with The Henna Artist, Alka explores the culture among the classes in India.

Dr. Kate Biberdorf is the author of It’s Elemental: The Hidden Chemistry in Everything. Best known as Kate the Chemist, Kate is a chemistry professor, author, scientist and ultimate Science Entertainer. A self-proclaimed pyromaniac, Kate’s is on a mission to show young girls that you can be a fashionista, wear makeup and be a brilliant scientist and chemistry nerd all rolled into one.

Life has a habit of throwing us curveballs. How we handle them can be the key to how we move forward. I turned to Judith Marks-White, for some wisdom. Judith is an award-winning journalist, freelance writer, and educator. Her award-winning column, ‘In Other Words’ appears monthly in the Westport News. Judith’s articles have appeared in magazines and newspapers throughout the country and she has contributed fiction articles to numerous children’s publications. Judith wrote two novels: Seducing Harry and Bachelor Degree and is the recipient of numerous writing awards.

Pam is the New York Times bestselling author of The Woman With The Blue Star, The Lost Girls of Paris, The Orphan’s Tale, The Kommandant’s Girl, The Diplomat’s Wife, The Ambassador’s Daughter, The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach, The Winter Guest, The Things We Cherished, Almost Home, and A Hidden Affair. She also authored a short story in the anthology Grand Central: Original Postwar Stories of Love and Reunion.

Linda K. Wertheimer is an award-winning education journalist, essayist and author. Specifically, she is an educator teaching about religion. Not preaching, but teaching. And Linda makes sure that we understand the difference between preaching and teaching. Public schools are allowed to teach about religion. Teaching about different religions goes side by side with teaching about different cultures.

‘God was not kicked out of the schools. What was kicked out of the school was illegal preaching. Teachers have always been able to teach about religion, as a part of world history, a part of geography and a part of literature.’

Linda has traveled throughout the country finding out how teachers are teaching religion. Knowledge is key to how we act and live our lives among one another. 'In order to be a global citizen, you need to be religiously literate.'

A very educational and important conversation with Linda:

A young girl, a teacher and that’s not my religion

Mothering and speaking out

Teaching vs preaching

Public schools and religion

Varying ways of teaching

Becoming religiously literate

Fighting religious bigotry

Linda and Faith Ed

Linda is the award-author of Faith Ed. Teaching About Religion in an Age of Intolerance. Faith Ed focuses on public school’s ups and downs as they teach about world religions. Currently Linda is a Spencer Fellow in Education Journalism at Columbia University.

Linda is a veteran journalist and former Boston Globe education editor. During her nearly 30-year journalism career, she was a reporter at The Dallas Morning News and The Orlando Sentinel as well as for other publications. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, USA Today, Time, and many other publications. Linda has appeared on several NPR radio shows, including KERA’s Think in Dallas; Radio Boston; and LA’s Air Talk, as well a nationally televised program on CBS about religion and democracy.

30 Years Behind Bars: Trials of a Prison Doctor is Karen Gedney's story, from her first day at the prison to her last. This next chapter for Karen is advocating for prison reform and mentoring children at risk. Now out of the system, Karen is able to make herself heard about the criminal justice system.

It wasn’t until 1976 that prisons had to offer medical care if there was a serious medical need. Not only was Karen one of the first doctors in a prison, but she was also one of the first female doctors. A male prison with male inmates and male guards. Two years into her start, Karen was taken hostage and raped by one of the inmates. And yet she stayed. She stayed through the Aids epidemic, through changing of guards, through years of years of change in the system. Karen stayed because she felt she was making a difference. And she did make a difference for so many of the inmates and their families.

A riveting conversation with Karen:

The beginning

A kidnapping and rape and the decision to stay

Rules, no rules and systems

Being a female in an all-male environment

She’s white, her husband is Black – they thought she gave preferential treatment to Black inmates

Evening programs and mentoring

The power of redemption

Seeing the results

Advocating for criminal justice & prison reform

From the start of her law education, Susan Bandes discovered that emotions and law are connected. She felt anger about the reasoning behind a decision that had been handed down by the courts. It was a case discussed in one of her first law classes. But Susan stayed silent. ‘I learned very quickly that if I said I was angry, I would be labeled as too emotional to be a good lawyer.’ On top of that, she was a minority of women in her class - ‘Emotion was going to be connected to my gender, women are just too emotional to be lawyers.’

Emotions come in all types. There’s anger, disgust, closure, fear, empathy, hate … just to name a few. Susan has spent the last 20 years examining the law and the claim that ‘it’s an emotion free zone.’ Can we really take our emotions out of decisions that are made?

For years Susan had been writing in the predominantly male fields of federal courts and criminal procedure. She was one of only two women on the list of the 20 most cited law professors in criminal law and procedure. But two Supreme Court cases flipped the switch and set her on the path she would follow for the next 20 years and counting: exploring the role of emotion in law.

A conversation with Susan and what we probably don’t think about

Holding back the anger and questions

A woman in a field of men

The law and emotions

Closure

Fear

A decision but no real data

Can it be an emotion free zone

Human behavior and all the assumptions

A Pioneer

Susan is a pioneer in the emerging study of the role of emotion in law. Her legal career began in 1976 at the Illinois Office of the State Appellate Defender. She became staff counsel for the Illinois A.C.L.U. in 1980 where she litigated a broad spectrum of civil rights cases. Susan helped draft and secure passage of the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

Susan joined the DePaul faculty in 1984. She was named Distinguished Research Professor in 2003 and Centennial Distinguished Professor in 2012, Susan has authored over 50 articles and is among the most widely cited law professors in the field of criminal law and procedure. Her work appears in the Yale, Stanford, University of Chicago, Michigan and Southern California law reviews.

‘A period should end a sentence, not a girl’s education.’

Accepting the 2019 Academy Award for producing the documentary Period. End of Sentence, Melissa Berton, founder of The Pad Project spoke those words. And so it was no leap to turn to New York Times bestselling author of The Red Tent and award winning journalist, Anita Diamant. With the foreword by Melissa, PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE. The Next Chapter in the Fight for Menstrual Justice, Anita explores menstrual issues and period poverty around the globe.