Expectations with the White House Project

    I've helped out the White House Project twice now, and I've started to have some expectations of what to expect in the future there. My two main expectations are that I'll learn more about politics, current events, and how women are involved; I also want to learn more of the business side of things about how charities operate. 

    I've always been interested in politics and I think this would be a great way to learn more. There are so many women who are influential in today's political world. It's inspirational to see the things that are possible for me to do. The White House Project puts on many different events that showcase these women. Now that I'm involved I can attend these events, and with women's history month next month it will be a great chance to celebrate the progress women have made. 

    I'm a finance major so naturally I'm interested in the business sides of things. I want to learn how charities run compared to other companies. I've realized that charities run not too differently from other businesses. 

    I have these expectations based on my previous times volunteering, and my conversations with Katie. I realized how much work they do with women's issues, and helping to train women to be future leaders. This is what gave me the impression that I'll learn about women in politics. The reason I thought I'd learn about the business side is because while I'm in the office I've seen work getting done ranging from setting up catering for events to thinking of ways to raising money by fund raising. This way I can get an idea of all the work that goes into running something like The White House Project.

Feminism?

    Whenever I hear the word "Feminism" I cringe. I've always thought of a feminist as a bra-burning, men-hating woman, and I never could identify with that. Since I couldn't understand this I always steered away from anything having to do with feminism. After I read the chapter in Gendered Lives that discussed feminism I realized it isn't as radical as I thought it was. I also learned that there have been different waves of feminism and different ideas of what it can mean.
    The type I most connected with was Liberal Feminism, this is where they believed that women should have equality in all aspects of life. This seems like such a basic concept to me.  I agree that women should enjoy the equal rights. One thing that worries me about feminism is that while we focusing having equal rights about positive things we forget that if we want equal rights that also comes with negative things like the right to fail. Just because you have equal rights doesn't you will always be successful at what you do. Let's say a man and woman apply for the same job, and while a women has an equal right to that job she also has a equal right to not get that job based on qualifications. The job should be given to the most qualified candidate because that is true equality, and I think that's often ignored.
     I know that feminist movements have impacted my life though, because without them I probably wouldn't be in college.I also wouldn't have all the options for my future that I have now. I've been raised to believe that with hard work anything is possible. I've never considered my gender when I thought about what I wanted in my future.
    After reading about feminism I think it will make me be more thankful.. It made me more grateful for the women before me who stood up for my rights, and I'll be more appreciative of the opportunities in my life.  Also I won't have such a negative view of people who describe themselves as "feminists". I also will start trying to be more aware of women's issues that are going on around me.

My First Interaction with my Organization

I've signed up to do my charity work with the organization The White
House Project. There goal is to help empower women in  the political and
business arenas. I emailed them and I'm going to start going down to
their office on Tuesdays. I'm very excited to get started with my
volunteer work. I haven't had very many interaction with doing volunteer
work, and I think this will be a great opportunity for me. I'll learn about different problems that are facing, and the people who giving their time to help these different isssues.