Dec 9: Kirsten Gillibrand (among others)

Kirsten Gillibrand (b. 1966)

Okay, full disclosure here: if I could I would definitely follow Kirsten Gillibrand around everywhere like an orphaned puppy. She is a Democratic senator from New York, appointed to the position after Hillary Clinton (<3) was chosen as Secretary of State. 

Gillibrand lived a fairly privileged childhood: born in Albany to politically active attorney parents, she attended an all-girls boarding school and went off to get a degree in Asian studies from Dartmouth College (as a result, she is fluent in Mandarin. Freaking Mandarin, the hardest language in the world to learn. Respect.) Then she got her law degree at UCLA and started off in her parents' footsteps as an attorney.

While working at a law firm in New York City, she got involved in the Women's Leadership Forum and was deeply affected by a speech by Hillary Clinton urging women to get involved in the political process because "if you leave all the decision-making to others, you might not like what they do, and you will have no one but yourself to blame."

Clinton was a role model for Gillibrand, who contributed significant time and money to Clinton's campaigns and to encouraging more young women to get involved in the political process. 

Gillibrand first ran for office in 2006 in a firmly Republican Congressional district with a four-term incumbent who did not at all expect to be defeated. Through a combination of perseverance, killer fundraising, and the revelation that the incumbent's wife had once filed a report of domestic abuse, Gillibrand defied all expectations and won with 53% of the vote. 

Gillbrand on the Daily Show in 2011, when I first realized that
I loved her

Her first two years on the national stage are rather controversial. She held much more moderate views in those days: being the representative of a Republican district, she was more fiscally conservative than most Democrats and received an A rating from the National Rifle Association. However, after her appointment to Hillary Clinton's vacant seat in 2009, she quickly shot up to the tenth most liberal senator in 2010 and then one of the two most liberal senators in 2011. Oh, politicians. 

Among Gillibrand's achievements:

• Winning reelection to the Senate with 72% of the vote, the highest margin for any statewide candidate in New York
• Repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell
• Championing the James Zadroga Bill-- this bill would provide health coverage and compensation for 9/11 first responders who suffered permanent damage to their health from their service. It was initially filibustered by the Republicans until Jon Stewart drew attention to how mind-blowingly horrible filibustering such a law was.
• Supporting the DREAM act to give illegal immigrant children the opportunity to get an education and earn citizenship 
• Actively raising two small children -- Theodore, age 9, and Henry, age 4 -- in addition to her trying duties as a senator. Seriously. If there are evening votes, she goes home for an hour to cook dinner and then comes back to Capitol Hill. 

In general, you can count on Gillibrand to fight for equality and fairness for everyone. She vocally advocates for women's reproductive rights, gay rights, and getting more women involved in politics.

Gillbrand looks cute with her youthful complexion and warm smile, but she has proven herself to be an unexpectedly formidable opponent in every campaign and legislative battle that she has undertaken.


My favorite lines from this interview with Feministing:
"the reality is that every single day, decisions are being made in Washington. And I believe that if women understood all the decisions being made and that they are being made without their input, they would be highly concerned. "

But wait! There's more!

Ida Scudder (b. 1870, d. 1960): One of the first women graduates from Cornell Medical University, she devoted her life to improving the condition of Indian women and fighting disease. She was a missionary, but her positive impact was indisputable. She treated thousands of patients and set up a medical school in Vellore so that Indian men and women could train to help themselves. The school to this day makes a point of having women as at least 25 of its 60 students admitted each year. 

Grace Hopper (b. 1906, d. 1992): One of the programmers of the first computers, she worked to develop user-friendly programming languages and teach young people using "analogies and examples that have become legendary". She was brilliant and a pioneer: she was one of the rare women to earn a doctorate in mathematics, and from Yale no less. She joined the military while the US was fighting in World War II and made important (but pretty difficult to understand if, like me, you don't understand programming) contributions to computing that helped maintain the United States' technological advantage. Later on, she was the first American and first woman to be a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society (the British make everything sound so highbrow). Hopper was revolutionary as a woman and as a scientist, and all around just a pretty cool person to have existed.

Felicity Huffman (b. 1962): Actress who is best known for playing Lynette Scavo on Desperate Housewives (I'm currently on the third season and love the show secretly, but Lynette is my absolute favorite character) One of seven sisters, she struggled with eating disorders as a teenager and has been acting in some form since the age of sixteen. Over the years that I really don't have time to chronicle, she has gained immense popularity and success and has used her status to campaign for NARAL and make a website dedicated to women and mothers.

For once let's just show a picture where
 she IS impressed.

And finally, McKayla Maroney (b. 1995): As-of-today-seventeen-year-old Olympic gymnast who won a silver medal in the vault. Now she is better known for her "not impressed" face and teaching Jenna Bush how to dougie, at least to me. Lately she's dabbled in acting, but being an Olympic medalist at the age of sixteen is already pretty impressive.