Best for Women Blog

From the time I was old enough to know what school was, I was all for it. I loved it–everything about it. Picking out my school clothes. Packing my lunch. Riding the bus. I found it all fascinating. I loved the act of going to school, and most importantly, I loved to learn. I fondly remember the process of learning to read and write and being so excited by what I could do. I have vivid memories of putting what I learned into action—I wrote stories in my spare time and looked forward to art class and learning to play and read music. But, when I think back to the days of multiplication tables and long division, I’m as bored thinking about them now as I was when I learned them. In fact, I remember very little about the math lessons I painstakingly made it through. It’s almost as if that part of my brain has been overtaken by some sort of anti-math fog that just prevents me from having an interest in the subject.

To this day, I struggle with numbers—not because I’m not intelligent enough to figure them out, but because I never took an interest in truly understanding them. As a kid, my parents always encouraged me to be a well-rounded student. “You can be anything you want when you grow up,” they would say all the time. So where then does my dislike for math, and science for that matter, come from? How could someone who loved to learn and was always encouraged to be well-rounded have such a disinterest in a subject? Is this a gender-based issue, or are certain people just inclined to prefer some subjects over others?

In the world today, millions of women and girls are trapped in lives of slavery. Most often forced into sex work, these women are terrorized and tortured by their captors until they lose all will to resist. Frequently victims of trafficking face the added obstacles of language barriers, foreign criminal justice systems, and the threat of added torture at the hands of people in international criminal organizations. Despite the obvious damage slavery inflicts upon its victims, the demand for slaves—particularly female sex slaves—continues.

The sad fact is that most trafficking victims will never speak up. Many fear repatriation back to their home countries - which is a horrifying situation. They risk death on return - or perhaps worse - death to family members or having other women in their family forced into trafficking as well. Victims who want to stay here in the US also have a terrible dilemma - they are asked to give up their traffickers and they must prove they are innocent. How can we serve as a voice to these women who can not have their own voices heard?

Obstetric fistula affects more than two million women and girls each year. Sufferers are often condemned to lives filled with shame and stigma. Share your thoughts about why this treatable condition persists and how to restore dignity and hope to these women.