Jerri Bird....a very interesting woman :)

I also really liked our speaker last week, in fact, she is probably my favorite so far, with the exception of Jean Cunningham, because she is passionate about adoption, as am I. :) I think the reason I enjoyed Jerri so much was because she actually talked about a specific group of women. The other speakers seemed to talk about women in general, which is to obscure for me to grasp. It is much easier and more interesting to listen to someone speaking about a specific group, however that group is classified, than such a broad overview of all women. Here are some key things that I enjoyed from her talk, in no particular order...

1) The fact that wives in the foreign service were not allowed to work
-I don't necessarily view this as a bad thing, as long as the women were being taken care of financially, but it was strange to hear as I have grown up in a time where most women have to work and don't really have the luxury of not working.

2) She started educating her children at home, as no schools taught in English, and ended up teaching every one's children
-This amazed me. It made me wonder what kind of training she had to handle this position and what was being taught. I think this really struck me in the talk as I am a future educator and I know how much work goes into teaching.

3) She said something about women not having control over money. The men in their lives were responsible for their financial well-being, and the women never had to spend a penny of their own money unless they wanted to.
-I thought that in a perfect world, this sounds awesome. I mean, who would want to have to take care of themselves? However, since this world is not so perfect, this is actually not an ideal situation, and independence trumps dependence.

4) The women's banks
- I thought these organizations sounded so cute! Sitting around in a parlor, drinking tea while doing business...I wish we had them here!

5) Lastly, she said something that really hit me: "Women are the first to suffer in conflict."
-I had honestly never thought of this before, and it really scares me.