LivingintheHeartland's Blog

Women’s abilities are always being called into question. Take Rick Santorum's poke at women being too emotion for duty at the front lines of combat situations. A select corps of women is fighting back. Read the story of one American and two Afghani teenagers who are trying to make history and become the first women to box in the Olympics. Read more on my blog Living in the Heartland.

It’s one thing to accept total responsibility for yourself, but there’s far more self-reliance and strength of character involved when you’ve undertaken an adventure nearly two months long, alone, and trekking nearly blind in the vast, cold region of Antarctica.

In January Felicity Aston became the first woman to ski across the southernmost continent. Even more remarkable is that she did it alone. Felicity became the first human to ski solo across Antarctica. Not only did she ski more than 1,000 miles without the aid of motorized equipment but she pulled two sleds loaded with supplies.

Read a more complete version of her story on my Living in the Heartland blog.

In spite of her family being homeless one 17-year-old girl has stayed focused. Samantha Garvey recently discovered she's being considered for a national prestigious science award, and hopes to get a full scholarship to college to study marine biology. Read her story on my Living in the Heartland blog.

As a young teenager Lateefah seemed to be going nowhere. She dropped out of school and was on probation for shoplifting. Then someone offered her a different path. She changed directions and at 19 she took over a women's center helped women and girls find hope. Read this MacArthur Foundation Genus fellowship winner’s story on my blog at Living in the Heartland.

I overheard a woman say, “Girls can be SO catty.”

The woman she was talking to responded, “They ARE, aren’t they!”
It was a lesson my mother taught me. Her point was: “Don’t trust girls, they’re out to hurt you.”
This year I discovered how important other women are to each other. Read more on my blog Living in the Heartland.

In order to break the cycle of girls growing into women who see their worth in terms of image, we need to talk to them about what really makes them beautiful. Read more about author Lisa Bloom’s advice to women about talking to girls on my Living in the Heartland blog.

Angela Addington is a database geek. It comes in handy as she matches a storehouse of toys with deserving children. She’s the founder of Hannah's Treasure Chest, a charitable organization that collects gentle-used items then channels them through community service organizations to children who would otherwise go without many of the necessities of childhood. Read the full story on my Living in the Heartland blog.
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Erin Curtiss is a midwife in Seattle. Haiti has a desperate for midwives. Women in Haiti are fifty times more likely to die during childbirth than women in America. Erin volunteered to go to Haiti to lend a hand. She was unprepared for what she discovered. Read her story on my Living in the Heartland blog.

Americans persist in telling and retelling the Thanksgiving story. It is a well-meaning celebration of the bounty of the land of the country and thanks to the Native American people who helped the Pilgrims who had newly immigrated. But Thanksgiving is a legend, a myth. Read about a Native American woman who was no legend. She was the real deal. Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Indian Tribe of Montana, waged a long legal battle to compensate more than 300,000 members of many tribes for the mismanagement of Indian trust funds by the US government. Read the full story on my Living in the Heartland blog. http://www.livingintheheartland.com

Mary Ann Angel might be described as the little mouse that roars. Her outward demeanor is neither loud nor forceful. However, her strength, unbounded energy to do good deeds, her concern for humanity, and readiness to extend the warmth of friendship is what demonstrate that this soft-spoken woman from humble Appalachian beginnings is a force with which to be reckoned. Read more about her on my Living in the Heartland blog.

Life is tough for women in Afghanistan. The lack of childcare may seem like a trivial matter until you consider the need of one mother. Without child care options she has to fly dangerous supply missions to remote areas and disaster zones in a military helicopter – her 5-year-old daughter alongside. Colonel Latifa Nabizada has flown more than 300 missions with the girl in the cockpit. Read more about this remarkable woman on my Living in the Heartland blog.

The saying goes: You can’t fool Mother Earth. Those who think they can will have to contend with Vandana Shiva. Shiva is an environmental activist who has won numerous international awards for her three decades of work to protect natural resources and promote organic farming and fair trade. Time Magazine in 2003 identified the Delhi, India-based woman as an environmental heroine. Read the full story on my Living in the Heartland blog.

Perry Barber was a singer/songwriter growing up in the 1970s. She did office work for Gladys Knight, and performed as an opener for Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, and Hall and Oates. But music was not to be her calling. Instead, her career path lay on the baseball infield. Perry is one of a handful of women who work as umpires in baseball – what is otherwise a males-only sport. Read the full post on my blog Living in the Heartland.

Anita Woodley, a journalist and radio producer, channels her younger self, her mother and grandmother in a one-woman play she has written to tell a powerful story about women’s leadership. It is an earnest story about sickness and healing, aging, love, and survival. Read more about Anita on my blog Living in the Heartland.

Have you ever wanted something SO much you were willing to wait however long it took? Well, Keiko Fukuda waited almost 80 years to realizing her dream.

At the age of 98 Keiko Fukuda became the first woman to achieve a tenth-degree black belt in Judo. The petite woman not quite five feet tall has attained the highest rank in the martial art and combat sport. Only 16 people have ever reached this level of achievement.Read the full story on my Living in the Heartland blog.

Civil disobedience is on the rise. This can be a good thing, as is the case in Israel this summer. Israeli women are risking criminal prosecution by going to the beach. They are taking Palestinian women along to protest decades of dehumanization. Read the full story on my Living in the Heartland blog.