My Q&A With Elizabeth Edwards

It's taken me almost two weeks since the Chicago/SV/DC Moms met with Elizabeth Edwards. Yes, I've been that busy that I'm just now getting around to blogging my thoughts.

Unfortunately because I was busy that Saturday, I couldn't be on the conference call, I sent in a question. And guess what?! She answered it.

Next question came from Veronica (sent earlier, not present on call) who is concerned about issues for women in science in technology. She's asking what Elizabeth's husband's policies will do for students. Elizabeth talked about education for a while. The long term plan, she says, is to establish things like schools of science and math. North Carolina has one that she used as an example, but she says many talented students don't get in there. "Each state should have those options," Elizabeth said. She also said her daughter, Cate, a "math genius", was told "women can't do math" when she was a student. That needs to change. She added: "In India and China, they are producing 10x the number of engineers that we are producing."

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Women in Science and Technology:

Incentive program that offers $15,000 per year for disadvantaged and those specializing in science and math.

My daughter participated in a mentoring program for identified women in science and math. Part of the reason that she is not in math today is because the mentoring program was too short.

We would establish programs like the schools of science and math. Each state should have those options and have enough of them so we are encouraging people into science and technology , especially women and people of color that may not get the right messages. We reach out to the people that would not otherwise get the message that they should participate. In India, they are producing 10X the number of engineers we are. We need to compete, or else we would loose our edge we have over other countries.

You can read all the live blogging here and here. Yeah, I'm pretty jazzed that EE answered my question. Hopefully I'll be able to ask her more questions, this time in person, when she gets to Chicago. And yes, I do think it's pretty damn awesome that a potential First Spouse is making time for the mommy bloggers. EE found that we're all not the same, we have our minds on much more than just "mommy topics" and our votes are very valuable. Come on, Bill...drop me a line! I swear I'll bring the potato chips.


Technorati tags: Edwards, Elizabeth Edwards, politcs, feminism, science education