Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Josefina Ibarra
I had an awesome time this fall in Washington, D.C., as an intern in a congressional office. I had never been to the city prior to this internship through CHCI, and it is an experience I will always remember. I had the opportunity to meet first lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama, and I had my picture taken with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. I wondered, Is this a dream or am I actually shaking this person’s hand?
During the fall, I quickly found that interns in Congress are basically put on standby to be placed where they are needed. I had great experiences answering phones, attending and reporting on briefings, filling out applications, and going to networking receptions instead of catching up on sleep. Doing a little bit of everything under pressure helped me measure my boiling point; I think did OK.
After a few days of observing, I realized D.C. is a town where there is no time to sleep, yet for some reason things move slowly. And passing legislation can get a little sluggish at times (maybe more than a little, but you know what I mean).
And as I ran errands from the House to the Senate to the Capitol, one day it hit me: The curiosity kicked in and I wondered, How many women are in office?
I looked it up and in both the House and Senate. In the 111th Congress, there were only 93 women out of 535 congressional and Senate members. Where are the ladies?
Over Halloween weekend, I talked about this issue and had a great time with some new friends at the AAUW Student Advisory Council retreat. Not only did I attend the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear (it was awesome to see so many people out there expressing their opinions in such creative but communicative ways that caught the eye and made me laugh), but I also met nine women leaders at the retreat who share similar concerns about the low percentage of women in politics. Someday I hope to work for one of them when they run for office. Cat Cleary, you have my vote.
This blog post was written by 2010–11 AAUW National Student Advisory Council member Josefina Ibarra.
AAUW Dialog 
Leave a Reply