Why the 'No Ceilings' Conversation with Hillary and Chelsea Clinton is Important for Girls (and Boys!)

Because of this ...

‘Because I’m a girl’: Fourth grader denied right to play ball with boys

by Jillian Eugenios, Today | April 12, 2014

TODAY – A top player on a basketball team has been barred from playing in an upcoming game, and it doesn’t have anything to do with how she handles herself on the court.

It’s that she’s even there in the first place.

Jaelyn Bates, a fourth-grader, is a powerful player on the Frey Basketball Academy team, but now she’s been told she can’t compete with her teammates.

“Because I’m a girl, and they’re boys,” Jaelyn, 10, told NBC’s Dave Briggs. Her dad Barry Bates says that her skills on the court measure up to those of the other athletes on her team, even though they’re all boys.

“She fares very well, no difference than any boy with her skills would have,” said Bates. “She gets hurt like every other kid gets hurt. She scores like every other kid scores.”

The boys don’t have a problem with a girl being on their team. But some adults do.

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And now this ...

How Birth Order Affects Your Relationships

Find out if your sibling rank influences the way you relate to others

CBS via Getty Images

By Denise Schipani for Woman's Day

Firstborns: These children tend to be conscientious, ambitious, organized and—in relationships—dominant. Says Cane, "Firstborns like to be in control." As with all birth-order positions, gender plays a role, too. In the case of firsts, oldest sons tend to be take-charge types, leaders. Oldest females, on the other hand, are more likely to be bossy, confident and aggressive than their younger sisters.

Read more >>>>

Seriously, Woman's Day?  There is a difference between take-charge types, leaders and  bossy, confident and aggressive?  Really?  The emphasis above is mine, by the way.  To me the difference is your choice of nouns for boys and adjectives for girls, but don't mind me and my picky grammatical way of looking at things.

This is important!

Girls: A No Ceilings Conversation with Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton

New York, NY

Press Release

Event to launch “No Ceilings Conversation” Series

(NEW YORK, NY) – April 11, 2014 – On Thursday April 17th, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton will host Girls: A No Ceilings Conversation – the first in a series of No Ceilings Conversation events designed to provide a forum to hear from girls and women around the world. Moderated by actress and advocate America Ferrera, Girls: A No Ceilings Conversation will bring together girls to talk about their lives, experiences, and hopes for the future.

Taking place at the Lower Eastside Girls Club in New York City, the conversation will join girls from the Girls Club, the Girl Scouts of the USA, Girls Inc., Girl Up, the Young Women’s Leadership Network and four schools from across the country on Microsoft’s Skype Software:  Seattle Girls' School in Seattle, Washington; the Hathaway Brown School for Girls in Shaker Heights, Ohio; The York County School District in York, Virginia; and the KIPP Delta High School in Helena, Arkansas. The conversation, powered by Microsoft, will be streamed to allow people from around the world to join the conversation remotely and ask questions via online video streaming and Twitter.

This conversation is part of the Clinton Foundation’s initiative, No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project, which seeks to advance the full participation of women and girls around the world. These conversations and the ones to follow will be used to shape and inform the work of No Ceilings.

WHAT:                  Girls: A No Ceilings Conversation

WHO:                    Hillary Rodham Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, and America Ferrera

WHEN:                  Thursday, April 17, 2014

                                 Event: 3:00pm

WHERE:                Lower Eastside Girls Club

To watch the event online, please visit www.clintonfoundation.org/noceilings.

Follow the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #noceilings

The articles above are two that happened to show up in my MSN newsfeed on the past two consecutive days.  They demonstrate the need for this No Ceilings symposium.  I hope parents and teachers  will make sure the girls in their care are aware of this event and are online on Thursday and participating.

In my opinion, boys can also benefit from watching what goes on at this event.  According to the first story, the boys do not have a problem with Jaelyn playing.  The adults do (which is pathetic).  Boys need to know that supporting a teammate in a situation like this is the right thing to do.  They need to know that they can get adult support when they are right.
Enough is enough!  This nonsense has run its course.