My Spot in Cyberspace

Hi Berta:
I love your Bubleshare audio album!!!
I think you're a professional cyberbroadcaster now!
I agree with you, some women are perfectly happy staying at home as housewives , but the world is much wider than your own house...

There's still a challenge everyday for women. I think it's time for us to make a better world for all of us, women and men. We can share decisions and responsabilities.

And as our Argentinian poet Eladia Blasquez said : "El que dice que todo tiempo pasado fue mejor, no fue mujer ni trabajador"

Congratulations
Susana
From Del Valle In Argentina
(as Salesian as you)
 

Dear Berta,
Your Bubbleshare photostory is full of content and very well done. In my opinion, fewer women can afford to stay at home nowadays and devote entirely to their family. On the other hand, I also think working outside from home offers us so much gratification and perspective, no woman should miss it.
My mother has been a fulltime housewife and mother and I don't think she has ever regretted it. But, on the other hand, as soon as my brother and me were old enough to take care of ourselves, she started taking language courses, doing gym and other activities that were as gratifying for her as a working career.
The issue here is to do whatever makes you feel happy, without blaming yourself for it. Staying at home just because you're a mother, and a macho society expects you to devote your entire life to your family, is now out of the question. I wish all men undestood this and supported us.
 

Dear Susana and Claudia,
The statement "Some women are perfectly happy staying at home as housewives" was part of an assignment we had this week for our unit on Argumentation. Students had to agree or disagree and then give convincing reasons to back up their positions.
I really never gave them my own point of view but let them state theirs. I do not think women who are intellectually active can stay quietly at home. They need to go out and feel fulfilled beyond the "realm" of their family. As I mentioned in the album, women are extending their activities each day to areas that belonged just to men in the past, and as more men grow up in a family where mothers and grandmothers work and set an example, then it becomes natural to them to accept/expect to have a girlfriend or wife who works too.
My husband often says that this century belongs to WOMEN and is very proud of our young professional daughter (and our young professional son too!!!)
Thanks for visiting my site and it is quite a compliment to get such nice comments from you both.
Warmly, Berta.
 

Dear Berta

you are a real proficient webhead. Your audio bubbleshare is great and you rblog highly interesting. I liked both the pictures and your voice comment of your women in Venzuela. The issue you chose is one of the most challenging issues, in my opinion. I appreciated the way you raised the discussion with your students and led them to think on their own, even though I feel no woman could possibly be perfectly happy at home and just be a housewife myself and strongly wish no women were left with just that opportunity. We need women's active participation in the wider world so much that it would be a pity just to confine them at home. Free choice is important though and I agree with Claudia that it is areally important to do what makes you feel happy without blaming yourself for it. Women have blamed themselves for so many things that it's high time for them to feel guilt free for whatever they do with or without men's blessing.
Maria Teresa
 

Hello Berta,
Congratulations on your production!
This just shows one more thing women can do well :-)
I come from a home where my mother after her brilliant university studies decided to take care of the house/family and does not regret it. She reads a lot, travels, talks to friends and has always kept herself intellectually active.
I have worked from the age of 17, raised a family and wish sometimes (just sometimes) I could be taking it a bit slower but then, it is not the work I complain about but the tempo I have imposed on myself.
Warm regards from Brazil,
Bee
http://dekita.org
 

Dear Berta,

First, the update on wardrobe choices in March for the Boston area - the students are wearing their flip flops and shorts to class now! BTW, we had snow yesterday!

Your blog is a work of art. Congratulations for successfully incorporating so many interesting features!

"Women in Venezuela" ah, that brings to mind the thought provoking topic of women working - a choice or a necessity in other cultures!

Surprisingly, “women working here in the USA” is not so much a choice as it is a necessity for the larger portion of the population. With such a high divorce rate (over 50% and climbing) plus little economic security in old age (only 28.5 percent of all women today age 65 and older receive pension income) and the quickly disappearing middle-class, many women have no choice but to work.

The illegitimate birth rate is still over 33% and the number of one parent families is increasing, which suggests that the number of women who are the sole financial providers is increasing.

The good news is that the percentage of women who enter university each year is increasing and for the last five years women have outnumbered men in post secondary studies.

Also on a lighter note, if all of the women who were eligible to vote in this country actually did so, the government could be run by women ;-) Isn’t that a wonderful dream?

I'm going to get out of my "sounding like a textbook mode" and close for the present, while looking fwd to hearing your students' responses on this topic ;-)

Love and blessings,
Sharon
 

Dear Berta,
Congratulations on your wonderful blog--it's full of interesting information! I like the layout, too.

:)
Cora
 

A fabulous example of what Bubbleshare can do, Berta - you've also chosen a very interesting subject - I'm sure that a lot of students from all over will find your presentation very thought-provoking, and can perhaps be persuaded to produce a similar presentation about their own countries.


Thanks for sharing this with us, Berta
 

Oh Berta, Little did I know when I introduced Bubbleshare to the Webheads what a beautiful production you would make. I have to say I love Bubbleshare and the potential for delivering a powerful message.
Women in the workplace, women in the world! In the USA we have a law called Title 9, it came into being over 30 years ago. In high schools, colleges and any federally funded institutions, it stated, basically, if a boys team was offered, then a women's team in the same or equivilant sport had to be offered. So that meant that a whole generation of young women were involved in competitive sports. Of course it spilled over into classroom conversations, whole college institutions which has been previously segregated no longer were single sex but coed. Women at younger ages had a voice. With practice and support at younger ages, we are now seeing the results with more women in management positions, politics etc. We still have a long way to go, but the roads have been paved.
As far as women deciding to stay home with their children, it would be powerful if all our governments decided that raising healthy children is the most precious job of all. Until that time, we must all work together to raise the level of women and the work we all do.
continue making these powerful audio/visual statments!
Cheryl , USA
 

Congratulations Berta!!!!, it is wonderful the job you´ve done with Bubbleshare. I just love it!!!
See you,
Marianela
 

Hola Prof. Berta. Felicitaciones por su espacio, esta exelente, me gustan mucho los articulos, y sobretodo este de la mujer venezolana, con el cual me siento muy identificada, personalmente creo que en esta era la mujer deberia ser tan libre como el hombre, ya que hemos demostrado que podemos hacer muchas cosas igual que ellos. No apoyo el machismo, pero si la caballerosidad, es algo que no se debe perder. Espero que siga siempre escribiendo textos tan interesantes.
 

Delighted to find your blog. Many of the issues you raise are the same ones being discussed by women in the U.S.A.
Sharon covered the situation here quite well. Anticipate visiting you here again.
 

A big thank you to all visitors.
I´ll translate what Yarima wrote:
"Hi Prof. Berta. Congratulations on your site, it´s excellent, I like the posts a lot, especially this one about women in Venezuela which I feel very identified with. I personally believe that in this era a woman should be as free as a man since we have demonstrated that we can do many things as they do. I do not support a macho mentality but gentlemanliness, something which should not disappear. I hope you keep writing texts as interesting as this one.