It's IntLawGrrls' great pleasure to welcome Kate Barth (left) as today's guest blogger.Kate is entering her third year at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, where she serves as a Senior Editor on the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and a Board Member of the International Law Organization. Before coming to law school, Kate earned her Masters in Development Studies at the London School of Economics, writing her dissertation on smart ways to introduce gender-balanced HIV/AIDS prevention programs. Internationally, Kate has also worked with the Gender Research and Advocacy Department of the Legal Assistance Centre-Namibia, where she published a report on the underage drinking laws, and with the Fundación para Estudio e Investigación de la Mujer in Argentina, where she researched gender-biased health laws. Stateside, Kate has worked as a Job Development Trainer for ex-offenders in New York City, and with the Washington D.C., office of U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.).
In her guest post below, Kate discusses her paper entitled Defining 'Sexual Abuse of a Minor' in Immigration Law: Finding a Place for Uniformity, Fairness and Feminism. It reflects one aspect of her current research, gender issues in immigration and refugee law; another aspect is due process as it relates to action by the U.N. Security Council.
Kate has chosen to honor Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander (below right). Born in Philadelphia in 1898, She was a woman of many 1sts: the 1st African-American woman in the United States to receive a Ph.D., the 1st woman to receive a law degree
from the University of Pennsylvania, and the 1st African-American woman to win entrance to the Pennsylvania Bar. She went on to serve as the first National President of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, before opening her own law practice. She was also dedicated to civil rights; while serving on President Harry S. Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights she helped author To Secure These Rights (1947), a report which served as a foundation for the civil rights movement in America. In her spare time, Alexander learned to become a pilot (and flew herself to China for a meeting with a governor). In short, Kate concludes,Thus, in every field she walked across, Sadie tore down the fences enclosing African-Americans and women.
Alexander joins other IntLawGrrls transnational foremothers in the list below our "visiting from ..." map at right.
Heartfelt welcome!
