Remember H.R. 321 and H.R. 255, first presented back in January?
321 was submitted by Barb Comstock and aims at forcing NASA to draw up a plan to educate and hire more women in the aeronautical and space fields. It serves to make NASA actively engage with students in the STEM Program (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curriculum existing to educate more girls). 321 was tweaked in the House to tailor it strictly for the sciences that involve domestic projects. I supported 321 then, and I support now, though I would like to have seen it extend beyond NASA.
HR 255 is an amendment presented by Liz Etsy to bolster the Science and Engineering Equal Opportunities Act by merging it with the Promoting Women in Entrepreneurship Act. This one’s a bit tricky for me, made worse by the stage show of its signing. Ivanka Trump promotes her father’s signing of both bills as Daddy’s getting women into sciences, huzzah! Here’s the thing–he’s signing them because they don’t affect anything he cares about AND while it’s great to shout YAY FEMINISM, there’s no bill out there signed by Trump that forces corporations to hire women or promote educating women in the sciences. The bill exists already: It’s called the Science and Engineering Equal Opportunities Act, to wit this amendment affects and IMHO, not in a good way, because there’s no regulation. 🙁
So, what’s my problem with HR 255?
The amendment allows the National Science Agency greater scope in funding projects in the private sector (where women entrepreneurs live); Representative Etsy and Co. wants to afford greater access to National Science Agency funds for these women, but without regulation, money isn’t going to go where its supposed to. Under this amendment, private-sector companies can now access National Science Agency sponsorship so long as they “initially fund” random “female entrepreneurs”. Or, (this one is worse), they dip into their binders full of women for token placements on existing projects the Agency might consider funding because you know – women in tech! I’m totally for my tax dollars funding women-led science-oriented startups, but without regulation as to who qualifies as a woman-led science-oriented startup, guess where my tax money might go?
Ivanka says both these bills increase opportunities for women, and Trump supporters are quick to rally and shout “He’s not sexist, look at what he’s doing for our girls!” What is he doing? The women that did present said bill and amendment respectively are attempting to help their gender in the sciences, but what Daddy Trump has signed will give private sector corporations unlimited access to the National Science Foundation.
Grab that pussy, Ivanka.