Launched in 2005, WellesleyWeston Magazine is a quarterly publication tailored to Wellesley and Weston residents and edited to enrich the experience of living in two of Massachusetts' most desirable communities.
Issue link: https://wellesleywestonmagazine.epubxp.com/i/210435
healing the world Victoria A. Budson dedicates both her professional and personal life to advancing gender equality. As a child growing up in Wellesley, Victoria remembers thinking it arbitrary that society divided the sexes and that, for example, girls played field hockey and boys football. To her it felt as random as mandating that blondes could only play football, and brunettes only field hockey. But it was at age 20, when Victoria spent the majority of the year on bed rest recovering from a spinal fusion, that she realized that healing the world — a Jewish value she had learned from her family and at Temple Beth Elohim — was how she wanted to shape the value of her life. "If society is to be truly actualized, then men and women must have the ability to be unconstrained by societal gender norms," explains Victoria of the importance of her mission. Beyond her job as the Executive Director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard's Kennedy School for the past three-and-a-half years, Victoria has served in a volunteer capacity on the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women. She was appointed by Governor Deval Patrick chairperson. The commission's purpose is to advance women toward full equality in all areas of life and promote rights and opportunities for women. Four times a year, Victoria and other members of the Commission listen 87 w i n t e r 2 0 1 3 / 2 0 1 4 | We l l e s l e y We s t o n M a g a z i n e and recently reelected for a third year as