Zoe Baird is an American lawyer who served as president of the Markle Foundation, an organization focused on technology, national security, healthcare, and improving people's lives. Under her leadership, the foundation worked to reform healthcare and intelligence communities. Unfortunately, Baird is best known for her failed nomination as U.S. Attorney General due to hiring undocumented immigrants as nannies. Though controversial, her actions were defended by some as a mother seeking childcare. Baird went on to receive several awards for her career in business and technology.

1. Zoe Baird, Nannygate and Markle Foundation - Montreal
Women's Issues
Today for our women's issues topic we will look at the life of Zoe Baird. Zoe Baird is an American
Lawyer who is the President of the Markle Foundation, an organization which concerns technology,
national security, healthcare and generally bettering people's lives.
The Markle Foundation
'Under Baird's leadership for much of the past decade, Markle has worked to catalyze improvements
in the quality and cost effectiveness of health care and reform the intelligence community to meet
current threats. In 2006, Markle released the Markle Connecting for Health Common Framework for
Private and Secure Health Information Exchange,[21] which has been leveraged in policy and
implementation efforts across the country and helped shaped landmark health care provisions of the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.[22] The Markle Work Group on Consumer
Engagement conceived the Blue Button in January 2010 as a way for individuals to get easy, secure
online access to health information, enabling individuals to download their health data to improve
their health and engagement in health care.[23] The Blue Button is now in widespread use by health
plans, hospitals, doctors and individuals across the United States.[24]'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zo%C3%AB_Baird
Defending Zoe Baird
Unfortunately, Zoe Baird is remembered for hiring two illegal aliens from Peru. The Nannygate issue
in 1993 caused her the lost of the position of United States Attorney General. This issue caused
much controversy about the hiring of illegal aliens in rich people's homes.
Though she did not become the Attorney General she did serve in Clinton's office on various
committees and boards.

2. The controversy still goes on today. Debbie Nathan of the Christian Science Monitor says that
immigrants are the backbone of the country. She finds that the whole situation with Zoe Baird and
later Kimba Wood was hypocritical. Many people in America hire illegal immigrants.
http://www.csmonitor.com/1993/0212/12181.html
She went on to say, "Lillian Cordero is Baird's former Peruvian nanny, one of some 3 million to 5
million undocumented foreigners in the US. The 20/20 woman had never heard of her. But while
Baird was invited to resume her $507,000-a-year job as a corporate lawyer, Ms. Cordero was booted
back to Peru along with her husband.'
According to the Victoria Advocate, two women have stepped up to defend Zoe Baird on the issues of
feminism. According to Anna Quindlen, Zoe is a mother and though what she did was illegal it was
with a mother"s intent that she did it.
Are these women treated fairly when they realize their dream to come to America and then just as
quickly sent back? Is cheap labor what a working mother is looking for or is the justice for all women
the issue here?
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=861&dat=19930123&id=sZhSAAAAIBAJ&s...
Awards and recognition for Zoe Baird
Businessweek named her one of the "50 Top Women in Business",[36] she was included as a "Silicon
Alley Reporter 100",[37] was recipient of the "Federal Computer Week Eagle Award",[38] was a
"World Economic Forum Global Leader of Tomorrow",[39] and the inspiration for the Wendy
Wasserstein Broadway play An American Daughter.[40]