Women and Politics

This post was submitted by Jean Qiao, WCF Communications Fellow

It is no secret that women today are struggling to achieve equality in all aspects of life, especially in political participation.

What better day than International Women’s Day to highlight the achievements and setbacks in the political arena that women from around the world have faced? But to go through every country and analyze every single issue that women are facing would leave you and I with quite a heavy heart (and would take pretty much all day to read and write!). Instead, I give you three countries and their achievements/setbacks for women:

1. Sweden
Achievements: Sweden ranks 2nd in the world in the amount of women in national parliaments. As elections are held every 4 years, the latest data from the 2006 election show that women make up 47% of the parliament, making Sweden one of the most gender-balanced governments in the world. Today Sweden continues to be a world leader in women’s parliamentary representation. Sweden is expected to have their next election on September 19th, 2010. Let’s hope 2010 is the final push to 50% representation.
Setbacks: Unfortunately, this gender-balance has not been the easiest process for women in Sweden. Before 1972, women were only 14% of the Swedish parliament. In 1972 the Liberal Party in Sweden recognized the importance of involving women in politics and therefore mandated a minimum quota of 40%. In addition, the recent world-wide economic downturn has had negative effects for women as they are less likely to consider running for political office during times of economic pressure.

2. Iraq
Achievements: How convenient that the Iraqi elections were just two days ago, giving myself and all of the other bloggers out there an opportunity to jump at the chance to write about this event. According to the Iraqi constitution, at least one quarter of the Iraqi parliament must be women. This year there was a record amount of women on the ballot: Over 2,000 women were listed out of 6,000 candidates; kudos to Iraq for mandating these requirements. While exact numbers of women who went to the polls on Sunday have not been released yet, it definitely seems that Iraqi women this year are finally realizing that having women in the parliament is the best way to have their interests represented.
Setbacks: A forced quota does not necessarily translate to greater power. Men are more likely to be nominated to higher positions in the parliament therefore given far more power in decision-making. Extreme violence prevented many people from reaching the polls yesterday. In addition, women living in rural areas faced exigent circumstances on Election Day:

“Young women from a village in Diyala province told RFI that many women in rural areas were being told that they were not allowed to leave their house to participate in the elections. They added that the male members of many households had collected the voter registration cards of all the women in their family, and planned to cast ballots on behalf of their female relatives, in addition to their own”

3. The United States
Achievements: Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court saw the confirmation of its first Latina and third woman, Sonia Sotomayor. And thanks to the strong women in the U.S. Congress, the Nelson-Hatch amendment—which if passed would have placed serious restrictions on women’s reproductive freedoms—was struck down in the Senate last December.
Setbacks: The United States ranks 84th in the world in the number of women participating in our national legislature. Yes, we are lagging behind both Afghanistan and Cuba. To make matters worse, our female candidates continue to face sexism and double standards in every way possible. No wonder women must be asked an average of SIX times before they consider running for office. Furthermore, the extreme gender gap is why legislators such as Bart Stupak are able to keep trying to take away women’s reproductive freedoms.

Today we can celebrate how far women have come in many countries and across man fields—but we must also acknowledge the tremendous amount of work we have yet to do for women to truly achieve equality across the board.

This post was submitted by Caitlin O’Brien, WCF Development Fellow

It has been a long and tiring year for health care legislation. And just when we thought the Senate bill would make its way to President Obama’s desk for signing, the Stupak Amendment rears its ugly head, once again.

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) announced yesterday that he will vote against the Senate health care bill with its current reproductive rights language—which, by the way, already makes it nearly impossible for insurance companies to provide abortion coverage. He, along with 11 other members of Congress, has vowed not to back down on his anti-choice decision. But guess what? Neither will we.

And by ‘we’ I really mean ‘the American people.’

In a recent study done by the Women’s Donor Network, 56% of the American public agreed that people should be allowed to buy plans that cover abortion even if they bought said plan with partial government subsidies.

What’s more, 47% of people said that the reproductive rights debate should not keep us from passing important health care legislation.

So, when Congressman Stupak claims that this is what the American people want, he is flat out lying. What the people want is a more thorough conversation on reproductive health issues. In the same Women’s Donor Network study, 89% of the American public agreed that,

“There is a much broader discussion that needs to happen that includes issues such as birth control, comprehensive sex education, maternal health and childbirth issues.”

Interestingly enough, this same poll suggests that over 40% of people would not be pleased with their member of Congress if they voted a piece of legislation like the Stupak Amendment through. But Rep. Stupak and his band of loyal followers are so determined to restrict a woman’s control over her own body that they think it’s worth risking their congressional careers.

Even if health care is passed without Stupak’s own brand of anti-choice language, it is possible that the Congressman will attempt to pass a separate piece of restrictive legislation.

So this is where you come in. We need to band together to make sure that Stupak does not have the opportunity to pass a piece of legislation that is not only oppressive, but unpopular. Vanessa at Feminsting.com makes a compelling call for action:

Someone, anyone has got to be courageous here and call Stupak out on exactly what he’s trying to do: use health care reform as a vehicle to make abortion even more difficult and more inaccessible than it already is for millions of women. If no one does, we may have ourselves a brand, spanking new restriction to access on our hands.

Here is a list of the 11 ‘no’ voters on the health care bill. Flood their inboxes, overflow their mailbox, and ring their phones right off of their hooks. Urge them to reconsider their vote on health care and their position on reproductive justice:

Joe Cao (R-LA)
Jerry Costello (D-IL)
Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA)
Joe Donnelly (D-IN)
Steve Dreihaus (D-OH)
Brad Ellsworth (D-IN)
Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
Dale Kildee (D-MI)
Dan Lipinski (D-IL)
Jim Oberstar (D-MN)
Charlie Wilson (D-OH)

Also take action via NARAL Pro-Choice America by MIDNIGHT Sunday. Enough is enough!

This post was submitted by Jean Qiao, WCF Communications Fellow

America is hungry for moderate republican women.

In her recent appearance on Fox’s America’s News HQ, WCF President/CEO Sam Bennett argued that in order for the GOP to succeed in gaining more votes the 2010 election cycle, they must recruit more women.

When talking about the special election for Massachusetts Senate, Bennett said:

“Brown took that seat again in no small part because he was in the middle of the ground and he supports, as a majority of the Americans want to see supported, an American’s right to choose their own reproductive choices and options”

Believe it or not, only 21 Republican women serve in the 111th U.S. Congress; four in the Senate and 17 in the House of Representatives. With Republican women representing only 4% of Congress, you would think that the GOP would take the hint and rally its support behind their moderate women candidates.

Apparently numbers is not enough of a wake-up-call. Let’s not forget the special election in New York’s 23rd Congressional district last year. The Republican Party decided to back Conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman, drastically yanking their support at the last minute for previously RNC-endorsed candidate Dede Scozzafava,  leading to the suspension of her campaign.

If the majority of the American people support women’s reproductive freedoms, isn’t it about time the GOP jump on that bandwagon as well?

Click here to see the full Fox America’s News HQ video on WCF’s YouTube channel.

This post was submitted by Jean Qiao, WCF Communications Fellow

In January, WCF President/CEO Sam Bennett was a guest on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews. Along with NOW President Terry O’Neill, Bennett discussed the sexism and double standards that greatly affected Martha Coakley’s race for Massachusetts Senate.

During the energetic banter, Bennett made it no secret to Matthews all the viewers that double standards still cripple the campaigns of female candidates. Bennett touched upon how the media scrutinized her serious demeanor, being called “ice queen” as well as the media’s response to her opponent’s Cosmopolitan centerfold:

“Bennett: Her opponent, nude male centerfold gets a total pass, and here’s Martha Coakley called an ice queen, if she was a guy, Chris, she would have been called dignified.

Matthews: And if she had done the centerfold?

Bennett: She wouldn’t even have been in the race. It wouldn’t even happen. It would have been a deal-killer for her. It’s about a double standard, it happens all the time.”

Watch Bennett’s engaging conversation with Matthews on WCF’s YouTube channel.

This post was submitted by Bonnie O’Keefe, WCF Political Programs Associate

We’ve said it for a long time: We need more women in government who will fight the constant efforts of the far right to endanger women’s health, safety, and freedom. The Utah state legislature’s recent attempt to make miscarriage equivalent to criminal homicide is a particularly heinous example.

Under the original bill, which passed in the state legislature, a woman who suffered a miscarriage due to “intentional or reckless behavior” could be punished with life in prison. It should come as no surprise that the bill’s original sponsor, State Rep. Carl Wimmer, is male.

A woman might know that 15% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage for a number of reasons. She would also immediately see that the vagueness of “reckless behavior” could trigger a miscarriage-witch-hunt, and send us back to a time when pregnant women were considered invalids and barely allowed to leave home.

The bill came about as an extreme reaction to the case of a 17 year-old woman who paid a man to beat her in order to induce a miscarriage. A woman legislator would likely understand that the right reaction here is not to conflate the actions of one desperate young woman with a criminal homicide law that would affect all Utah women.

The right reaction would be to look at the underlying causes of this sad case: Why did this young woman feel so trapped? Why wasn’t there a safety net or support system for her? If she needed to end her pregnancy, why couldn’t she procure a safe, legal abortion? Perhaps Utah’s restrictive parental consent laws, 24-hour reflection period, and lack of abortion providers in 93% of its counties led this young woman to put her own life in danger.

Thanks in part to the vehement criticism of women across the country, Utah’s governor sent the bill back to the legislature for revisions, without signing or vetoing it. But the fight doesn’t end here: Across the country similar fetal homicide bills are being used in an insidious attempt to chip away at reproductive rights. These types of bills endanger and wrongly punish women. We need more women in government who will understand this, and fight back.

This post was submitted by Jean Qiao, WCF Communications Fellow

Want to meet the world renowned musical artist and responsible for the hit songs “Porcelain” and “Praise You”?  He also is rather health-conscious, as he is a practicing Vegan.

It is officially confirmed that Richard Meville Hall, or better known to most of us as Moby will be attending WCF’s Parties of Your Choice Gala, which is happening in exactly one week.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Moby was named one of the most important dance music figures of the early 90s by AllMusic. His music is a unique collaboration of melancholic, chill-out, and electronica given that he both sings and plays the keyboard, guitar, bass, and drums. His 1998 alum Play became a cultural phenomenon, selling over 10 million copies worldwide.

Want to get your groove on with Moby? Are you a woman between the ages of 21 and 35? Sign up for our next generation program to attend this fabulous event for just $25.

Do not miss this amazing opportunity to mix and mingle with Moby and other great celebs from across the country.

This post was submitted by Ann McLane Kuster, Candidate for Congress (NH-02)

Next week I’m headed down to New York for WCF’s “Parties of Your Choice” Gala, and I thought it would be a good time to share here one of the reasons I chose to run for Congress this year – and why I think more women should run.

I’ve worked here in New Hampshire as an attorney and a public policy advocate my whole life, focusing on improving access to health care and affordable higher education.  But I’ve also worked as an adoption attorney for the past twenty-five years, and in doing so I have been reminded hundreds of times about the importance of trusting women to have autonomy over their lives.  It’s a lesson that has sadly often fallen on deaf ears in Washington.

As an adoption attorney I have dedicated my career to the autonomy of women - young and old, rich and poor, educated and illiterate - who have faced the daunting decision of an unplanned pregnancy.  I have represented birthmothers from age 14 to 44, from junior high school to a junior at a prestigious college, from living in a car to the nicest neighborhoods in town. I have witnessed the courage and grace of teenagers facing emergency Caesarians and women showing up at the emergency room in labor having never told anyone about being pregnant. I have represented women pregnant from date rape, incest and abusive relationships and women who thought pregnancy would bring happiness to a failed relationship.  We laugh together, we cry together and in the end, we make our way together to another day.

Most birthmothers come to me late in the pregnancy, often just a few weeks before delivery. My role is to offer them legal support and guidance through the adoption process. Most birthmothers choose to receive counseling about their decision to place their baby for adoption. All of the birthmothers choose the prospective adoptive family who will parent their child and many choose to meet the parents before the birth. Some birthparents and adoptive families choose to visit in the hospital and exchange photos and letters as the baby grows up. Occasionally, they may even meet again later in life and now, after 25 years, I am asked to arrange birthparent reunions with grown children.

Witnessing these courageous women make difficult life decisions, and supporting them through the adoption process, has been the honor of my life.  When I hear politicians in Washington argue over how far they can restrict reproductive rights in pending health care legislation – and when I see special interests poised to kill reform entirely – I can’t help but think that having a Congress made up of only 17% women is, in effect, shortchanging the American people.  We deserve to have our entire nation, and all of its challenges and experiences, represented in Washington.

So I’m putting my money where my mouth is – I’m running for Congress.

Running for office for the first time isn’t easy, but more than 1,600 supporters have contributed to my campaign since I began last summer, helping raise over $650,000 and making our race one of the most competitive races in the nation.  We have a long way to go, but I know that I am doing my part to amplify women’s voices in Washington, and I know that more than 1,600 supporters are doing their part as well.  Please join us! Together, we can make a difference.