Women and Politics

This post was submitted by Jamie Bence, one of WCF’s Summer 2009 Fellows.

On Friday, Vice President Joe Biden announced that Lynn Rosenthal has been appointed to advise the president on domestic violence.  In her newly-created position, Rosenthal will advise President Barack Obama and work with government agencies to ensure that violence against women is made a major policy priority and the perpetrators are held accountable.

Rosenthal previously served as the executive director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence.  She also previously worked as director of the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence and managed a domestic violence shelter.

According to the Family Violence Prevention Fund, Rosenthal has extensive experience with the issue:

Rosenthal’s expertise includes housing, state and local coordinated community response, federal policy on violence against women, and survivor-centered advocacy. She most recently served as the Executive Director of the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and was Executive Director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence from 2000 to 2006. She partnered with The Allstate Foundation to develop a highly successful national initiative to promote economic empowerment for survivors of violence.

Biden called the work Rosenthal will do in this new position “incredibly consequential.”  Biden said there are 48 million reported cases of violence done by an intimate partner and said that while there’s no count on how many are unreported, more women are coming out of the shadows.

Furthermore, the White House said that domestic violence would be placed higher on the policy agenda than it has been in recent years.  President Obama has assembled a team, including Rosenthal and Valerie Jarrett, which will fulfill his campaign pledge to make domestic violence a priority.

WCF applauds President Obama’s effort to include more women in his administration.  We hope that the White House will continue to make issues affecting women policy priorities.

Tags: Barack Obama, domestic violence, Joe Biden, obama administration, president obama, valerie jarrett, violence