Women and Politics

The Senate has voted to confirm Rosie Rios as the United State’s next treasurer.  She will become the third consecutive Latina to hold that position, advising Secretary Geithner on matters of currency and other government production interests.

President Obama nominated Rios in May, citing her extensive experience in financial, real estate and urban planning sectors.  She took time off in 2008 to work on Latino voting in Virginia, and later serving on the President’s Treasury transition team.

Prior to campaigning with the Obamas, Rios worked at McFarlane Partners, dealing with high end real estate in East Bay, CA.  She also worked in urban financial planning for the City of Oakland, San Leandro and Union City, CA.  In total, Rios has over 20 years of real estate and community development experience.

WCF applauds Rios’ appointment and confirmation, and believes this is an important step towards reaching gender parity in public life, especially in the male-dominated financial sector.

America’s prospective first Latina and third female justice is one step closer to confirmation.  This morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to endorse Judge Sonia Sotomayor.  However, the vote was almost entirely along partisan lines—13 to 6, with Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina the only Republican in favor.

Despite previously making demeaning and sexist comments during Sotomayor’s hearing process, Senator Graham did an about-face when it came time to vote, saying that he knew she was qualified for the nation’s Highest Court, and this was the only factor which determined his final decision.

There are only two women on the prestigious Judiciary Committee- Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)- both of whom voted in favor of Judge Sotomayor.

The full floor vote is likely to be less partisan.  Several prominent Republicans, including Olympia Snowe of Maine, have pledged to support Sotomayor.

Watch the Committee vote here.  A full Senate vote, the final step in the confirmation process, is expected by August 7th. WCF supports Judge Sotomayor, and believes her confirmation is an important step towards reaching equality in public office.

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

When Hillary Clinton became the nation’s third female Secretary of State, she brought a strong background in women’s rights and reproductive justice to her job.  More than any of her predecessors, Clinton imbues her work with a sense of how reproductive rights and global security are connected.

Secretary Clinton has been a well-recognized advocate of the global women’s rights movement since her historic speech at the 1995 United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing.  There, Clinton famously declared: “Women’s rights are human rights, once and for all.”

Women and girls are still the majority of the world’s poor, unschooled, unhealthy, and underfed.  Thus, it is still vitally important that women have access to the knowledge and resources that allow them to plan their families.  Nations which respect women’s rights to contraception and female health care are more likely to be progressive partners in Democracy.  According to the United Nations, gender equality is an important indicator of national stability.

It seems that Secretary Clinton’s preeminence on this issue may be inspiring change in Washington, which has long been stagnant on international women’s issues.  Shortly after Congress convened in January, Senator Barbara Boxer announced that she would be heading the first ever Senate Subcommittee on Global Women’s Issues.  In March, the White House Council on Women and Girls (led by Valerie Jarrett) was created to study gender implications of federal initiatives.  The International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act is making its way through Congress, and another, the International Violence Against Women Act, will likely be brought to a vote in the next session.

The United States can act in consort with the United Nations to improve the station of women around the world.  Though both have acknowledged that rape has been used as a tool of war, there has never been a trial in any U.N. court for committing or allowing rape as a war crime.

However, the United States could gain credibility by ratifying CEDAW, the Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women.  Besides the United States, the only other countries that have refused to ratify CEDAW are Sudan, Somalia, Iran, and a few Pacific Island states.  Moving forward, Secretary Clinton has much she can do to make the U.S. a leader in ensuring women’s rights around the world.

Hopefully, she will have continued, expanded support in the White House and Congress to accomplish her task.

For more information on Secretary Clinton’s weekend trip to Mumbai and what she said to students there about women in the world, click here.

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

As the confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor draw nearer, women from across the political spectrum have spoken out in favor of the prospective justice.  Kirstin Gillibrand recently wrote a column for the Huffington Post supporting her fellow New Yorker:

In Judge Sotomayor, we have a jurist whose life experience allows her to understand, respect, and connect with the people whose lives will be affected by the Court… Through discipline and hard work, Judge Sotomayor went on to graduate with honors from Princeton University and get her law degree from Yale Law School.

Gillibrand’s piece shows how Sotomayor brings diversity to the Supreme Court that extends beyond her gender or race. Her cumulative life experiences, from her humble beginnings, Ivy League education and rise through the legal community will bring a new perspective to the bench.

Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman appointed the Supreme Court, applauded Sotomayor’s nomination, and pointed out discrepancies between women’s preeminence in the legal field and their sparse representation on the nation’s highest bench:

Our nearest neighbor Canada also has a court of nine members and in Canada there’s a woman chief justice and there are four women all told… About half of all law graduates today are women, and we have a tremendous number of qualified women in the country who are serving as lawyers and they ought to be represented on the Court.

Moreover, O’Connor noted that she was disappointed when she stepped down from the bench and was not replaced by another woman.

Justice Ginsburg commented to CNN that she is “glad to no longer be the lone woman on the court.” She pointed specifically to the recent case of a 13 year old girl being stripped searched for ibuprofen as an example of an area where she felt her male colleagues could benefit from a female perspective.

Ginsburg made clear her belief that more women were needed on the court in the weeks leading up to Souter’s retirement. “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made,” she said. “It could be 60 percent men, 40 percent women, or the other way around. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.”

Michelle Obama also came out in favor of her husband’s nominee, citing the parallels between their experiences as women of color educated in the Ivy League system:

[Sotomayor] said she never raised her hand her first year because she ‘was too embarrassed and too intimidated to ask questions’…despite all of her professional accomplishments, Judge Sotomayor says she still looks over her shoulder and wonders if she measures up.

However, the First Lady was hardly the only woman in the White House to welcome Sotomayor. Valerie Jarrett, in a recent interview with the Washington Post, defended Sotomayor against charges that she expressed superiority over white, male judges because of her life experiences:

“The spirit of her comment was one about diversity of perspective and enrichment of comment…And I think what the opponents are doing, they’re trying to find that one little kernel they find that they can criticize.”

These remarkable women, who have already established themselves as leaders in our political system, have praised Sotomayor and defended relentless attacks of her credentials. WCF hopes that this outpouring of support for Sotomayor continues through the confirmation process!

Twitter has been going wild all day. The tweets?

I signed petition to support legislation for presidential commission on women. Have you? http://twurl.nl/ezeuxi #womencount

photo: AP

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) has launched an initiative to set up a permanent federal commission on women. Some are questioning the necessity for this commission since Obama started the White House Council on Women and Girls weeks ago. But Speier says they would work to complement each other and work together. WomenCount says:

“We need to bring together the efforts of the many organizations devoted to women’s issues and causes, and create a common movement to benefit the future of all women.”

Pointing out the great gains made in recent years, WomenCount also points out what we learned in 2008:

The election exposed extreme gender bias in the media, in politics, and throughout our culture.  This demonstrated that although women in the United States have come a long way since the last Presidential Commission on the Status of Women in 1961, we still have far to go.

Rep. Speier agrees, saying, ““I would say, ‘We’ve come a long way, baby’ … not.” True true. It seems that despite our gains, whenever women initiate concrete steps to change women’s leadership in society, we inevitably encounter opposition. (What, you can vote - aren’t you happy yet? You’re serving in Congress, what more do you want?)

But thanks to leaders like Hillary Clinton, President Obama, and Jackie Speier, the fight for women’s equality will not fade into the background. If you see any coverage (good or bad) about the women’s commission, post a comment!

People were moving, the crowds were bustling. You couldn’t help but hear the sounds and buzz of all the people walking through Denver. You either moved with the crowds or got out of the way. Christine is not alone but she isn’t moving. I am watching her from across the street and she notices that I am walking directly towards her. She smiles but the smile is out of hospitality. She is unsure why I am approaching.

I ask her if she was able to hear the speech. Christine has a reserved tone and soft voice. The man with her, I realize now that I didn’t ask his name, says they could have gotten in if they had tried hard enough; however, they watched Obama from the outside of the field on the monitors.

Christine is a writer, a native of Denver and identified herself as a chicana. She is carrying a novel in her bag. She is surprised, as I describe wanting to do a podcast for a blog. She writes quietly in her space and doesn’t really share her work with the world. She is a literature major and doesn’t need to prove that she has something to offer. After some time, I convinced Christine to share herself and her opinion about Obama. Here is what she had to say:

I have reached Larimer Street and it is still buzzing with the excitement of the night. People are stopping traffic as crowds move through the streets. Many are on their way to restaurants to get something to eat and some are going to celebrate. The streets and the sidewalks are overcrowded. Dacia agrees to talk to me, sharing her perspective, another “Woman on the Street”: