Read the Women Blog!
Read the Women Blog
September 12, 2007
Why do presidential candidates ignore women?
Women, more than half of the electorate, are yet to hear from the presidential candidates specific proposals that speak to women’s priorities, which we know are being collected by their pollsters. So far, women’s issues have been noticeably absent from the YouTube appearances, the prime-time TV interviews, or the ghost-written books where presidential runners sell their experiences and attributes as part of their eligibility package.
Reproductive rights and pay equality, perhaps the most essential means to women controlling their lives, are more endangered now than anytime I have seen in my 35-year career fighting for women’s rights. Recent Supreme Court decisions and lack of Congressional action have struck a damaging blow to women’s ability to live with freedom and dignity. One would think these and other issues vital to women’s advancement would be front and center in the race for the presidential nomination. The silence is deafening.
The presidential candidates don’t mention women and, shockingly, we’re allowing them to get away with it. Is it possible that these candidates see women as homogenized men, without unique views and needs? Is it possible that they’re fearful of appearing radical if they speak the word “women,” let alone lay out women-specific solutions? Could it be that they don’t know what today women’s issues are?
I recently sat through seven two-hour discussions with women in Philadelphia, Memphis and Los Angeles. My impression is that women were worried about national issues, such as the war in Iraq and the state of the economy. But they were also concerned about the way violence, including domestic violence, continues to affect their daily lives, and how equality in pay and access to health care remain elusive. Women in these sessions also said they felt far from having significant representation in corporate board rooms and elective offices. Almost 90 years after winning the right to vote, women still struggle to achieve the rights and opportunities that the full power of their vote should have delivered by now.
When CFAW polled women five years ago, 42% said that they voted for a candidate because of his or her support for women’s rights. Thirty-seven percent said they were connected or contributed to organizations that work for women. We are in the midst of repeating this national survey. It’ll be interesting to see whether this has changed, because my sense is that women are not engaged. In the focus groups, women attributed little power to their vote, to their ability to change the status quo through active involvement in the political process. Women didn’t seem to comprehend the potential dangers of a Supreme Court decision that does not protect our health if we choose to have a legal abortion. And very few could even name an organization that speaks and works for women’s rights.
Before women lose more ground, we must change this picture. Important rights will be undermined if women don’t become directly engaged in the political realm on issues that we face in our everyday lives, whether it is reproductive rights, equality at the workplace, freedom from violence or access to appropriate health care. Our vote in 2008 could again determine the outcome of the election. Women must insist that those seeking the presidency address women’s unique priorities from the start, which is right now, during the campaign.
The women who authored the 1849 Declaration of Sentiments, the document that fueled the movement culminating in the ratification of the 19th Amendment, did not hesitate to call women’s issues by their name. They clearly enunciated the words usurpation, tyranny, oppression, deprivation, denial, subordination and disfranchisement. They knew it was risky. It was unpopular. It was even illegal. They enjoyed social visibility, affluent economic status and relative safety for themselves and their families. They were willing to become social pariahs, if such was the price of changing for better treatment for all women.
They believed that a nation is not humane if one of its halves is diminished. They knew that change would not come until women’s priorities became national priorities. It is time for us to start addressing them as such.
Cait W says
A while ago Hilary Clinton did talk about the gender gap in wages for women. Although this subject has been absent from popular debates and it should not be she has at least talked about on T.V during the summer. I think I saw her discussing this on CNN but am not sure.
I totally agree that womens issues should be a focus in the presidential campaign for all the candidates.
NAWAF2 says
AM NAWAF ALAIUK PASSINS SUMATRA ALAWAK THET
NAWAF2 says
HAWEY AM LETAR