Obama creates a White House Council on Women and Girls
President Obama is expected to sign an executive order today establishing a White House Council on Women and Girls.
The Council will be chaired by Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser and personal friend to the president, and the day-to-day operations will be run Tina Tchen, who is currently director of the White House Office of Public Liaison and was a major fundraiser for Obama during the campaign."The mission of the Council will be to provide a coordinated federal response to the challenges confronted by women and girls to ensure that all Cabinet and Cabinet-level agencies consider how their policies and programs impact women and families," reads a memo describing the move and obtained by The Fix.
I'm cautiously excited about this...I really want to know more.
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i;m always weary about stuff like this, especially in light of the problems boys are having at a young age. why solely focus on the health and well being of females
I agree. Fathers face terrible stigmas in trying to participate in raising their children, men suffer in silence because they are not generally encouraged to be open about their feelings, and boys are literally plummeting out of colleges across the country. There should be a Council on Men and Boys as well.
I don't think that having a Concil on Women and Girls negates any sort of focus on men and boys, but rather, it's a recognition of the insitiutionalized sexism that all too often occurs in our policies and programs. This Council will not only provide an official checkpoint to that sexism that is all too often unnoticed by those in power; but also will start a dialogue, an official recognition if you will, about the specific issues affecting women and girls.
And that is freaking awesome!
i agree it doesn't negate any sort of focus on men and boys. and i think it's great. i just think it'd be better if focus was likewise placed on men and boys
um, because women have been brutally emotionally, mentally, and physically oppressed for millennia and boys haven't?
I agree that boys and men are 'oppressed' in ways that haven't been addressed very well, but creating a council for them would be rather redundant. Seeing that in most ways, the System thoroughly supports the livelihood of males. Sure, it retardates them emotionally, but if it doesn't exactly nurture them emotionally, it definitely does mentally, physically and financially. And I don't think patriarchy exactly cripples most men's self-esteem, seeing as they benefit vastly from it in most ways and get to walk away with a nice superiority complex to boot.
Also, if men want to be whole human beings with a full emotional range, they can do that work on their own and still benefit from patriarchy. If women want to be full human beings, they have to do it on their own WHILE FIGHTING AGAINST the full force of the patriarchy every step of the way. And I think any woman here on feministing can attest to how goddamn difficult that can be.
No one is stopping men from leading full lives other than themselves.
oops the above reply was meant for jaja's first comment at the top of the page.
Spouting off about thousands of years of patriarchy doesn't negate the fact that men face unique, gender-based challenges too. It's not like jaja asked for the Council on Women and Girls to be done away with. To the contrary, it should be complimented with a council on men's issues as well, and since many male/female issues stem from similar sources they could work together and increase the health and wellbeing of both genders! If you agree that men are being oppressed in SOME fashion, you shouldn't be opposed to a created council that would work to alleviate said oppression just because men otherwise have a number of advantages over women.
And you definitely shouldn't bullshit about "the only thing holding men back is themselves" when that line is used against women all around the world!
I'm not against a council for men. I just wonder what it would be called. 'Learning to Feel Again'? That's the real issue here though, right? Men's emotional disconnection, the kind that probably made that guy in Alabama blow away 11 people? It's a great goal and a worthy one, but I can hardly see the government doing something like that. Because if they did, they'd be admitting that something has been wrong all this time in the Great Patriarchy Machine. 'What? A Men's Council?? You mean men aren't really invincible and made of iron?' =O
I stand by my assessment that men can still behave like fully emotional beings and receive considerably less social chastising for it than a woman that strives for autonomy and a career. He might get picked on but ultimately he has an entire social framework backing him up simply because he has testicles. If that's not comforting and something to fall back on in times of low self-esteem, then I don't know what is. I'd love it if on a down day, I could rest assured that I still had an entire social framework backing me up and assuring me of my self-worth.
i dont know where you get the impression all men are privileged, or have privilege. its never been that way and many men, and boys (children, remember?) also need help.having testicles does not automatically make these boys capable of navigating the world. to say nothing, but the choices males make, stop them from living fulfilling lives is disingenuous
You should study up on "privilege." Men are privileged, men have privilege, and it's always been that way. Maybe there should be a council on rewriting norms. Why aren't there special nurses and doctors for men's reproductive health? Men are already special.
I get it. Like there should be a white pride day and a het-parade?
Noone bans men from being care providers for the very young. Where is the problem for boys?
Aside from patriarchiy. Which is the problem in both cases. So are you MRA and me in the same boat for once?
white pride and het-parade would be events sponsored by private interests, not a public body like the fed gov. but anyway, do you assume boys by virtue of their maleness are born problem free? i guess that makes ignoring their problems easy. interesting
it doesn't make ignoring their problems easy. it just makes their problems seem like less of a crisis than that of non-priveleged groups.
What she means is that women are definately more opressed than men just as racial minorities are definately more opressed than whites, so if you're going to argue that a council on men's issues should be created, then the same argument could be made for a council on well, white's isses...and seeing as that sounds SO silly...
Sometimes I feel like our comments section is the twilight zone.
I think that the default or baseline focus generally falls on men and boys - if not overtly, then definitely on a more subconscious, ingrained level. I see this move by Obama as a recognition of that and an effort to bring in some balance.
I'm a little weary about Obama's concern for women right now. Since he agreed to keep paying for mind-blowingly dangerous abstinence only "education".
He keeps wobbling back & forth in very weird ways. I'm not sure what to think anymore.
Im unsure about it... Also why are women always attached to the family? Its kind of irritating
Off topic, but people-- the word is WARY, not "weary." Weary means tired, wary means cautious.
i know. it's a message board and mistakes like that are not uncommon
Aaah, yes. This is the way of the internet, for sure. Finally, something we can be cautiously optimistic about for women, and the entire post commentary turns into a "What about the menzzzzz?" whine.
If that isn't privilege, I don't know what is.
There's an old joke: Why is there a mother's day and a father's day, but no kid's day?
Because every day is kid's day.
It's the same in patriarchy. Every day is man's day, and I don't give a shit how emotionally stunted men are. They're not killed, raped, assaulted, shamed, put on display for their sexuality, underpaid, sold, and exploited every fucking minute of every fucking day.
So kiss my wide feminist ass, jaja.
well bend over and spread 'em. i like wide asses anyway.
simply stating everyday is man's day doesn't make it so. back it up with some facts, instead of being emotionally unhinged and incapable of thinking through issues when challenged. you call yourself a feminist but your reaction is in line with some of the worse stereotypes of women
'Back it up with some facts'
Are you serious???
What kind of facts do you need? This whole fucking website is CHOCK FULL O' facts. Do some research. What kind of facts do you need? Do you really need someone to objectively prove to you that men have it way better? Seriously?
And here I was thinking that the Way of the Internet was to posture aggressively behind the cloak of relative anonymity.
Newsflash: men are killed, raped, assaulted, shamed, and in some cases exploited. It's not as widespread as it is with women, but ignoring it altogether is just a case of being selective about "who's got it the worst?" Women under extremist Islamic regimes tend to have it way worse than women in America-- does this mean American women's issues are no biggie?
Seeing as a majority of those in power are men, let them worry about all those legions of oppressed men *eye roll*. No one's saying they don't exist. But saving the menz is not feminists' first priority. Just like saving the women isn't for those men in power.
From reading jaja and pleco's comments, I get the sense they need to STFU and PTFA. Just a feeling I have, mind.
well bend over and spread 'em. i like wide asses anyway.
So now you make a joke of sexually assaulting a woman, on a feminist website, all while whining about how hard men have it. You're a pig.
As for you, pleco, let's not forget that women are raped and assaulted in FAR HIGHER NUMBERS than men, so spare me your boo-hooing. And don't forget, the people doing the assaulting are all men. But you're right - men have it so, SO hard.
Go back to MRA world. Oh, wait - we all live there. Never mind.
she asked me to kiss her ass and i said bend over, and i'm making a joke about sexually assaulting someone. you're a joke. you need to stfu
i just realized it was YOU that asked me to kiss your ass and when i obliged you accused me of making a joke about assaulting you. wow, talk about stereotypes. you surely live up to them
Yeah, you don't get to say "kiss my ass," and when the other person kisses it, claim they're committing metaphoric sexual assault on you.
You apparently didn't read my post because I acknowledged that the crimes committed against men are not as widespread as those against women. My point was that you cannot pick and choose if you are striving for better health of the whole society.
If there are boys not going to college for example, where are they going to LEARN anything about feminism or the different beliefs therein. Where are they going to LEARN the skills to get the jobs they want, and in some cases jobs they need to support their family (it is still women who are more likely to take time off work to raise children, so someone else needs to be bringing in the bacon). How does it help us to completely ignore this issue just because men are otherwise advantaged? The goal of feminism should be equality, not the uneven positioning of women above men (i.e. the flip of our current situation).
Women commit assault, including sexual assault as well. Neither gender is comprised of all angels or all demons.
The celebration for creating this council is granted-- it's in the blog post. Looking above and beyond what has been done here is NOT the same thing as throwing down the Council on Women and Girls (which neither jaja nor I have done!), nor is it placing the rights of men above women. It's simply considering a bigger frame of discussion: women cannot do everything ALONE.
There's a lot of discussion on this blog about putting responsibility and education to men about rape and assault; how are you going to do that if you won't support creation of a Council to promote the issue, among others?
"Bend over & spread 'em"? Really? That's how you would metaphorically "kiss" someone's ass? It's a rude saying, men. Not an "invitation." If I had said, "Fuck you," would you have said, "Well lie down & spread 'em then, let's go!" Wait. Never mind. Of course you would.
I love the faux outrage: "You INVITED ME TO KISS YOUR ASS, so the image of you bending over and spreading your ass has NOTHING TO DO WITH ASSAULT and it totes means that's how I would kiss your ass! Har de har har!"
Poor, poor men. Hope you & your buds get some nice behind-the-hand snickers & virutal high-fives over how you put those bitchezzz in their place for daring to want the same goddamn rights you have.
I'm a woman. Hope the revelation doesn't blow your mind, and hope you notice the irony in your complaining about "faux outrage." What were we talking about again?