So you've heard by now, President Obama has created a bonafide Council that is supposed to focus on issues affecting women and girls. His announcement yesterday (get the kleenex near the end, trust me):
So early signs indicate that it will prioritize looking at work policy and parity and political representation. I think that in such tight times, it's imperative that this Council really move forward with some powerfully specific and strategic goals in mind. Here are three pressing issues that are overdue for a federal focus:
1. End child prostitution in the U.S. For more, check out my post on doc film Very Young Girls.
2. Curb the HIV/AIDS infection rate among African American women.
3. Nationalize a comprehensive sexual education policy that gives young women (and their partners) the knowledge they need to make informed choices about their sexual health.
What issues do you wish the Council would focus its early efforts and resources on?
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hearing the bit about childcare, eaqual pay and parental leave being political and economic issues really means a lot. "women's issues" really are about everyone.
and yeah, total weepy at the end.
Public education and awareness about women's rights and equality, and general conduct training about how both the sexes should be expected to treat each other with dignity and respect.
I heard the morning radio mocking this, and women's lib in general, as if this issue doesn't affect men (not to mention male children) as well! Someone needs to be schooled. Feminism didn't stop with suffrage and the Susan B Anthony dollar coin.
1.) Address poverty, which overwhelmingly affects women of color.
2.) Address women's health issues.
3.) Talk to men about rape and sexual violence, because THEY are the ones who need to change.
4.) Um, start fully enforcing Title IX.
5.) Address domestic violence.
What's wrong with Title IX? In the back of my mind, I know there are some concerns with it, but it's not something I've researched enough to know.
You got a feminist as a president!
Seriously, I'm sitting here - thousands of miles away across the ocean, almost crying.
It means a lot to each and every person on the world, no matter what nationality, that the most powerful man created such a council.
While we are fighting against a back lash to come, while my government wants the legislation on abortion to be turned back into the 1950ies, while my generation seems to lose the sensibility towards sexism, even embracing sexism as something "good",... I'm so glad for you all that Obama is your president.
Hopefully that sends a message to us, too.
I heard the morning radio mocking this, and women's lib in general, as if this issue doesn't affect men (not to mention male children) as well!
Well, of course women's issues are everyone's issues, and making the world more equitable for women simply makes it a more equitable and better world... But would it even matter if something only (or primarily) helps women?
We are 50+% of the population after all. I hate how policies that primarily help men and perpetuate male privilege are considered mainstream and standard and unequestionable, but women's issues are "special interests," peripheral and extra.
-Work to decrease rates of sexual assault, especially on college campuses and in the military
-Federally legislate a certain amount of paid family leave, its better for parents and waaay better for kids.
-Close the pay gap
-Comprehensive sex ed
-Make it illegal at the federal level to refuse to hire someone because they are a mother or are able to become pregnant (its still legal in PA)
-Work to end the feminization of poverty (there has to be a better way to do entitlements than we have them now)
-Follow Britain and encourage home births and birthing center births for women with low risk pregnancy-they lead to lower c-sections rates, lower maternal and infant mortality rates, fewer infections, and they're cheaper. What's not to like?
I don't know that I would encourage home births because of my own experience, but I definitely think it should be decriminalized for midwives to attend home births. I don't understand the philosophy behind that, and it would take a federal regulation to make it happen very quickly. I also would support more birthing centers and alternative birthing options within hospitals, and I suppose there would need to be federal funding for that.
In the hospital where my son was born, there was a water birthing suite. They also had exercise balls and all types of things to help you get through contractions without meds. It was a very different experience from where my daughter was born, where I was bed-bound from the time I went to the hospital. If I'd known that, I'd have waited much longer to go to the hospital.
"Follow Britain and encourage home births and birthing center births for women with low risk pregnancy-they lead to lower c-sections rates, lower maternal and infant mortality rates, fewer infections, and they're cheaper. What's not to like?"
yippee! I love this comment. I am planning a homebirth right now and I'm so excited and happy.
If I thought his inauguration day was making history, then I don't know what this is. It's plain amazing!! I can't believe a president finally cares about half of the population. About time. :)
They can just open Obama's platform and get going on it. Everything you ever wanted and more is in there. Cedaw, ERA, Prison reform, immigration. poverty, safety, Title IX, reproductive educaion and health, child care. They can make a list. I hope we make them accountable for it.
OMG A PRESIDENT THAT ACTUALLY CARES ABOUT WOMEN??? AND PROVES IT?!?!
He seemed pro-women prior to the election, but this move is a very pleasant surprise. Hooray!
I had some doubts about Obama before he took office (though I did support him) but it's things like this that really give me confidence in the future. I never even dreamed of hearing a speech like that from someone as powerful as a President, especially someone that powerful and male!
It's about time that more people started realizing that women's issues are everyone's issues. Even if we're not all the way to equality yet, we're at least starting to move in the right direction.
And I agree, a little teary at the end. :)
I'm not even American and this brought me such a huge smile.
I'd also really like to see attention focused on educating men and boys on rape and domestic violence as they are the ones responsible. I'm tired of "rape prevention" being a women's responsibility.
I'd also really like to see attention focused on educating men and boys on rape and domestic violence as they are the ones responsible. I'm tired of "rape prevention" being a woman's responsibility.
I think the most important thing is to initiate a large scale education campaign. If people don't think some issues matter, it is infinitely harder to do something about them. I feel that this office should educate people about how gender inequality in ALL aspects of our lives is hurting women and girls (and boys and men). It should explain how women are at a disadvantage when it comes to financial difficulty, educate people about violence against women.
I feel anything but educating the public is secondary.
The state encompasses all the things we hate most about patriarchy, (indeed, every action the state takes requires the subjection of the individual man's or individual woman's will to the will of another!) and yet the moment this stupid chimp, (Barack Obama is as much a chimp as George Bush is,) waxes sympathetic to the feminist cause, our panties and our eyes get moist and we fall for the fantasy that our masters actually give a shit about us!
Guess what? They don't, except insofar as they want to keep us alive, healthy, and working long enough to rob, rape, and torture us for their own profit and amusement. Certainly, there exists good people who have not yet been corrupted, but the political system itself is organized in such a way that all the hard work and good intentions of good people are channeled into a weapon for the state to use against us. Working within such a system is hopelessly counterproductive!
Feminists, stop relying on the political system as a means to enact change!
For fuck's sake, stop listening to the mainstream media's bullshit and go read some Emma Goldman!
I do not think, that our president is capable to change statistics of level of a HIV-infetsirovannyh radically. It is a question of the general well-being of the nation more likely.
Nevertheless it would be desirable that have as much as possible steadfastly paid attention to distribution of new infectious diseases, in particular - H1N1 Swine Flu
In this plan, the economy on medicine IS INADMISSIBLE!