We are women who support Hillary Clinton for the presidency of the United States. We do so because we believe that she will be the best president for the entire country. And as feminists, we also believe that Clinton is the best choice for attending to issues of special importance to women.
We write to you now because it's time for feminists to say that Senator Obama has no monopoly on inspiration. We are among the millions of women and men who have been moved to action by her. Six months ago, some of us were committed to her candidacy, some of us weren't, but by now we all find ourselves passionately supporting her. Brains, grace under pressure, ideas, and the skill to make them real: we call that inspiring. The restoration of good government after eight years of devastation, a decent foreign policy with ties to world leaders repaired, withdrawal from Iraq and universal health care: we call that exciting. And the record to prove that she can and will stand up to the swift-boating that will come any Democratic nominee's way: we call that absolutely necessary.
Clinton's enormous contributions as Senator, public servant, spokesperson for better family policies and the needs of hard-pressed women and children are widely known and recognized -- even by her opponent. Her powerful, inspiring advocacy of the human rights of women at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 was heralded around the world as a stunning departure from the normal anodyne role of First Lady. Corporate special interests managed to defeat the health care program she advocated in 1994, and her own leadership opened the plan to attack. But she kept on fighting, acknowledging her mistakes, and in ensuing years she succeeded in winning expanded coverage for children. Now she has crafted the only sensible and truly universal health care proposal before the voters.
On the Iraq war, many of us believe she made a major mistake in voting for Joint Resolution 114 in 2002 -- along with the 28 other Democratic senators, including John Edwards and John Kerry. But we also note that her current opponent, when asked about that resolution in 2004, responded that he did not know how he would have voted had he been in Congress then. We do not know either. But we do know that at the time, his opposition to the war carried no risks and indeed, promised to pay big dividends in his liberal Democratic district.
Now, the two candidates have virtually the same plan for withdrawal from Iraq. And on the critical, broader issues of foreign policy, we believe that Senator Clinton is far more consistent, knowledgeable, modest, and realistic -- stressing intense diplomacy on all questions and repairing our ties with world leaders.
We are keenly aware that much is at stake -- not just on national and international security, but on the economy, universal health care, the environment, and more. Our country needs a president who knows the members and workings of Congress, and has a proven record on Capitol Hill of persuading sympathizers, bringing along fence-sitters, and disarming opponents. There is an irony in her opponent's claim to be able to draw in Republicans, while dismissing her proven record of working with them as a legislator. We need a president who understands how to make changes real, from small things like the predatory student loan industry to large things like the Middle East. Hillary Clinton has the experience, knowledge and wisdom to deal with this wide range of issues.
Our country also needs a president who has a thorough mastery of "details" --yes, details -- after eight years of Bush and Cheney. The job of restoring good government is overwhelming, and will require more than "inspiration" to accomplish it. We believe that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Justice Department, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, the Environmental Protection Agency, and many more can be restored to full and effective functioning only by a president who understands their scope, regulations, personnel, problems and history. Knowing these "details" and acting on them are essential to begin the healing and recuperation of the country.
How many of us have heard brilliant and resourceful women in the workplace dismissed or devalued for "detail-orientation" in contrast to a man's supposed "big picture" scope? How many of us have seen what, in a man, would be called "peerless mastery," get called, in a woman's case, "narrowness"? How many women have we known -- truly gifted workers, professionals, and administrators -- who have been criticized for their reserve and down-to-earth way of speaking? Whose commanding style, seriousness, and get-to-work style are criticized as "cold" and insufficiently "likable"? These prejudices have been scandalously present in this campaign.
With all this in mind, we believe that Hillary Clinton is the best candidate for president, because she is the surest to remove the wreckage and secure the future. Politics is not magic. Hillary Clinton as president promises what government at its best can truly offer: wise decision-making and lasting change.
Ellen Carol DuBois, Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles
Christine Stansell, Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago
Gloria Steinem, writer, New York City
Michele Wallace , Professor of English, Women's Studies and Film Studies, City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center
Faith Ringgold, artist and Professor Emeritus of Art, UC San Diego
Robin Morgan, writer, New York City
Janet Holmgren, President, Mills College
Deborah Nelson, Director, Center for Gender Studies, University of Chicago
Jennifer Baumgardner, writer, New York City
Peg Yorkin,, Chair, Feminist Majority Foundation, Beverly Hills, CA
Heidi Hartmann, President, Institute for Women's Policy Research, Washington, DC
Catherine Stimpson, Professor, New York University
Judith B. Walzer, former Provost and Professor of Literature, The New School, New York City
Margot Canaday, Society of Fellows, Princeton University
Ellen Chesler, Director, Eleanor Roosevelt Initiative at Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute, Hunter College, CUNY
Blanche Wiesen Cook, Professor of History, John Jay College and Graduate Center/CUNY, New York City
Sonya Michel, Professor of History, University of Maryland, College Park
Alice Echols, Associate Professor. University of Southern California, Department of English
Vivian Gornick, writer, New York City
Wendy W. Williams, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Carol Berkin, Presidential Professor of History, Baruch College & The Graduate Center, CUNY
Morgan Lawley, film director, Los Angeles
Clare Coss, playwright, NYC
Jean Baker, Professor of History, Goucher College
Batya Weinbaum, Writer, Empire State College, Saratoga Springs, NY
Ellen McCormack, Assistant Corporation Counsel, City of Chicago
Deirdre Bair, biographer, NYC
Esther Rothblum, Professor of Women's Studies, San Diego State University
Amy Richards, writer, New York City
Ann Snitow, Eugene Lang College
Megan Marshall, biographer, Boston, MA
Irene Tinker, Professor Emerita, University of California Berkeley
Kristen Timothy Lankester, former United Nations Deputy Director for Women's Rights
Florence Howe, Publisher, Feminist Press at CUNY, NYC
Cynthia Harrison, Associate Professor of History, Women's Studies, and Public
Policy, The George Washington University
Gloria Feldt, writer
Laura Karpman, Film composer , UCLA, Los Angeles
Anne K. Mellor, Distinguished Professor of English, University of California, Los Angeles
Beth Baron, Professor of History, City College and Graduate Center, City University of New York
Marilyn Boxer, Professor of History, San Francisco State University
Ellen McCormack, Assistant Corporation Counsel, City of Chicago
Marjorie J. Spruill, Professor of History, The University of South Carolina
Louise W. Knight, biographer, Evanston, IL
Karen Offen, historian, Stanford, CA
Claire Moses, University of Maryland
Marla Stone, Professor of History, Occidental College
Carrie Menkel-Meadow, A.B. Chettle Jr. Professor of Law, Dispute Resolution and
Civil Procedure, Georgetown University Law Center
Judy Lerner, International Committee of Peace Action at the United Nations
Carmen Delgado Votaw, President, Pan American Liaison Committee of Women's Organizations, Bethesda, MD
Rochelle G. Ruthchild, Professor Emerita, The Union Institute and University,
Cincinatti, OH
Chin Jou, graduate student, Princeton University
Abby Arnold, Santa Monica, CA
Roberta McCutcheon, Chair, History Department, Trevor Day School, New York City
Helen Tilley, Assistant Professor, History Department and African Studies, Princeton
University
Linda Frank, Graduate Student, UCLA
Barbara Gershen, Program Manager, Program in the Study of Women and Gender, Princeton University
Vivian Endicott Barnett, New York City
Barbara Gault, Silver Spring, MD
Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., Clinical professor of psychiatry, UC/San Francisco
Beverly Wildung Harrison, NYC
Anne Goodwyn Jones, Whichard Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, East
Carolina University
Dr. Marcia Synnott, Professor of History Emerita, University of South Carolina
Dr. Judith S. Weis, Dept. of Biological Sciences, Rutgers University
Maribel Morey, JD, graduate student, Princeton University
Cynthia Boiter, Lecturer in Women's Studies, University of South Carolina
Nancy P. Moore, South Carolina
Alida Black, Editor, Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, George Washington University
Artemis March, Director, The Quantum Lens, Cambridge, MA
Sandra F. VanBurkleo, Assoc. Prof. of History; Adjunct Prof. of Law, Wayne State
University
Linda Stein, New York City
Lauren Sklaroff, Assistant Professor of History, University of South Carolina
Greta Krippner, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan
Heather Arnet, Pittsburgh, PA
Mary Shorba, Chaplain, Phoenix Hospice, Mendocino County, CA
Linda Jupiter, Jupiter Productions, Fort Bragg, CA
Jean Twitty, Republican officeholder, Springfield, MO
Suzanne Roberts, Columbia, South Carolina
Susan Deller Ross, Professor of Law, Georgetown University
Carter Heyward, Cambridge, MA
Susanne Smith, Principal of Student Services, Spackenkill Union Free School District, Poughkeepsie, NY
Pamela Ellen Ferguson, Austin, TX
Lois Rudnick, Chair, American Studies Dept., University of Massachusetts/ Boston
Cynthia Burack, Associate Professor of Women's Studies, The Ohio State University
Chocolate Waters, New York City
Glenna Mathews, Visiting Scholar, Starr King School for the Ministry, Berkeley, CA
Laurie Swindler, Normal, IL
Jayne Baron Sherman, New York City
Marianne C. Fahs, Professor of Urban Public Health, Hunter College, City University of New York.
Fran Diamond, California League of Conservation Voters, Los Angeles
Linda Lucks, President, Board of Neighborhood Commissioners, Los Angeles
Sally Miller Gearhart, writer, San Francisco
Tobe Levin, University of Maryland in Europe, Frankfurt, Germany
Sheriden Thomas, Tufts University, Medford, MA
Kathryn Yandell, Professor Emerita, Texas Lutheran University, Seguin, TX
Holly Elliott, Washington D.C.
Jane Gurko, Professor of English, San Francisco State University
Marlene Springer, President Emerita, College of Staten Island
Dr. Susan Corso, Somerville, MA,
Margaret Sears, Essex, MA.
Manette van Hamel, Woodstock NY
M. J. Bridge, , Alexandria, VA
Claire Reed, New York City
Kate Black, Willits, California
Keithe Bisnett, Cathedral City, CA
Naomi Williams, Encinitas, CA
Rose Mary Mitchell, San Francisco
Zoe Ann Nicholson, President, Pacific Shore, CA NOW
Jenny Warburg, Durham, NC
Anita Taylor, Professor Emerita, George Mason University, Fairfax VA
Jan Levy, New York City
Donna Deitch, Desert Heart Productions. Venice, CA
Beth Holmgren, Professor, Duke University
Daysi Morey,, Miami, FLA
duVergne R. Gaines, Los Angeles
Mary Lee Warner, Radio Kansas Public Radio, Lawrence, Kansas
Margaret Moore, Director, National Center for Women and Policing, Feminist Majority Foundation, Los Angeles
Michele Kort, Journalist, Los Angeles
Sandra Saathoff, Medical Lake, WA
Linda Fowler, Asheville, NC
Dorothy Haecker, San Antonio, Texas
Melissa Sue Kort, Professor of English, Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa CA
Valerie Fields, Member, Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education
Linda Hunt Beckman, Professor of English, Emeritus, Ohio University, Athens, OH
Kate Ullman, Palm Desert, CA
Margaret Blanchard, Professor Emerita, Graduate Studies, Vermont College of Union
Institute & University
Lesley Stein, Bradenton, FL
Susan Rennie, Emerita Professor, Vermont College of the Union Institute, Montpelier
Kathleen Herrington, Montpelier, VT
Judy Murphy, State Coordinator, Vermont NOW
Ruth Cooper Reidbord, American Institute of Certified Planners, Pittsburgh, PA
Linda Boyd Kavars, Editor, Inside/Out, New Paltz, NY
Kristin L. Bishop, Chair, Women's Political Action Network, Riverside County, CA
Karen Storey, President, SuccessStory, Inc., Palm Springs, CA
Sally Apfelbaum, New York City
Anne Cognetto, Hudson Valley, NY
Lauren Levy, Catskill, NY
Elizabeth W. Oakman, Columbia, SC
Patricia Wilson, Ossining, NY
Rona Fields, Washington, D.C.
Barbara Ottaviani, Hunter College, New York City
Jane Dreher Emerson, Columbia, SC
Veena Talwar Oldenburg, Professor of History, Baruch College and Graduate Center/CUNY, New York City
Deanne Upson, Washington, D.C.
Elizabeth Quinn, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY
Nancy Moore, Folly Beach, SC
Stephanie Rex, Slippery Rock, PA
Joyce Berkman, University of Massachusetts/ Amherst
Lisa M. Brennan, Stratford, CT
Victoria M. Capozzi Stratford, CT
Jan Whitman, Director, Food Bank of the Hudson Valley, Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY
Heidi Li Feldman, Professor of Law, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Georgetown
University
Katheleen Loughlin, Professor of History, Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, MN
Mollie Camp Davis, Professor Emerita, Queens University, Charlotte, NC
Lupe Anguiano, Director, Stewards of the Earth, Oxnard, CA
Marie Deyoe, Schenectady,
Lucia Petrulli, Belmont, MA
Vivian A S Power, Mendocino College, Ukiah, CA
Corin R. Swift, Cape Elizabeth, Maine.
Syd Whalley, Executive Director, Western Center of Law and Poverty, Vallejo, CA
Shauna Lani James, Government Department, Harvard University
Sharon Isbin, The Julliard School, NYC
Ana I. Schwartz, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Texas/ El Paso
Sandra R. Levitsky, Department of Sociology, University
of Michigan
Sally Schindel Cone, Greensboro, NC
Rachel Lulov Segall, New York City
Patty Mooney, Crystal Pyramid Productions, San Diego CA
Mary Warshaw, Beaufort, SC
M. Junior Bridge, Alexandria, VA
Nina Sundell, NYC
Nieves M. Zaldivar, M.D., Delmarva Foundation, Washington, DC
Pat Cohen, Farmingdale State College, Farmingdale, NY
Liz Snow, NYC
Marion Browning-Baker, Portsmouth, VA
Margaret McKean, Associate Professor of Political Science, Duke University
Adele W. Miccio, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and
Disorders, The Pennsylvania State University
Angie Sadeghi M.D. Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los
Angeles
Barbara Helmick, Washington DC
Barbara Bonfigli, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Bethany C. Tronsky, New York City
Carole Emberton, Assistant Professor of History, SUNY-Buffalo
Carrie Bills,Green Mango Real Estate, Austin, Texas
Charlene Ellis, East Dummerston, Vermont
Christine Steiner, Los Angeles, CA
Ellen Gavin, Brava/Theater Center, San Francisco
Esther Rothblum, Ph.D., Professor of Women's Studies, San Diego State University
Gail Rogers, Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies
Janet Sunter, Molecular Virology, University of Texas at San Antonio
Susan Swinney, Colchester, Connecticut
Mia Mildred Yang, Colchester, Connecticut
Judith Kroll, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Linguistics, and Women's Studies
Pennsylvania State University
Julie Young, Santa Barbara, CA
Kathy Weber, Artistic Environments, Santa Monica CA
Rabbi Leila Gal Berner, Dept. of Religion, George Washington University, Washington
D.C.
Kirsten Grimsad, Professor, Antioch University Los Angeles
Gay Cheney, Browns Summit, NC
Kathleen Daugherty, Newport Beach, CA
Jo Oppenheimer, NYC
Wendy L. Kahn, Washington, D.C.
Paola Dussias, Department of Spanish, Italian, Pennsylvania State University
Mitt Seeley, Topanga CA
Judith G. Miller, French Department, New York University
Elisa Gonzalez, San Antonio, TX.
Stephanie A. Shields, Professor of Psychology & Women's Studies, The Pennsylvania State University
Donna Fairfield, Greensboro, N.C.
Juanita Castro, Miami, FLA
Jane Kinney-Denning , Pace University, NYC
Barbara Posner Beltrami, Setauket, NY
Jan Doerler, Vermont Woman newspaper, South Burlington, VT
Ashley Bogosian, NYC
Carolyn J. Brown, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Daphne Uviller, writer, NYC
Gretchen Gross, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Vermont
Manuela Soares, Pace University, NYC
Daniela Gioseffi, writer, NYC
Kay F. Turner, Performance Studies, Tisch School/ NYU, NYC
Miriam Grace Monfredo, writer , Rochester, NY
Eileen Kessler, OmniStudio, Inc., Washington DC
Judith Johnson, Professor Emerita, English and Women's Studies , SUNY/Albany
Beverly Salerno, North Caldwell, NJ
Deborah Siegel, Woodhull Institute, Ancramdale, NY
Kathleen J. Hancock, University of Texas, San Antonio
Eileen Andrade, University of California /Berkeley
Carolyn T. Green, Executive Director, Piedmont Senior Care, Greensboro NC
Elaine D. Ingulli, Professor of Business Law & Women's Studies, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Marilyn E. Vito, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Dorothy Goldeen, President, Dorothy Goldeen Art Advisory.
Pam Turkett, Piedmont Senior Care, Greensboro NC
Frances Sjoberg, Literary Director, University of Arizona Poetry Center, Tucson, AZ
Mary Anne Ferguson, Professor Emerita, English and Women's Studies, University
of Massachusetts/Boston
Geri Critchley, Washington, DC
Lisa Mullenneaux, Penington Press, NYC
Jil Clark, Boston, MA, Albany, NY
Lily Rivlin, NYC
Carol Leung, Texas Teachers Retirement System
Judith Lorber, Professor Emerita, Graduate Center and Brooklyn College, CUNY, NYC
Dorothy O. Helly, The City University of New York
Jillian Denby, artist, NYC
Stacy J. Mara, Little Chute, WI
Adrienne Marcus, Lexington Center for Recovery, Hudson Valley, NY
Karla Tonella, Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, The University of Iowa
Jane Augustine, writer, NYC
Barbara Marks,, Professor Emeritus, UCLA School of Theater, Film, Television &
Jacqueline R. Kinney, Attorney, California Legislature
Deniz Ozan-George, Refugee Services Coordinator, MA Office for Refugees and Immigrants, Boston, MA
Maria Meilan, NYC
Elisabeth Prugl, Associate Professor, Department of International Relations, Florida International
University, Miami
Terry Weaver, Greensboro, NC
Diana Festa, NYC
Pat Ashbrook, Flagstaff, AZ