A Stimulus Package for Future Generations

In the midst of a seemingly endless stream of dismal economic news, I saw real reason to be optimistic about the future on March 11th as President Obama signed an executive order establishing the White House Council on Women and Girls. While the efficacy of the various stimulus and recovery packages remains in question, the creation of this interagency council signals the President's and his administration's serious commitment to long-term systemic economic reform.

As the President and CEO of Girls Incorporated-the nonprofit organization that has inspired girls to be strong, smart, and bold for 145 years -- I am intimately familiar with the crippling effects of gender-based economic injustice on the girls of this country. Sixty-five percent of the more that 900,000 girls we reach each year, live in families earning less than $25,000 a year; nearly half are growing up in single-parent households, most headed by women. In families that struggle to make ends meet, girls in particular are called on to take up part of the responsibility for cooking, cleaning, and looking after younger siblings. As a result, they miss out on critical opportunities for growth and development, and the system of inequality perpetuates itself.

So it was particularly heartening for me to hear President Obama frame the impetus for the creation of the council in terms of fundamental social need rather than one of accommodation. "And I want to be very clear: These issues are not just women's issues," the President said. "When women make less than men for the same work, it hurts families who find themselves with less income, and have to work harder just to get by. When a job doesn't offer family leave, that also hurts men who want to help care for a new baby or an ailing parent. When there's no affordable child care, that hurts children who wind up in second-rate care, or spending afternoons alone in front of the television set."

Development efforts in emerging economies the world over have increasingly focused on the education and empowerment of girls and women. It is high time that we in this country come to terms with the fact that we have continued to undermine our own future by paying lip service to the issue of gender inequality without addressing some of its most persistent and pernicious causes. The White House Council on Women and Girls might just be the tool we need to start making real progress toward equity.

Comments

[obiron]

A key sign that Capitalism is failing as a system of economic organization:
The army of homeless in tent cities is growing alongside the tracts full of empty houses. Why cant this economic system come up with a simple plan to rent the empy homes to homeless families on a sliding scale (the bank owners are getting 0 right now!) until the markets return and the homes can be sold?

[TheSystemWorks]

Stimulus for future generations? - R U F-in nutz?! The purpose of the stimulus bill was to save the US economy from IMMEDIATE collapse. I trusted the O administration on this and even defended the idea against claims of it being bogus. OMG!!

[historymatters]

This is indeed good news!

One of the best initiatives to advance the wellbeing of women and girls is Title IX, which works to assure equality of treatment, opportunity, and funding for women in schools receiving federal funds. The law states that "no person in the United States shall on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance." Title IX forbids sex discrimination in all university student services and academic programs including, but not limited to, admissions, financial aid, academic advising, housing, athletics, recreational services, college residential life programs, health services, counseling and psychological services, Registrar's office, classroom assignments, grading and discipline.

One of the most well-known consequences of Title IX is the increase in women's participation in school sports. Numerous studies have demonstrated that women and girls who participate in athletics are physically healthier and more confident than those who do not. Athletic scholarships also open many doors for female student-athletes (and there also are plenty of studies to show that female student-athletes have high levels of accomplishment in the classroom as well as the playing field).

Support Title IX!