You know the saying, "the best defense is a good offense?" I'm thinking that instead of expending our energy on the war on women, why don't we wage a war for women? Right?
I sometimes wonder if we women -- roughly half the population and half the workforce, too -- have been so busy defending ourselves from recent assaults that we've become too distracted and too exhausted to regain our forward momentum.
After all, the biggest victories for civil rights in our country have been proactive -- think LBJ's work to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or, for that matter, President Obama's recent pronouncement of support for gay marriage. Ours is a civil rights issue every bit as important as the fight for equality in any other realm. But what's baffling to me is the fact that so many Americans -- many of them married to women, the children of women or the parents of women --- find things like equal pay or family-friendly workplaces a subversive idea. Huh?
I first got to thinking about this after hearing President Obama's talk at a Women's Leadership Forum fundraiser back in April, when he reminded the audience, as he often does, that the first act he signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. He also reminded the audience that we, as women, still have work to do.
My second nudge was his commencement speech at Barnard, a woman's school, where he told the new grads:
After decades of slow, steady, extraordinary progress, you are now poised to make this the century where women shape not only their own destiny but the destiny of this nation and of this world.But how far your leadership takes this country, how far it takes this world -- well, that will be up to you. You've got to want it. It will not be handed to you. And as someone who wants that future -- that better future -- for you, and for Malia and Sasha, as somebody who's had the good fortune of being the husband and the father and the son of some strong, remarkable women, allow me to offer just a few pieces of advice. That's obligatory. Bear with me.
My first piece of advice is this: Don't just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table.
A few minutes later, he added this:
You need to do this not just for yourself but for those who don't yet enjoy the choices that you've had, the choices you will have. And one reason many workplaces still have outdated policies is because women only account for 3 percent of the CEOs at Fortune 500 companies. One reason we're actually refighting long-settled battles over women's rights is because women occupy fewer than one in five seats in Congress.Washington Post writer Dana Milbank calls Obama the first female president. Like it.
Some folks suggest that when our president comes out in defense of women's rights, he's simply trolling for votes. I could care less. Because what I see is that, for whatever reason, he is putting women's rights front and center: He's issuing a rallying cry, one we can get behind. With plans, actions, proposals of our own. Which is, after all, where change comes from.
When you think about where we stand when it comes to equal pay (still 77 cents to a man's buck, thank you. Even less for women of color, as we found when we were doing the reporting for Undecided), our representation -- or lack of same -- in government or the C-suites, or our lack of public policy or workplace structures to accommodate families, well, I think it's downright silly. No, not just silly. Insane. Especially when you consider that women now make up the majority of college graduates, and yet, we're still lacking in rights and representation.
Let's take the Equal Rights Amendment, for example. Have you heard of it? Probably not. Because guess what: It was passed in the Senate and the House back in 1972, but to this day has not been ratified because three states apparently found it too, um, radical. It was reintroduced in 1982 and every year since. It still has not been ratified. But before you judge, let's look at what it really says:
Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.
Even in 2012, there are still those who equate advocacy for women with hatred toward men, as if we're all fighting for the same piece of the pie. I have had a number of female students, in fact, tell me that they are reluctant to come out as feminists for fear of the reaction -- but that when they do, they feel compelled to also mention that they indeed have boyfriends. (Just as I feel compelled to tell you now that I have been married to the same man for decades and that we happily raised two daughters.)
Anyway, we could spend our energy defending ourselves -- and the hundreds of thousands of other women who are openly or secretly feminist. But that would take our time away from the work we still have to do. Which, when you think of it, has been one of the most insidious effects of the Republicans' so-called war on women.
Instead of keeping us busy in the kitchen, they've kept us busy playing defense.
Follow Barbara & Shannon Kelley on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@undecidedbook
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And, no, the ERA did not get the push it needed toward the end of the 10 years, so 3 rejected it. NOT because it was radical, but -- always follow the money -- because the anti-ERA leader grew power as she was paid to wreck the ERA movement.
Well, at least writer offered an opinion on the Equal Rights Amendment while saying she expected nobody to remember it! REMEMBER IT?!!!! Where has she BEEN!
THE ERA IS ALIVE AND WELL IN 7 OF THE UNITED STATES AND IN US CONGRESS!
My National Equal Rights Amendment Alliance alone has 300 000 members. I have worked 18/7 for 12 years for you for free. Reason it's taking so long is not because we're not trying, sleeping on the floor near Florida's capitol and eating in our cars!
If you're female--you are NOT mentioned in the US Constitution. Anywhere. This leaves you out of the contract our Nation has with its people. ERA would fix that. ERA would make sex discrimination A VIOLATION OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION!
Connect with us , 2PassERA.org, and our well-earned experience. WE WILL DO THIS,. Do you want to help make history? To get ERA passed?
SandyO@PassERA.org. LET'S CHAT. Sandy Oestreich, founder-pres., National Equal Rights Amendment Alliance; fmr elected official; Prof Emerita..
Here I thought this would be a call for equality and placing women in combat roles. Separate but equal like sports teams, where women do war their way, and let men do war to their better abilities.
No...not girls typing and filing while men do the grunt work.
REAL equality, like putting women exclusively in combat batallions and THEN accomodating their strengths and weaknesses - just as it has always been for men.
Forcing a male pro football team to accept a few women against an opposing all male team would result in chaos for both male and female team members, and certainly NOT win any games. Putting women on their own team, with their own equiptment and accomodations is the only reasonable solution.
Sitting around crying that MEN haven't done enough to accomodate them, and MEN must find a solution women are poleased with hasn't worked out so far, so why go there?
No wonder men don't respect women's imput. When men have problems, they fix them. They don't whine and cry that women don't do enough to fix it for them, they fix it themselves.
You either is or you ain't.
•women who have never had a child earn 113 percent of what men earn
•there are some 80 fields where women earn more than men
•about 80 percent of the jobs lost in the recession were lost by men
•males are exponentially more likely to become incarcerated or homeless
•males disproportionately sacrifice much of their prime years in service of the military
•the male-to-female ratio on college campuses is now about 40/60
•approximately 93 percent of workplace fatalities are men
•among unmarried college-educated men and women between 40 and 64, men earn nearly 15 percent less
Given these facts, it wouldn't be very hard to convince a young, apolitical, and impressionable college student, like I was, that all males are helpless victims, would it? Any blind ideologue can nitpick a few facts here and there to fit her agenda, and all anybody can do is debunk one disgusting, unsubstantiated myth at a time. Says Dr. Farrell.
•are in an unpleasant environment (sanitation vs. child care)
•require harder-to-attain skills (physics vs. philosophy)
•require longer work hours
•demand financial risk (entrepreneur vs. teaching)
•are inconvenient (i.e., relocation)
•are hazardous (construction vs. librarian)
It's only a "nonissue" if YOU are the Entitlement Princess.
If it were a "non issue" it wouldn't exist.
What? Who is criminalizing these women?
"which happily carries out the will of misogynist politicians"
Feminism is driven by politicians as part of population control.
"... the vast majority of rapists (which are MALE) never see the inside of a prison cell."
Ok...now you're just trying to be funny!
Do you have actual statistics on the topic, or are you just voicing your personal views?
Men are routinely sentenced to 40 years, when the RARE time a woman is imprisoned it's for 8?
Plus the 13 year old kid is being forced to pay child support.
How about peace for women and men ?
There is too much war. We've a war on drugs, crime, terror ect. During the great gulf gusher oil leak they spoke of a top kill and a bottom kill. Enough with war already.
PEACE-TIAMO
peace or piece ?
PEACE-TIAMO
Women like power and control just as much as men, don't they?
The ratios you show about pay I think are not based on women not being treated equal. It's because the men in those positions had a head start. They took those positions when there was no women's rights. Now women are in an equal position and moving up fast because of hopefully hard work and intelligence. I'm having the same issue on moving up and you know what? It takes time and hard work! It has nothing to do with making more laws!
Stop whining, place yourself in the workforce and sit there for 40 years like the rest of us trying to get ahead, and do a good job.
They also said that the males could lift more, although there was no lifting involved except assisting patients which all of us did, whether male or female.
The males also scored lower than I did in class and on boards.
We have been in the workforce since the late 1960's trying, but the laws have not been in our favor and we have been forced to take what we can get because there has been no recourse. Read Lily Ledbetter's story.
You have no idea what you are talking about. You are spewing typical GOP propaganda and have no experiences with the problem.
I am sick of women crying about their rights in one hand, but demanding to be treated like a woman in the other hand!
An I know how much it stinks for women to not have rights! I watched as my step father would brutally beat my mother, but the laws weren't there to protect her! She was one of the women who was so battered in Conn. she got laws changed! A lot has changed since the 1970s, and for the better!
Truth be told, I am sick of opening your door, or letting you walk in first, and all that other stuff that "gentlemen" do for their ladies, when so many women seem to feel men mistreat them. Tell you bra burners this, how about you start getting the door for me, and letting me walk in first, etc etc etc!
LOL, my wife of 17 years always rolls her eyes at me when I get started on this, she knows I will always be her "gentleman", but she also feels I have valid points!
Definition of EQUALITY
1: the quality or state of being equal
I am more then happy to treat women like one of the guys!
Are you unaware that women are in a "constlitutionally protected class", that includes the lame, the halt, the infirm and disabled.
What better example of a feminist "level playing field". Males go into combat when so ordered, women are "entitled to go into combat" when they choose.
When they've enough of the military life, they can be release by showing they are pregnant.
It is not a matter of etiquette, it is matter of constitutional law.
I support changing the rules so that they are part of the selective service as well. Women are perfectly well suited to performing any number of roles in the military, be it support or front line (hell, I know a number of women I'd rather have at my side in a firefight than some of the guys I know, they're much better shots).
Change the tone, and you will change the dialogue and perhaps even effect greater change. Make it about something positive. Make it about respect for women, and everyone is in the game, on the same team, with the same goal.