hillaryvillagers

Feminine mistake?

Women support Democrats; do Democrats support women?

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

By Dr. Lynette Long

Although a significant majority of Democrats are women, the Democratic Party is not particularly female friendly. Fifty-seven percent of women are either registered Democratic or Independent with Democratic leanings. Women put President Barack Obama and the vast majority of Democratic elected officials in office, yet the Democratic Party appoints a paltry number of women to leadership positions.

Founded in 1848, the Democratic National Committee has had two women chairpersons, Jean Westwood (1972-1973) and Debra Delee (1994 -1995). Each served for a single year.

The current chairperson of the DNC is Gov. Tim Kane of Virginia and the chairs of all five committees of the DNC also are men. These committees -- the Democratic Governors' Association, the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee and the National Conference for Democratic Mayors -- distribute DNC funds to candidates and control who runs for office.

Only one Democratic presidential candidate has selected a female running mate (Walter Mondale chose Geraldine Ferraro) and that was 25 years ago.

The Democratic Party Woman's Leadership Forum, designed to promote female candidates, hosts an annual fund-raiser. The money is deposited in the general campaign fund and used for both male and female candidates.

Mr. Obama's Cabinet is no more female friendly than that of his predecessor, George W. Bush. Of 15 members, Mr. Obama has appointed only four women: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

If Democrats are anti-woman why do so many women vote Democratic?

The Democratic leadership has used scare tactics by equating voting Republican with the loss of reproductive freedom. But what most women don't realize is that one of the first states to allow abortions before the repeal of Roe v. Wade was New York, headed by Republican Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. Republicans are responsible for some other female firsts. Republican President Ronald Reagan appointed the first female to the United States Supreme Court, Sandra Day O'Connor, and the Republican National Committee now is headed by two co-chairs, one of each gender.

If the majority of women choose to be Democratic, they need to hold the Democratic Party accountable to them, or switch their party affiliation, or start a party that suits their interests. Such aggressive action is not unprecedented.

In 1916, Alice Paul formed the National Women's Party and campaigned to get President Woodrow Wilson and other incumbent Democrats to actively support the suffrage amendment. The continuous pressure Paul and other suffragists kept on the Democratic Party resulted in the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which granted women the right to vote.

If women want to gain the respect of the Democratic leadership and parity in appointed positions, we can't just ask for a seat at the table, we have to punish the Democratic Party with our votes when it fails to listen to our demands.

Dr. Lynette Long is a psychologist and writer who lives in Chevy Chase, Md.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09342/1019111-109.stm?cmpid=news.xml#ixzz0ZS9iZ3Jb

I am looking forward to the day that women will be well-represented in politics to clean house - vacuum the dirt and dust from the hallways and rooms of Congress and WH.