For those of you who missed the declaration of war on women, it’s here and it’s real, and even Fox News is reporting on it.
And pundits across the cyberverse are decrying the war and wondering where it will end. There have been reports about Republican women starting to drift from their own party. Wishes that a new 21st Century Gloria Steinem will rise up and lead the way. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton spends a lot of time overseas trying to better the lot of women worldwide only to find she’s lost some ground here at home. Of course the conventional wisdom is women will start to exact some revenge at the ballot box this fall. Well hopefully so.
But here’s what needs to happen: If women were represented in the House, the Senate, Governor’s mansions, and state houses in all 50 states in the same ratio they occupy in society (50.7% or so), these bills limiting abortion, contraception, valid sex education, marriage equality, and wage equity would have been laughed out of committee along with the misogynists authoring them.
So what needs to happen…we need to vote into office every qualified progressive woman candidate we can find…we need to continue to encourage every qualified woman who has any interest in politics to run for office…and we need to support agendas that provide equality and fairness for every resident of every state of the United States.
Encourage women who can’t find much support in the contemporary Republican Party to visit the Democratic Party and talk to the many women who are involved.
Encourage liberal or progressive or Democratic women who you think are ready to take a chance to run for public office. And tell them to look into Emerge Wisconsin.
And contribute to Emerge Wisconsin so they can continue their work developing Democratic women candidates.
Shorter version: Acknowledge female agency. Move on.
Appreciate the diary post, appreciate your sincerity, but to your last sentence, this is not just “their,” work. This is also, “OUR,” work. Significant point that I don’t think was a deliberate mistake.