Feminist Friday: Can We Start Talking About a National Women's Party NOW?

Posted by: madamab on: June 8, 2012

• In: Democrats | Feminism | Morning Widdershins | Obama | Open Thread | Patriarchy | Republicans
• 37 Comments

The outcome of the effort to recall Scott Walker was disappointing, to say the least, but what really upsets me is that by failing to oust him, the Democrats missed yet another opportunity to improve the lives of women.

I am not psychic, so I can’t predict what might have been. But let me ask you this: Why didn’t the Democrats focus their efforts on mobilizing the women of Wisconsin to vote out the man who overturned the Equal Pay Enforcement Act of 2009, which was proven to have helped women increase their average wages since its passage?

To bring a suit under the law, a plaintiff first had to go through a state-level administrative process to prove discrimination. It was rigorous enough that in the two years the law was in effect, not a single equal-pay lawsuit was filed. Still, the law’s supporters believe it has been effective in spurring businesses to pay women more fairly. Thus by 2010, the state had climbed to 24th in the national gender-parity rankings, with women making 78 percent as much as men, compared to 77 percent nationally. “Since the law was put into place, employers actually took notice and were very conscious of the fact that they had to follow this law or they were at risk of a lawsuit,” Sinicki argues.

For the law’s critics, though, even the threat of lawsuits put an intolerable burden on business. “If tomorrow you woke up and some policeman is at your door giving you a summons for something, the fact that you’re innocent wouldn’t make you happy, because you have to show you’re innocent at some considerable time and expense,” says Republican state senator Glenn Grothman, a major driver of the repeal.

But expecting the Democrats to have a focus on women is like expecting a person with ADD to sit through a Mitt Romney speech. According to various members of the Party (including the sainted Obama himself), women are special interest groups (or on one memorable occasion, “pet rocks”). It would never occur to today’s new and NOT improved Democrats to make an election solely about women and their rights. Even the much touted “war on women” is just a sideshow. The Democrats will be focusing on how wonderful Obama has been against terrorism and how he has been good for the economy. Oh, and that he is not completely batsh*t insane like the Republican base. You mark my words….as the election approaches, the “war on women” rhetoric will decrease, only being mentioned by a few chosen high-profile wimminz like Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Barbara Boxer and Nancy Pelosi. Obama himself will have perhaps one line in his stump speeches dedicated to women.

As for the Republicans, they are far too focused on women – and NOT in a good way. They seem to take it as their mission in life to take women’s rights back to the 1800′s, before those uppity ladies of Seneca Falls made it their mission to get women the vote and formulated the text of the ERA. Am I exaggerating? Sadly, no.

Fox News guest and Sean Hannity bud Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson has figured out the root of our problems, he claimed in a “sermon” delivered to the congregation of YouTube. He knows where we went wrong.

Giving women the right to vote.

Did I make that up? No I did not. I couldn’t have I tried. Lucky for us wrongful voters with woman-brains, the kind Peterson claims can’t deal with anything without, as Raw Story quoted, “freaking out,” those crafty “evil-minded” suffragettes tricked men into turning women’s right to vote into a constitutional amendment. Number 19, to be exact.

Passed nearly 100 years ago, in 1919; ratified in 1920.

So let’s review. The Democrats make appropriate noises about women, but don’t follow through when push comes to shove. The Republicans are so backwards as to be laughable.

Isn’t it time we had our own Party, ladies?

I am tired of hearing that the interests of 51% of the population are not important enough to focus on. I am tired of hearing that we should shut up and vote Democrat because they are the lesser of two evils. I am tired of seeing *ssh0les like Obama get away with breaking his promise to pass FOCA first thing and sell out our reproductive rights to pass a bill the Supreme Court will most likely overturn. I am tired of seeing mindless monsters like Jesse Lee Peterson being given airtime by Defenders of the Hateful, Faux News. I am tired of the religiously insane trying to pass laws that will humiliate and kill our sisters.

It will f*cking kill me to vote D on Election Day, even though I won’t be voting for Obama at the top of the ticket. I am frankly weary of the crapulence of the PFKAD. I want a Party that represents women and puts our equality FIRST, that won’t be distracted by the latest shiny object. One Party, one goal: Pass the ERA! Fight for women’s equality in every aspect of our lives. That is what we women need now.

This is an open thread.

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