The Boston Globe
By Derrick Z. Jackson
March 23, 2010
IS IT possible India’s parliament and German industry have something to teach us in the struggle for women’s equality? India’s upper parliament voted this month to require that one-third of seats be reserved for women. In Germany, the telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom announced an affirmative action program to raise its percentage of women managers from its current 12 percent to 30 percent by 2015. Meanwhile, in the United States, although a record number of women serve in Congress, women are still only about 17 percent of the members.
An example of the need for a stronger US women’s voice was evident on Sunday as restrictions on federal funding of abortions remained a ping-pong ball that nearly shattered the fragile framework of health care reform passed by the House. The debate was dominated by men, with it all seemingly coming down to whatever deal President Obama could cut with Democrat Bart Stupak of Michigan.
In 1992, Harriett Woods, the president of the National Women’s Political Caucus, told the New York Times that “men left to themselves are like tribes on the Hill. We just want to try things our way.’’ Eighteen years later, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said with a straight face that health care reform is “liberating legislation,’’ even as the tribes continue to shackle, in a significant way, women who, being the primary caregivers in our society, might better shape reform. Whereas a Gallup poll last year found that men ages 18 to 49 opposed health care reform 45 percent to 30 percent, women ages 18 to 49 supported reform 47 percent to 27 percent. Abortion is of course not the only thing women care about, but the wrangling over it last weekend was too much a male wrestling tournament.
Full Story: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/03/23/the_gap_in_womens_power_in_politics/
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