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U.S. women should be grateful for Obama
Mary Shaw
I am writing this on March 8 -- International Women's Day.
And on this day I am thinking about the status of women in these United States of America, and I thank my fellow voters for waking up last November and putting Barack Obama in the White House. The Obama administration will be much kinder and fairer to women than a McCain administration would have. In fact, that's already been proven.
The first piece of legislation that President Obama signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which removed a ridiculous loophole that allowed employers to pay women less than their male counterparts for equal work and get away with it.
John McCain, on the other hand, voted against the Ledbetter Act. Apparently Senator McCain doesn't believe that his own daughter should be paid as much as Sarah Palin's son.
President Obama is pro-choice. He understands that the most effective way to reduce the number of abortions is through comprehensive sex education and access to birth control products and information.
John McCain, on the other hand, seems to believe that teenagers will abstain from sex if you tell them to, and that women aren't smart enough to be trusted with control over their own bodies.
President Obama is working to rescind the Bush administration's "conscience rule" that allows medical workers to refuse to provide products and services that they morally object to. He understands that medical workers are paid to do their jobs, not render judgment on the patients, customers, or doctors who order their products or services. If a medical worker doesn't want to do his or her job, then that person should find a more suitable job.
I doubt that John McCain would agree.
President Obama chose a strong, intelligent woman to be his Secretary of State.
John McCain chose an extremist right-wing woman who doesn't read to be his running mate.
It's like night and day.
So, on this International Women's Day 2009, I am more much optimistic about what the future will hold for the girls and women of this nation than I have been for the past eight years.
And I shudder to think of how it might have been.
Mary Shaw is a Philadelphia-based writer and activist. She is a former Philadelphia Area Coordinator for the Nobel-Prize-winning human rights group Amnesty International, and her views on politics, human rights, and social justice issues have appeared in numerous online forums and in newspapers and magazines worldwide. Note that the ideas expressed here are the author's own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Amnesty International or any other organization with which she may be associated. E-mail: mary@maryshawonline.com
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