Moms On Issues
with Sara and Veronica
We're two moms with different backgrounds, jobs and points of view, writing about our opinions on the political and social issues affecting working moms. We'll also keep our eye on the media and the celebrity mom world to highlight issues that are relevant to your life.
Check out our personal blogs: Veronica's Blog and Sara's Blog
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It’s been a week since voters spoke and rightfully so the media has been focused on what President-elect Obama will do, but how did women fare? Don’t worry, I’ll get to Sarah Palin at the end of the stats…
First of all, Obama won the Presidency with 56% of the women’s vote, including 70% of unmarried women. Ruth Rosen has more on the effect of the women’s vote.
U.S. House of Representatives: Women gained three seats to reach a record high of 74, but that still is only 16% representation. “Five women won open House races, where there were no incumbents. And five female challengers unseated incumbents.”
U.S. Senate: “17 women (13D, 4R) will serve in the US Senate – besting the previous record of 16 set in the 110th Congress. 4 of the women (3D, 1R) won their elections on November 4th, 2008 including 2 incumbents; Susan Collins R-ME and Mary Landrieu D-LA and 2 newcomers; Kay Hagan D-NC and Jeanne Shaheen D-NH.” Women didn’t just help Obama, but the gender gap (22 points) was sizeable for incoming Colorado Senator Udall in Colorado where women represented 61 percent of the electorate.
Governors: While North Carolina voted in their first woman Governor, the total number of women holding the highest office in their states remained at 8.
Ballot initiatives: Three anti-choice initiatives were defeated preserving women’s reproductive choices. Three states banned same-sex marriage. One state, Arkansas, banned unmarried couples from adopting children.
The first transgender mayor was elected in Oregon. The first time that Mayor Rasmussen was elected, she was a he. Obviously her constituents are not offended by her status and happy with the way she was running the town. Congrats!
And then there’s our BFF Sarah Palin.
Oh, Sarah…I have to give you props for trying to infuse the Republican Party with mommy politics and that sassy attitude of yours. I never harped on your for your beauty queen background, but it was apparent that the GOP wanted to play you like one. They muzzled you for so long that once you did open your mouth off stage each word was analyzed. You tried to play the game and the GOP discovered feminism by crying sexism anytime someone criticized you. But as soon as it was apparent that you & McCain were going to lose, rumors were unleashed. You don’t know the difference between a country and a continent; you answered the door in a towel, and acted like a hillbilly on your shopping spree. I have no idea what is or isn’t true and really I don’t care. What I do care about is that your party threw you under at least three buses, backed up and ran you over again. The party who was crying sexism a few weeks ago sought to turn you into a stupid-free-spending-slut. It’s disgusting and frankly not unexpected. I fear that this will do for women thinking about running for office. In the primary we saw the Democrats do nothing to defend Hillary from sexist attacks and now we see the GOP engaging in smears against their own candidate.
Pathetic.
Another electoral chapter closed…some bad, a lot good, and still a lot not yet written…stay tuned!
Lastly….please take a moment to vote for Work it, Mom! over at DivineCaroline! Thanks.
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About Palin:
I was offended by the notion that she was “a diva”, because that’s very much a gender-specific complaint, and because I think if a man engaged in the same behavior (what am I saying? WHEN men HAVE engaged in the same behavior — see John Edwards, Joe Lieberman) they’re seen as doing what needs to be done to protect their political careers. And I don’t give a rat’s ass how much money she spent on the clothes.
But the “stupid” rumors pretty well bear out what I and many many others observed, which is that she IS NOT QUALIFIED, by virtue of the her knowledge (or lack thereof) of specific, important topics. She said herself, on national television, that she didn’t know what the vice president DOES. And later said that the vice president is in charge of the senate. And I’m sorry, but if you’re going to make a career of government, you need to make sure you have at least a working knowledge of how it works.
Here in WA state, we re-elected our woman governor, and both our US senators are women. My state representative is, too!
Even in Oregon, I’m impressed that a transgendered man (woman?) was elected.
Jan | November 10th, 2008 at 1:37 pm