From this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3861664&mesg_id=3861664So often, women's fights are basic economic fairness fights. Because sexism is, among other things, about economic anxiety and competition for jobs. And Edwards' platform on women's issues is impressively comprehensive:
Building One America means ensuring that women can make choices in their lives with dignity and can participate in our society fully, as equals. The reality of women's lives today is still something far less. They are expected to do more, and they receive less. That's not right." -- John Edwards
American women still face greater challenges in the workplace and greater responsibilities at home. They make only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, and mothers--particularly single mothers--do even worse. Women are 48 percent more likely to live in poverty. More than 17 million adult women lack health insurance. Millions of working women struggle to balance their jobs with the needs of their families. John Edwards believes that--to build a larger, more secure middle class--we must do more to strengthen families, help women succeed at work and protect women's rights.
Economic Security
Helping Women Balance Work and Family
Two-thirds of mothers are working, most of them full time. More and more families are caring for their aging parents. But our workplace and public policies have not kept up with this new reality. Edwards will:
Give women time off when they need it by requiring businesses to offer seven paid sick days a year. Edwards will expand the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover more workers and help states offer paid leave so parents will not have to choose between their families and their paychecks.
Create a Great Promise early childhood education program for every four-year-old. For younger children, he will expand the child care tax credit and create a Smart Start initiative to improve child care quality and affordability.
Help families caring for their parents by expanding access to home health care, creating more choices for long-term care and offering respite care to provide caregivers a break.
Securing Women's Retirement
Women are more likely to depend on Social Security for most of their retirement income, even though their annual benefits average only 70 percent of men's. Edwards will help women and other Americans increase their retirement savings by offering a new Get Ahead credit that will match families' retirement savings up to dollar for dollar. He will also examine ways to modernize Social Security to compensate women who pay less into Social Security because they are caring for children or other family members instead of working.
Protecting Women's Right to Choose
The decision about whether to become a parent is one of the most important decisions that a woman can face. Edwards believes that she should make it with her family, her doctor and in the context of her religious and ethical values. He will protect and defend the right to choose and reverse the damage that has been done by President Bush's anti-choice agenda.
Fighting Workplace Discrimination
Edwards supports the Paycheck Fairness Act to strengthen the remedies for sex discrimination and deter wrongdoing. He will expand resources for female entrepreneurs through his new REACH Fund and by prioritizing the needs of women-owned businesses in existing programs. Edwards will also strengthen enforcement at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and will restore and expand women's right to fight workplace discrimination by overturning the Ledbetter decision that limited women's ability to challenge unfair pay.
Ending Violence Against Women
Achieving full equal rights for women includes the right to be free of violence everywhere. Edwards supports efforts to fully fund the Violence Against Women Act, which provides resources for crisis centers, domestic violence shelters and continuing education to law enforcement and the courts. Edwards will also aggressively support political and economic rights for women where they do not exist and supports efforts to reduce violence against women and children around the world.
Women's Health
Guaranteeing Health Care for Every Woman in America
Two-thirds of uninsured women fail to get the care they need because of its cost. For example, while more than 40,000 women die from breast cancer every year, more than half of uninsured women have not had a mammogram for two years. Edwards will take on the big insurance and drug companies and guarantee true universal health care for every man, woman and child in America. His plan requires employers to cover their workers or help pay the cost; makes insurance affordable for middle-class families through new subsidies and purchasing pools; creates a choice of competing plans, including a public plan and--once insurance is affordable-- requires individuals to get insurance.
All block quotes above are from
http://www.johnedwards.com/women.That Paycheck Fairness Act really catches my eye-- a bit ironically, this is Hillary's bill. She introduced it
back in March with Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, but lately she's hardly mentioned it on the campaign trail; while Edwards, through making it a cornerstone of his overall economic message, has been much more articulate and much clearer about how it may actually get put into practice. More on the Paycheck Fairness Act
here.
And lastly, let's not forget Elizabeth, his wife. Who is something we desperately need:
a living example of a smart, outspoken, "uppity" woman who scored big in the marriage and romance department. We are all constantly told that strong relationships and ambition are mutually exclusive, that we can have either love
or power, but never both.
Even in Hillary, you can see where she fell for it. Where she sacrificed a little dignity for love and a smattering of public sympathy, where her political calculation sometimes makes her a bit lacking in joy and vitality.
With Elizabeth, you don't get the impression that she sacrificed anything. Not her professional skills, not her motherliness, not her effectiveness as a public communicator, and certainly not her love life.
You can't just throw words at us anymore. We will only believe that
successful guys dig smart women if we can SEE it happening: if we can SEE a woman be "uppity" and have an enduring, loving marriage.
Similarly, you can't just listen to pro-woman rhetoric and just hope that it will all come to pass. Not anymore. You need to see some doing there. Some deed, not just word, there. Harry and Nancy taught us THAT one.
(Much material borrowed from MyDD: John Edwards Is A Friend To Women:
http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/10/20/0856/4591)
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