What Obama Should Do for Women

By Adrianne Appel, IPS News. Posted November 20, 2008.

The National Organization for Women, the largest feminist group in the U.S., is making it easy for women to contact Obama directly, through its website.

"Now is not the time to sit back and relax. President-elect Obama asks 'Where should we start together?' Speak out and tell him!" says the NOW website, which lists equal pay and expanded programs for poor women among possible recommendations for Obama.

Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, spoke to women gathered at historic Seneca Falls, New York, and urged them to "think big" about what they would like to see happen in the next four years.

At a "feminist town hall forum", organized by the Center for New Words in Boston, women all across the U.S. did just that, after hearing from a panel of women's rights advocates.

"Think ahead four years from now. How will we know that we were successful?" asked Paula Rayman, an economist at the University of Massachusetts.

Obama's health reform plan must include access to abortion, and complete reproductive health care, said Loretta Ross, a coordinator of SisterSong, a health collective of women of color.

"Obama, I assume, has not heard the perspective of black women on this issue. That won't fly," Ross said. "Barack needs to know that when you sell out abortion rights, you sell out women. We need to say, 'The middle ground does not start on my body,"' Ross said.

While progressive women are celebrating the possibilities of the next four years, those on the far right are sharpening their agendas as well.

"The potential swing of the Supreme Court to the liberal side is something we need to be very, very aware of. We need to be careful who we let through on these courts," said Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, at a gathering of conservative women in Washington, DC.

"Democrats are going to try to ram through these policies. We need to make sure we are advocating and our voices are heard. Look at the immigration bill and how talk radio was responsible for undermining that and making sure it did not become the law of the land," added Kate Obenshain, a Republican Party strategist.

The Catholic leadership wasted no time in vowing to fight abortion rights and funding of stem cell research. Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop of Chicago, denounced the policies as against the common good, at a meeting of U.S bishops earlier this week.

Clear battle lines are being drawn on both sides.

"We should deal the far right wing a major blow," Smeal said. "We have to make the best use of the next year or two. We must not go back again, so this is our opportunity to move ahead."
 

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