Not All Issues Are Colored In Pink

Ruth Marcus’ column in today’s Washington Post epitomizes the need for efforts such as those undertaken by the National Women’s Editorial Forum. Women as a whole really lose out when there aren’t female voices in the editorial pages…or on the campaign trail.

Marcus’ column is on Hilary Clinton, Pretty Formidable in Pink, but I think her take on even writing about candidate Clinton speaks to why sometimes a dearth of women’s editorial voices means that if there’s only one woman on an editorial board it can mean, by default, you get to write the “women issues” while men get to write about everything else.

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YouTube Debate: Men Ask the Questions

Last night, the Democratic presidential candidates faced off in a forum that featured questions submitted by regular folks, in video format, via YouTube.

A few days ago we urged women to submit questions to YouTube for the debate because the numbers of women-submitted questions was pitifully low. (If you missed the CNN/YouTube Democratic debate last night it can be found here on YouTube.)

I don't know whether YouTube received a last-minute rush of submissions by women, nor do I have a count of the final tally of the submitted videos broken down by the ratio of men versus women.

But I do have the number of videos CNN picked that featured women: eleven. Out of the 39 viewer-submitted questions aired by CNN, 30 featured men speaking and only 12 featured women. (One question, #33 showed four clips, two women and two men.)

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Minimum Wage Raise Is No Worry For Business
By Lya Sorano

In Georgia, one of the reddest of the "Red States," one might expect an almost universal denouncement of the raise in the minimum wage. In fact, the opposite is true.

Business owners and managers I've spoken with aren't concerned. They're glad the minimum wage is going up because workers deserve it, and they believe it will help our local economy.

The $5.15 minimum wage has been in effect for a decade -- the longest period without a raise since the minimum was established in 1938. Georgians covered by the federal minimum wage saw their hourly pay rise to $5.85, on July 24, 2007. It will increase to $6.55 on July 24, 2008 and $7.25 on July 24, 2009.

Those increases are lower than they seem. The minimum wage has lagged so far behind inflation that even at $7.25 the minimum wage will still be lower than it was in 1956 when it was $7.65 in today's dollars.

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Abortion Protest Leader Arrested In Birmingham

Continuing coverage of the weeklong siege of Birmingham by anti-choice protestors, I just got off the phone with Nancy Kohsin-Kintigh, field director for Feminist Majority’s National Access Project. I got a tip that there had been some arrests of anti-abortion protestors this morning.

Nancy was inside the New Woman, All Women clinic when we spoke, having worked all week with the clinic staff as they dealt with the protestors. She confirmed that Flip Benham, director of Operation Save America (formerly known as Operation Rescue), was arrested between 9:30 and 10 a.m. this morning. She hasn't yet learned, she told me, exactly why he was arrested, or whether Benham's arrest involved a 12-year-old injunction governing activities outside the clinic.

Since 1995, even before the clinic was bombed by Eric Robert Rudolph, Nancy explained, a federal injunction specific to the New Woman location has been in effect requiring protestors to stay behind a 25-foot buffer around the clinic. The injunction also includes a provision against noise reaching certain levels, she asserted. Nancy said she and the clinic staff have been encouraging the Birmingham police to enforce the noise violations of the federal injunction and today they seemed to have done so.

Benham and his group had previously been warned by the police that they were too loud. Yet today the anti-choice protest organizer had turned up his sound amplifier—even louder than it had been before, she related—so that that his "preaching" was could be heard inside the clinic.

After Benham's arrest, Nancy said, all the protestors from his group left to join him at the courthouse.

“For the moment, it’s very quiet here,” she told me. She said that she and the other 50-some pro-choice supporters were waiting to see if Benham and his OSA supporters were going to return. As of 2:30 p.m. they still hadn't returned.

I’ll post news reports and updates as I get them.

---Rachel Joy Larris

First-Hand Account Of Clinic Protest in Tuscaloosa

As part of Operation Save America’s siege of Birmingham, as I reported yesterday, the group moved their camp to a Tuscaloosa clinic, West Alabama Women’s Center. The group was crowing about the arrest of the Center's director Gloria Gray on their Web site, and since news accounts about Tuesday’s protest in Tuscaloosa didn’t really explain why it was the director who got arrested, I called the Center myself in order to figure out what happened.

I spoke to the Center's registered nurse, Lorrie Foss-McGaha. She said that Tuscaloosa police had told the clinic staff earlier that the anti-abortion group had applied for a permit to demonstrate, but that the permit was for Wednesday, July 18.

“We were excited about that because we’re closed on Wednesdays,” Lorrie explained. But, she said, the Center started getting a bunch of calls from women needing appointments that, according to the callers, could only be on Wednesday. “That’s how the protestors found out we were closed on Wednesdays,” she said.

The clinic opens at 8 a.m. and by 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 17, Lorrie said, the protestors showed up and "swarmed" all over the property, including the parking lot, which is on private property. Clinic staff, Lorrie asserted, have dozens of pictures of the antichoice protestors on the private property, as close as 12 feet from the front door, despite news coverage saying they were only standing on the “right of way.” (A "right of way" is generally treated as public property by a court of law.)

Protestors, said Lorrie, actually came inside the clinic, as well.

"Two young females [protestors] came inside looking like patients," Lorrie asserted. "And one of receptionists notified us that they walked in. They just asked for a price list and sat down, but they also handed out pamphlets to a patient and they gave one to me. Myself and a policeman escorted them out."

Lorrie described the protestors as having taken over most of the parking lot so that the patients of other health care facilities same complex—a dentist's and an ophthalmologist’s office—couldn’t park, and couldn't avoid looking at the group’s gruesome photos, which they typically carry on oversized signs.

By the time the police arrived, "my director [Gloria Gray] had given them the warning that they were trespassing," Lorrie said. She continued: "We called the police when they first arrived and at first a policewoman arrived. She was very nice, but [the protestors] completely ignored her."

Shortly thereafter, according to Lorrie, more police came but, she said, they were mostly focused on keeping the peace. She said the police didn't seem concerned with the fact the protestors were on private property and lacked a permit.

David Lackey, an Operation Save America official and an organizer of the Tuscaloosa protest, was talking to the officers, Lorrie related, when Gloria Gray, executive director of the clinic, walked over to the where the police and Lackey were talking to explain the situation. That's when Gloria Gray, according to Lorrie, called Lackey a “liar.”

"And then the one cop said to her 'Ma’am, I’m telling you to back off or I’m going to arrest you,'" Lorrie said. Gray then replied, according to Lorrie, "That’s bullshit." At that point, Lorrie explained, the police officer arrested Gray, charging her with disorderly conduct.

Despite the fact that Gray was physically compromised by a medical test she was undergoing (she had a tube inserted into her nose) the officer handcuffed her. Clinic staffers stood nearby, Lorrie said, holding cups of water for Gray to drink because she was getting dry-mouth from the tube.

After being taken to the police department and booked, Gray was released on a signature bond. Lorrie said when she and Gray returned from the station, which was roughly 10:30 a.m., the protestors had moved off the private property. But she relates they also had printed up pamphlets featuring a picture of the doctor at the Center saying: "BEWARE of this [person]; he murders children in your neighborhood" and they had put them on every car in the lot.

The protestors left around noon, Lorrie said, even though the clinic was open until 5 p.m.

The Center normally enjoys good relations with the police department, Lorrie said. She confirmed what Tuscaloosa News reported that the West Alabama Women’s Center is looking into possible legal action against the protesters.

--Rachel Joy Larris

Women’s Voices Needed For YouTube Debate;
Lifetime Networks to Launch ’08 Campaign

Via BlogHer and Women’s Voices For Change

We know women care about who becomes our next president. But you wouldn’t know it by the number of questions submitted by women for the next round of presidential debates, which are sponsored by YouTube and CNN. Until July 22, anyone can submit a video question via YouTube for the July 23 Democratic debate and until mid-September for the Republican debate on September 17. However, out of the first 200 submissions, according to Nancy McDonald of BlogHer, only 34 were from women!

At Lifetime Television, the women in charge know how much the voices of women matter in presidential elections. (It’s often said that women will decide who wins the presidency in 2008.) That’s why they’re planning to expand their nonpartisan Every Woman Counts campaign, begun in 2000 “to encourage women to get more engaged in the political process as voters and future candidates.” At the Nest Room in Washington, D.C.’s sumptuous Willard Hotel yesterday, Lifetime Networks introduced its new CEO, Andrea Wong, to the leaders of women’s organizations, asking for ideas on how to enlarge the scope of the campaign.

This is an opportunity for your perspective to be heard in the presidential debates. CNN is looking for serious questions that will be televised. Since many of the video questions submitted to date are more humorous than serious, you still have a chance to have your videotaped question used by CNN. And since all the submissions will be posted by YouTube, your video will be viewed by many people on the internet, which could change the public discussion of issues.

Upload your video to http://www.youtube.com/debates, comment below, and post the link to the video in our “comments” section once your video is up. I’ll be linking to posters' YouTube questions.

--- Rachel Joy Larris

From Birmingham to Tuscaloosa

As my colleague, Rachel Joy Larris, mentioned below, Operation Rescue, a.k.a., Operation Save America (OSA), is reporting that a woman named Gloria (but referred to as "Jezebel" by the Operation Rescue blogger), who is described as the director of a woman's health clinic in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, was arrested today when she confronted the anti-choice group's protestors as they convened outside the West Alabama Women's Center clinic. Now comes confirmation, via an Associated Press dispatch in the Tuscaloosa Times Daily, that a clinic worker (not described as the director), one Gloria Gray, was indeed arrested during the course of the protest:

Police Capt. Greg Kosloff said Gray was outside the clinic during a demonstration when an argument began. Gray disobeyed officers who told her to go back inside and was arrested, he said.

The question that remains to be answered is whether Gray's First Amendment right of free speech was abridged by the arrest. Gray, according to the AP, was released on $500 bond.

--Adele M. Stan

Dispatches From The Birmingham Protests

In light of Gloria Feldt’s excellent column detailing the ongoing Operation Rescue/Operation Save America weeklong protest in Birmingham, Alabama, I wanted to post some first-person blogger reportage of the scene. So far the local paper, The Birmingham News, only offers a few, very dry dispatches. Today’s headline “Abortion protest trouble-free.”

Various reproductive rights groups are in the area counter-protesting (or as I like to think of it, making sure the women in Alabama are allowed to figure out their own lives without judgmental, violent protestors harassing them every step of the way.) The National Abortion Federation has a staffer in the field, but that’s about all I could find so far for scene coverage. I’m happy to post links to any bloggers covering the protest.

This is from the Birmingham News.

Kim Adams, coordinator of the Alabama Reproductive Freedom Summer counter-protest and president of the Greater Birmingham National Organization for Women.

The clinics were open, with more than a dozen supporters standing guard, she said.

"There was no engagement between the two sides," Adams said. "We consider it a bust. They haven't had that many people out today."

I spoke to Larry Rodick, president/CEO of Planned Parenthood of Alabama. He told me the protestors have been divided between the local Planned Parenthood clinic and the New Woman All Women Health Care site, with latter getting most of them.

But so far his impression is that Operation Rescue didn’t get nearly the numbers of protestors reported by The Birmingham News. For example, Rodick says there were roughly 20 protestors outside the Planned Parenthood site, all of whom then left when it started raining.

But there’s also a breaking development today in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The group is reporting they managed to stir up some trouble for West Alabama's Women’s Center, which seems to have been ambushed by the group. I’ll post news coverage as it become available.

---Rachel Joy Larris

Turning Down The Heat On Abortion Clinic Protests
By Gloria Feldt

It’s the sweltering heat of summer. We can count on seeing ads for escapes to the beach, reminders to wear sunscreen, and the extreme anti-reproductive rights, homophobic Operation Save America's annual attempt to turn up the political heat by mounting a media-circus demonstration at a high-profile women's health center that provides abortions. This summer from July 14 to 22, the target-of-choice is the New Woman, Every Woman Healthcare Clinic in Birmingham, Alabama.

If the location and clinic name ring a bell, there’s good reason. In 1998, Eric Robert Rudolf detonated a firebomb of dynamite and nails at the clinic’s front door, killing police officer Robert “Sandy” Sanderson on his beat and seriously wounding clinic nurse Emily Lyons. In addition to sustaining first, second, and third degree burns covering the front of her body, Lyons lost her left eye and her right was seriously damaged. A hole the size of a fist was blown in her abdomen and her left leg was shattered—just for starters.

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Supreme Court Decision Jeopardizes Pay Equality

By Lisa Grafstein

You get your first paycheck at a new job and, not one to be shy, you ask the coworker in the next cubicle how much he makes. It turns out you are making fifty cents less per hour doing the same work. Do you literally make a federal case out of it? Under the Supreme Court’s decision this term in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire, maybe you should. If you don’t, you may be forever barred from claiming pay discrimination, no matter how much you may have lost in wages over time.

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No excuse for Imus

A National Women's Editorial Forum podcast commentary: New Jersey NOW President Maretta J. Short takes on the false analogy between Imus's actions and those of rappers.

Look Who's Watching Now

By: Kathleen Taylor

A couple went into an exercise equipment store to buy a treadmill. They found one they liked, and applied for financing. The bank representative told them—in front of other customers—that because the husband’s name is Hussein, they would have to wait 72 hours for an extra identity check “because of Saddam Hussein.”

A case of unlawful discrimination based on ethnic or national origin? Not these days! Not only was this incident legal; it was encouraged by the federal government.

This and other disturbing anecdotes were documented in a recent report by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. The report focused on the unintended effects of the Office of Foreign Asset Controls (OFAC) list maintained by the U.S. Treasury Department.

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Contraception and Health Insurance: The Bush Judiciary and Democracy

By Sylvia A. Law

Whatever happens in the 2008 elections, the federal judiciary will be a lasting legacy of George W. Bush. While the implications of his nominees to the federal bench are still being watched, Bush’s judiciary changes will not be limited to the Supreme Court or simply abortion. On March 15, a divided panel of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals held that Title’s VII’s prohibition against gender discrimination does not protect women’s access to contraception.

Is it sex discrimination if a company provides coverage for the most common prescription drugs, but excludes prescriptions women need to prevent pregnancy? In the 1990s, coverage of birth control through insurance plans was spotty—some plans failed to cover any contraceptives under the guise of not paying for “preventive care.” Other insurers treated birth control as medically unnecessary “cosmetic,” like skin cream.

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Immigration And Corn
By Sally Kohn

Thankfully, immigration reform is progressing in Congress. There are 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States who have made invaluable contributions to our culture and economy and deserve the basic rights and dignity that citizenship provides.

Yet some nasty provisions stand out in the recent immigration reform proposal in Congress. The proposal would prioritize highly-skilled English speaking immigrants over the working-class immigrants and people of color whose families are already here. In addition those who would apply for the proposed “guestworker” vistas are actually denied the opportunity to gain citizenship. The plan would merely continue the two-tiered system of discrimination and exploitation that currently exists. Yet if we examined the root causes of migration, we might actually help—rather than punish—immigrants.

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More Money Needed for Foster Care Services
By Vanessa Jones

There are more than 500,000 children living in foster care at any given time. For 12 years I was one of these children.

When I was 8 years old, I was removed from my biological family due to domestic violence and alcohol abuse. Although I was never adopted, I was placed with a foster mom in Austin who wholeheartedly embraced me. Her home became my permanent home and the place I go back to today. She still celebrates my birthday every year and is even helping me pay for my upcoming wedding. She truly is my family.

I was one of the lucky ones.

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Who's Talking About Imus

When CBS radio talk show host Don Imus uttered his now infamous misogynist and racist remarks about the players of the Rutgers women's basketball team -- a remarkable team, we might add, that came close to winning an NCAA championship with a roster of very young players -- he sparked a heated media debate about race, sex and proprietary linguistics. As the debate grew, we at the National Women's Editorial Forum expected that keeping track of the analysts discussing the issue on notable news programs could prove to be revealing.

In that light, below are lists of the analysts featured on select cable news programs from Friday, April 6; Monday, April 9; and Tuesday, April 10; on segments devoted to the controversy surrounding Imus' comments about the women of the Rutgers basketball team. (Since we began counting, MSNBC, which had simulcast Imus' program, has dropped the show.) The shows listed below were selected because they are major news talk programs on the three most notable cable news channels.

--Rachel Joy Larris


NOTES:
Repeated names denote repeat appearances.
(* denotes person of color)
Program guests who are part of the story are listed separately at the bottom of a guest list.

MSNBC

Hardball

*Eugene Robinson
columnist, Washington Post

Mike Barnicle
columnist and radio host

Howard Fineman
chief political correspondent, senior editor and deputy Washington Bureau chief, Newsweek

*Jesse Jackson (by phone)
civil rights activist, former presidential candidate (Democrat)

*Armstrong Williams
radio talk show host

Tony Blankley
Washington Times editorial page editor

*Clarence Page
columnist, Chicago Tribune

Craig Crawford
columnist, Congressional Quarterly

*Al Sharpton
civil rights activist, former presidential candidate (Democrat)

*Sabiyha Prince
anthropology professor at American University

Jonathan Alter
senior editor, Newsweek

Scarborough Country

*John Ridley
screenwriter and commentator, National Public Radio

Michael Smerconish
radio talk show host

Steve Adubato
MSNBC media analyst, professor at Rutgers University

Paul Waldman
senior fellow, Media Matters for America

John Fund
columnist, Wall Street Journal

Bill Maher
host, HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher

Steve Adubato
MSNBC media analyst, professor at Rutgers

*Al Sharpton
civil rights activist, former presidential candidate (Democrat)

*John Ridley
screenwriter and commentator, National Public Radio

Craig Crawford
columnist, Congressional Quarterly

Joe Klein
columnist, Time

Pat Buchanan
MSNBC analyist, former Republican presidential candidate

GUESTS WHO ARE PART OF THE STORY

*Reverend Deforest Soaries
moderating a meeting between players and Imus


CNN

Lou Dobbs Tonight

*Jesse Jackson
civil rights activist, former presidential candidate (Democrat)

*Clarence Page
columnist, Chicago Tribune

*Michael Eric Dyson
author, professor at the University of Pennsylvania

Kim Gandy
president of the National Organization for Women

*Bryan Monroe
president of the National Association of Black Journalists

*Carol Swain
professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University

Charles Goyette
radio talk show host, KFNX

Laura Flanders
radio talk show host, Air America

*Joe Madison
radio talk show host, WOL

The Situation Room

William Cohen
CNN world affairs analyst, former Sec. of Defense (Clinton administration)

James Carville
Democratic strategist

Terry Jeffrey
editor, Human Events

*Al Sharpton
civil rights activist, former presidential candidate (Democrat)

GUESTS WHO ARE PART OF THE STORY

*Vivian Stringer
coach of Rutgers women's basketball team

Anderson Cooper 360

*Roland Martin
radio talk show host, CNN contributor

*Al Sharpton (taped interview)
civil rights activist

*Amy Holmes
Republican strategist, former speechwriter for Sen. Bill Frist

Stephen A. Smith
ESPN host and The Philadelphia Inquirer columnist

Glenn Beck
CNN host

*Amy Holmes
Republican strategist, former speechwriter for Sen. Bill Frist

*Robert George
columnist, New York Post

*Roland Martin
radio talk show host, CNN contributor

*Whoopi Goldberg (taped interview)
actress

GUESTS WHO ARE PART OF THE STORY

*Essence Carson and Vivian Stringer (taped interview)
coach and team captain of Rutgers women's basketball team

Larry King Live

*Al Sharpton
civil rights activist, former presidential candidate (Democrat)

James Carville
Democratic strategist

*Tamika Ray
correspondent,Extra host

GUESTS WHO ARE PART OF THE STORY

*Essence Carson and Vivian Stringer
coach and team captain of Rutger's women's basketball team

Glenn Beck

*Jesse Jackson (by phone)
civil rights activist, former presidential candidate (Democrat)

Michael Smerconish
radio talk show host

*Al Sharpton (taped interview)
civil rights activist, former presidential candidate (Democrat)

Fox NewsChannel

The O’Reilly Factor

*Michelle Malkin
columnist, Washington Times

Kirsten Powers
Democratic strategist; Fox News commentator

Bernie Goldberg
author, political commentator

Jane Hall
Fox News commentator, Fox News Watch; assistant professor, School of Communication at American University

Hannity & Colmes

*Dr. Marc Lamont-Hill
professor of Urban Education and American Studies at Temple University

*Armstrong Williams
radio talk show host

*Patrice O’Neal
comic, actor

Laura Ingraham
radio talk show host, writer

*Larry Elder
radio talk show host


screen capture from MediaMatters for America

Women and the Politics of Morality
by Amy Caiazza

Some are calling this the "new year of the woman." We have already seen one woman, for the first time, occupy the Speaker's chair during a State of the Union address and another emerge as the frontrunner for her party's presidential nomination. Indeed, for women leaders in U.S. politics, things have been looking up in the last decade. We've seen an increase in the number of women governors and the second woman to serve as secretary of state.

Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice have given us new inspiration to think about what the world might be if women were in charge. In large part, this debate has focused on what women's leadership might mean for policy: Would we have universal child care? Higher quality education and universal health care? Paid family leave? If women were really in charge -- that is, if women's leadership, lives, and concerns were fully included in politics from the local to the national level -- we could see even more earth-shattering change. We might see our country pursue a set of values that would shift the focus of political debate altogether. Women have the potential to push America to embrace values of mutuality, shared responsibility, and concern for the weakest and most disadvantaged.

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Caiazza, Ph.D., is director of Democracy and Society at the Institute for Women's Policy Research.

Unbought and Unbossed: Following Shirley Chisholm's Path
by E. Faye Williams

As we celebrate Women's History this month, countless references will no doubt be made to the historic strides made by America's women politicians this year, when we saw, for the first time, the gavel of the Speaker of the House wielded by a woman, and a woman candidate emerge as the frontrunner for her party's presidential nomination. And it looks to be an historic year in Black political history, as well, as an African-American senator is touted as a serious contender for the same nomination. Indeed, these are historic precedents in all of American history.

But more than 30 years ago, one person embodied two "firsts," when Rep. Shirley Chisholm of New York threw her hat into the ring of presidential politics when she announced her 1972 run for the Democratic presidential nomination. Her slogan spoke to neither her race nor her gender, but to the state of U.S. politics in her time (and ours): "Unbought and Unbossed."

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Williams is the national chair of the National Congress of Black Women, Inc.

Women's History - Still Being Written
by Martha Burk

As we approach International Women's Day, advocates of women's rights have a lot to celebrate. Here and abroad, women are making strides on terrain both old and new.

This March, leaders of the nation's women's organizations concurred that the month dedicated to history made by women needs a name that reflects not just the landmarks of the past, but the ongoing achievements of women as we advance toward equality. This year, we celebrate the third month of the year not as simply "Women's History Month," but "Women Making History Month."

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Burk is Director of the Corporate Accountability Project for the National Council of Women's Organizations.

Moms Making History - and Policy
by Valerie Young


Debbie Wasserman-Schultz carries crayons in her purse. She also coordinates the pick-ups and drop-offs of her children's after-school activities. Nothing remarkable in this; certainly, millions of mothers do this every day. But this mother of three, a Florida Democrat, happens to be a member of the United States House of Representatives. And that makes it pretty remarkable indeed.

Not so long ago, mothers in the labor force were advised not to keep family photos on their desks, or the kindergarten art project tacked up over the file cabinet. Almost overnight, it seems, motherhood has emerged as an important employment asset, at least in the political arena. That's because most households in which children are being raised are run by a working mom; today 70 percent of households with children have all resident adults employed outside the home.

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Young is the advocacy coordinator at the National Association of Mothers' Centers.