Barack Obama creates the White House Council on Women and Girls
President Barack Obama said female Americans should have "no limits on their dreams" as he set up the White House Council on Women and Girls.
The Council is headed by Valerie Jarrett, "one of my closest advisors and most senior members of my administration", according to the President.
The Cabinet level body is tasked with ensuring that all of the Federal Government considers how policies will impact on women.
Mr Obama praised Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for their achievements.
And "as a son, a grandson, a husband and a father" he praised the strong women in his life - from his grandmother, who was the first woman bank vice president in Hawaii, to his wife Michelle "the rock of the Obama Family", and to his daughters Malia and Sasha who should "have the same opportunities as anybody's sons".
Later Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton appeared together to present the Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Awards to mark International Women's Day.
However, the President set the agenda for the new Council by noting that women still earn 78 cents to every male dollar; that one in four suffers domestic violence; and that they make up only 13% of members of Congress and only 3% of top CEOs in spite of being almost half the workforce.
In a separate move shortly after becoming President, Mr Obama signed into law the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act.
Women are a very important Demographic to his political success.
In last years' election John McCain would have become President if only white men had cast their vote.
As it was, all men voted 49% for Obama to 48% for McCain. Women favoured Obama by 56% to 43%.
Cheers
President Obama created a White House Council on Women and Girls by executive order on Mar. 11, the Washington Post reported. The council will be chaired by Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor to the president and longtime friend of the Obama family, and will coordinate a federal response to issues faced by women and girls. The Obama administration timed the announcement of the council to coincide with Women's History Month.
Signing the order, President Obama talked about the difficulties women in his family had faced, such as pay discrimination. "I saw my grandmother work her way up to become one of the first women bank vice presidents in the state of Hawaii, but I also saw how she hit a glass ceiling," he said. "How men no more qualified than she was kept moving up the corporate ladder ahead of her."
The council's goal is to make sure U.S. women and girls are treated fairly in public policy and that Cabinet-level agencies consider the impact their policies will have on women and girls. It will also support and coordinate existing programs for women and girls and will closely focus on improving women's economic security.
The council is also expected to ensure that each Cabinet agency is working to directly improve women's economic status, creates policies that promote a balance between work and family, and prevent violence against women and girls domestically and abroad. Members of the council include the secretary of labor, the ambassador to the United Nations, the attorney general and key posts in the Cabinet and administration.
NOW Cheers White House Council on Women and Girls
March 11, 2009
NOW Cheers White House Council on Women and Girls "We Got the Entire Cabinet!" Statement of NOW President Kim Gandy
NOW cheers the formation of the White Council on Women and Girls, which was created by executive order of President Barack Obama today. It was a pleasure for me to be at the White House to hear the president make this commitment to supporting women and girls in such strong and unequivocal terms. It was a heartening moment for those of us who have worked so hard for this day.
There can be no question that the needs of women and girls require the attention of the White House itself. As President Obama pointed out in today's speech, women still earn 78 cents for every dollar earned by men. One out of every four women will experience some form of domestic violence during her lifetime. Women make up more than half the population, yet are only 17 percent of the U.S. Congress. And while women are 49 percent of the nation's workforce, only three percent of the Fortune 500 companies are headed by women.
The make-up of the White House Council is extraordinary. It will be headed by Valerie Jarrett, assistant to the president and one of his closest friends and advisors, and will include every Cabinet secretary and the head of every Cabinet-level agency. The Executive Director of the Council will be Tina Tchen, deputy assistant to the president and a long-time advocate of women's rights.
We asked for a Cabinet-level office to work on women's issues, and we got the entire Cabinet. NOW looks forward to supporting the work of the White House Council on Women and Girls in the months ahead. There is much work to be done.
National Partnership for Women and Families
Dear Friend,
Today is your day. President Obama just created the first-ever White House Council on Women and Girls, and I was honored to attend the ceremony..
And I am delighted that there will soon be a coordinated response to the challenges confronted by women and girls — and that all top federal agencies will consider how their policies and programs affect women and families.
This Administration recognizes the critically important role of women in our society — as well as the need to open new opportunities and eliminate the barriers we still face.
The time is now to expand opportunities for women and families..
In his first 50 days in office, President Obama has demonstrated his commitment to women and families by working to restore fair pay law, expand children’s health insurance, overturn the global gag rule, propose the repeal of anti-birth control regulations, and offer some immediate economic relief for struggling families.
There’s much more work to do.
Help us urge all our elected leaders to continue supporting working families by advancing policies that guarantee paid sick days for all workers, provide paid family and medical leave, make family planning services available to all families, and ensure that everyone has access to quality, affordable health care.
With your help, the National Partnership will continue the fight to level the playing field by changing minds, changing policies, and bringing people together to take action.
I hope you’ll sign the pledge today and continue to play an active role in our upcoming campaigns.
Sincerely,
President
Obama’s Council on Women and Girls
By Lisa Belkin
President Obama has just signed an executive order establishing the "White House Council on Women and Girls." The purpose of the new group "is to ensure that American women and girls are treated fairly in all matters of public policy," he said at the signing. "Our progress in these areas is an important measure of whether we are truly fulfilling the promise of our democracy for all our people."
He defined those areas as economic security, a balance between work and family, violence against women, and women’s health.
In part the council will be a switching station for the existing bureaucracy, getting all Federal agencies to focus on "the challenges confronted by women and girls to ensure that all Cabinet and Cabinet-level agencies consider how their policies and programs impact women and families," the White House said. But if it goes beyond that, and creates rather than simply coordinates change, what exactly should that change be? What are the issues and policies today that affect "women and girls" to the exclusion of, or more dramatically than, "men and boys"?
There is no one more vocal than I about the fact that women and men experience the realms of family and work differently (you can find some examples of my thoughts here and here.) But I think that too many of the problems women and girls have in the world stem from the fact that the problems are considered "their" problems — "women’s problems" — rather than problems that both genders share.
Let’s review just a few:
Unequal Pay. This was the first to be tackled by the new administration with the signing of the Ledbetter Act. And certainly this is a concern for women, who still earn less, on average, than men (though the gap has narrowed sharply, and much of the difference is due to different career paths men and women take — more on that below — than on overt discrimination.) Yet to call this a "woman’s problem" is to glide over the fact that the pay difference hurts more than just women. Pay discrimination is a family issue. In a two-parent family, it reduces the income of the entire household, and is often a determinative factor in tipping a single parent family from stable to impoverished.
Maternity leave. By definition this is on a woman’s radar. And the United States lags woefully behind most of the rest of the western world in the amount of time mothers get to take off after giving birth. But we also lag woefully behind in paternity leave, too. And to compartmentalize this as a need only of women, is to leave out nearly half of all parents. Studies show that men already feel stigmatized about taking the minimal leave available to them, and that reluctance hurts who? Among others, women.
Childcare. There is no greater evidence that society still considers children the responsibility of mothers, rather than of parents, than the fact that we call childcare a woman’s issue. It is. Because that’s the way the world currently works. But if the White House council’s only role in this area is to increase child care options for women — rather than also prodding social norms so that it targets more than just women — then it will only have done part of the job.
Work/Life Balance. Today’s workplace is built for a man — requiring the fiercest hours and attention in the early years if you are going to make it up that ladder. Fine for a 1950s man with a wife at home. Tolerable for a 2000s man with a working spouse. Not really okay for a working woman, who, biology dictates, has to use those same early years if she wants to have children.
What women need is a system that allows stepping out and stepping back in without penalty. And for those of us who can’t afford to leave — and that means most of us — we need a system that allows for flexibility and control over our lives. That system must factor in periods of great ambition and achievement, mixed with periods of slow but steady work, all with the understanding that ups and downs make a career, and don’t automatically knock you off the track.
While women have had the more visible juggling act in the past few decades, and have led the demands for change, all they are really asking is to be able to earn a living and care for their children in a ratio that isn’t perfect, but is less lopsided than the status quo. Giving them that means giving it to girls AND boys, too — and to the women AND men they will grow up to be. And a system like that will change men’s lives as well.
What do you think the White House Council on Women and Girls should put on its agenda? Does it matter what the council is called? Or is it only important that they tackle broadly and wisely?
Governor Of Kansas Tapped to Lead HHS
Kathleen Sebelius Would Play Key Role
In Health-Care Reform Plans
By Michael A. Fletcher and Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, March 1, 2009; A01
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius accepted President Obama's request to become his secretary of health and human services, stepping into a central role in the new administration's ambitious effort to overhaul the nation's health-care system.
Sebelius's nomination comes just days before the White House is scheduled to convene a summit on health reform, an early step in the president's bold plan to vastly expand the reach of the health-care system.
The summit, which is expected to be the first in a series of open meetings across the country, is intended to spotlight the challenges presented by the nation's balkanized health-care system -- including soaring costs and gaping holes in coverage. It is also aimed at rallying public support for an overhaul certain to draw ideological and industry opposition. The health session, similar to last week's "fiscal responsibility" summit, will open with remarks by Obama. Participants will then split into working groups led by administration officials.
In his budget proposal unveiled last week, Obama set aside $634 billion for a new reserve fund that over the next decade would serve as a substantial down payment on the cost of moving the country closer to universal health-care coverage. About 46 million Americans lack coverage, a number likely to grow as the economic downturn puts more people out of work.
If confirmed by the Senate, Sebelius would fill a vital Cabinet position originally slated to go to former senator Thomas A. Daschle, who withdrew from consideration last month over his failure to pay $146,000 in back taxes and interest until he had been nominated for the post. The controversy prompted Obama to acknowledge that he had "screwed up."
Steering the costly changes through Congress, which would be a big part of Sebelius's portfolio, promises to be a complicated and politically charged task. The withdrawal of Daschle, a former Senate majority leader steeped in the byzantine ways of Congress as well as the intricacies of the nation's $2.3 trillion health-care system, delivered a significant blow to the administration as it prepared to launch its ambitious agenda on the topic.
Sebelius, 60, would inherit a sprawling department of 65,000 employees responsible for public health, food safety, scientific research, and the administration of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which serve 90 million Americans. The solvency of the programs is yet another worry confronting the administration, which has vowed to take on entitlement reform. The department's budget, consumed largely by the two programs, exceeds $700 billion.
The Kansas governor served as state insurance commissioner for eight years and has overseen the Medicaid program for the poor during her tenure as governor. Sebelius tried unsuccessfully to expand health coverage in the state through higher cigarette taxes. Still, under her watch, Kansas has added tens of thousands of low-income children to state health programs.
As insurance commissioner, Sebelius rejected the sale of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas to an Indiana company, citing the prospect of higher premiums. The job, however, had little to do with the delivery of care or the achievement of the sort of quality improvements and efficiencies that Obama and policy experts speak of when describing a high-performing health-care system of the future.
More than a month into the administration, few Obama appointees have been placed in the Department of Health and Human Services, and the president has yet to name a chief for major health agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration or the National Institutes of Health.
"The president asked Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius to serve as his secretary of health and human services, and she accepted," an administration official said.
An administration source said it is likely that Obama will nominate someone else for a second post Daschle had created for himself: director of a new White House Office of Health Reform. One name mentioned for the job is former Clinton administration adviser Nancy-Ann DeParle, who would take over the effort to conceive, sell and implement a wide-ranging health-care overhaul.
Sebelius, the daughter of a former Ohio governor, is halfway through her second term as governor.
Although she lacks Washington experience, Sebelius is a veteran politician who learned the craft from her father, John J. Gilligan, and later her father-in-law, Keith Sebelius, a Kansas Republican who spent more than a decade in Congress. Kathleen Sebelius, a graduate of Trinity College in Washington, served eight years in the state legislature and was once a lobbyist for the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association.
Sebelius is known for reaching across the aisle in her Republican-dominated state, and in her first gubernatorial bid she chose a former Republican businessman as her running mate.
Sebelius, raised Roman Catholic in Ohio, has endured fierce and often personal criticism from antiabortion activists largely because she vetoed a bill that would have required doctors who perform late-term abortions to report a reason for the procedure. After the veto, the archbishop of Kansas City asked Sebelius to stop taking Communion.
Margaret Hamburg Nominated Agency Commissioner
WASHINGTON — The nation's food safety system is a "hazard to public health" and overdue for an overhaul, President Barack Obama said Saturday as he filled the top job at the Food and Drug Administration.
Obama used his weekly radio and video address to announce the nomination of former New York City Health Commissioner Margaret Hamburg as agency commissioner and the selection of Baltimore's health commissioner, Joshua Sharfstein as her deputy. Consumer groups applauded the picks.
The president also is creating a special advisory group to coordinate food safety laws and recommend how to update them. Many of these laws have not changed since they were written early in the last century, he said.
Obama said too many agencies are responsible for food safety, making it difficult to share information and stop problems from falling through the cracks.
The FDA does not have enough money or workers to conduct annual inspections at more than a fraction of the 150,000 food processing plants and warehouses in the country, Obama said.
"That is a hazard to public health. It is unacceptable. And it will change under the leadership of Dr. Margaret Hamburg," he pledged.
Hamburg, 53, is a bioterrorism expert. She was an assistant health secretary under President Bill Clinton and helped lay the groundwork for the government's bioterrorism and flu pandemic preparations.
As New York Citys top health official in the early 1990s, she created a program that cut high rates of drug-resistant tuberculosis. She is the daughter of two doctors. Her mother was the first black woman to earn a medical degree from Yale University, and she credits her father for instilling in her a passion for public health.
On The White House Website:
“The Agenda: Women “
http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/women
"From the first moment a woman dared to speak that hope -- dared to believe that the American Dream was meant for her too -- ordinary women have taken on extraordinary odds to give their daughters the chance for something else; for a life more equal, more free, and filled with more opportunity than they ever had. In so many ways we have succeeded, but in so many areas we have much work left to do."
Barack Obama, Speech in Washington, DC
November 10, 2005
Covered on this site “The Agenda: Women” are: Health Care, Reproductive Choice, Preventing Violence Against Women, Economic Issues, National Security, Poverty, and Education
Obama has named a new White House Task Force task force on the problems of middle-class Americans: http://www.whitehouse.gov/strongmiddleclass
He installed Vice President Joe Biden as its chairman and unveiled a new Web site, http://www.astrongmiddleclass.gov. Here, the White House’s statement: Washington, DC – President Barack
Obama today announced the creation of a White House Task Force on
Middle Class Working Families to be chaired by Vice President Joe
Biden. The Task Force is a major initiative targeted at raising the
living standards of middle-class, working families in America. It is
comprised of top-level administration policy makers, and in addition
to regular meetings, it will conduct outreach sessions with
representatives of labor, business, and the advocacy communities. Obama Signed series of Executive Orders
that will “level the playing field for labor unions in their
struggles with management” undoing Bush Orders. The orders will: "We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests," Obama said during a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House.” "I do not view the labor movement as part of the problem. To me, it's part of the solution," he said. "You cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement."
Department of Labor & Job Cuts:
Women in Obama’s Administration:
Click Here To Read More About Each Woman
- Melody C. Barnes: Director of Domestic Policy Council
- Carol M. Browner: Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change
- Hillary Rodham Clinton: 67th United States Secretary of State
- Margaret Hamburg: Agency Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration
- Lisa Perez Jackson: Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
- Valerie Bownam Jarrett: Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Laison
- Alyssa Mastromonaco: White House Scheduling and Advance Director
- Ellen Moran: White House Communications Director
- Cecilia Munoz: Director of Intergovernmental Affairs
- Janet Napolitano: The third United States Secretary of Homeland Security
- Jackie Norris: Chief of Staff for First Lady Michelle Obama
- Susan Rice: 27th United States Ambassador to the United Nations
- Desirée Glapion Rogers: White House Social Secretary
- Christina Romer: Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors and Co-Authored the Adminstration’s Plan to recover from the 2008 Recession
- Kathleen Sebelius: has accepted President Obama's request to become his secretary of Health and Human Services.
- Nancy Helen Sutley: President Obama appointed her to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
- Mona Sutphen: Deputy White House Chief of Staff
The Ties That Align
Administration's Black Women Form A Strong Sisterhood
By Krissah Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 18, 2009; C01
Like two old girlfriends catching up, they ignored onlookers, hugged and laughed.
Donna Brazile, the political strategist and Washington veteran, peppered Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson with questions.
"How are the kids?" "Have you contacted the church? I don't go every Sunday but they know me."
Before she left, Jackson had an open invitation to Brazile's place for home-cooked red beans and rice, served up every Monday night.
"The sisterhood in this town, there's deep history here," Jackson said.
The "Obama women" -- as African American women who've taken big jobs in his administration have been nicknamed -- mark another step in the long journey of black women from outsiders to gatekeepers in political Washington. They have quietly entered their jobs with little attention paid to the fact that they are the largest contingent of high-ranking black women to work for a president.
Many are firsts -- as in the first black woman to run the Domestic Policy Council, the first black EPA chief and the first black woman to be deputy chief of staff. Last week, Obama tapped Margaret (Peggy) Hamburg to lead the Food and Drug Administration. If confirmed, Hamburg -- who is biracial (her mother is African American, her father Jewish) -- will also be a first.
Seven of about three dozen senior positions on President Obama's team are filled by African American women. Veterans in town see them as part of the steady evolution of power for black women, not only in the White House but also across the country -- in the business world, in academia, in policy circles.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a District native who served in the Carter administration, said the significance of Obama sending Valerie Jarrett to represent the administration at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, days after he took office, was not lost on her. There, Jarrett was introduced by economist Klaus Schwab as "President Obama's personal representative; influential adviser; trusted confidante. . . . When she speaks, she speaks really with his voice."
To Norton, it was an indication of the broad authority that black women now wield.
"I'm not sure there's ever been a black woman who has enjoyed as much of the president's confidence as Valerie Jarrett. She has not been compartmentalized and is used in a variety of ways that I think is a first," Norton said. "The Obama women are a sign of how far we've come."
Inside the young administration, the women said they have been slammed with work and left with little time to think about their place in history. But there are moments.
When Jackson, with bodyguard in tow, walks through the corridors of the EPA's vast complex in the Federal Triangle, she invariably is stopped by one of her employees, often an African American woman, who says, "Thank you for being here." She is reminded not only of the history Obama made but also of the history she is making. Black women make up about 192,000 of the more than 1.7 million members of the federal workforce, according to the Office of Management and Budget.
"It's an indication that I'm one of theirs," Jackson said.
It's at church on Sundays that Melody Barnes, who heads Obama's Domestic Policy Council, is reminded. So many people want to stop and talk that her receiving line at the end of service is often as long as the pastor's.
"I certainly feel it when someone my grandfather's age stops me to say, 'Sweetheart, I'm proud of you,' but at the same time we are here to do a job," Barnes said. "For the most part, when we walk into the West Wing, we are focused on that job throughout the day."
Barnes was a principal figure behind the passage of the $787 billion stimulus package, held interviews with the media and called on allies in Congress -- where she worked for many years as chief counsel for Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) on the Judiciary Committee. Her next priorities are to help shepherd plans for universal health care and improving public education.
Mona Sutphen, the president's deputy chief of staff and a foreign affairs expert, has been an advocate for loosening the long-standing Cuban embargo. Her ideas became law last week when less restrictive travel and trade rules were added to a spending bill passed by Congress.
White House Social Secretary Desirée Rogers parses guest lists, largely shapes the Obamas' social profile and orchestrates the Washington dance of dinners where politics are served around the table. In all of the busy-ness, there are times, Rogers said, when her old friend Jarrett will stop her in the hallway and dwell for a second on the import of their experience as African American women in the top echelons of the White House.
"I'm so fast. I'm always moving, and Valerie will say to me, 'Slow down. Just think about what we're doing,' " Rogers said. "It is important to maintain those friends and relationships -- that lifeblood that sustain you as you work in a very historic time."
Not so long ago, the appointment of a black woman to a senior position in any administration was a historic marker, a first. But the collective arrival of the women serving in senior positions in Obama's presidency has been noted only in small ways and mostly within the "sisterhood." A few weeks before Obama's inauguration, one anonymous admirer sent out an e-mail with photographs of seven senior staffers under the title "Sisters in the White House."
It listed Jarrett, Jackson, Barnes, Sutphen, Rogers, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and Cassandra Butts, deputy White House counsel.
It read like a dishy letter passed among girlfriends: "Did you know this sister is Valerie Jarrett, Transition Team Co-Chair? Did you know she's the 4th generation of educated professionals in her family and is a Stanford and U of M graduate? (A former corporate attorney, as the Chief of Staff in the Daley Administration, she hired an Ivy-Leaguer named Michelle Robinson!)"
"Most of us had met each other, but seeing the e-mail made me step back and think this is a really diverse and compelling group of women," Sutphen said.
The message was a small nod to progress, a barometer of the advancements of women and minorities.
"It's like we have a garden out there, and it's been watered," Norton said. "Black women have been preparing themselves for this day. They are more than ready."
Women earn about two-thirds of the associate and bachelor's degrees awarded to black students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, and Bureau of Labor data show that more than 2.6 million black women were employed in management and professional jobs last year. The women working for Obama have helped run Chicago city government, led nonprofit organizations, held top jobs at think tanks and influential positions on Capitol Hill.
Even so, women and minorities still lack representation in proportion to their numbers on the federal level. In Congress, only 90 members are women, 42 are African American, 28 are Latino and nine are Asian. Of late, black women have done better in Cabinet-level appointments and senior White House positions. President Bill Clinton appointed two black women to his Cabinet and several served in senior White House positions. President George W. Bush named Condoleezza Rice his national security adviser and later secretary of state, making her the highest-ranking black woman in the country's history.
It was only 32 years ago that President Jimmy Carter appointed Patricia Roberts Harris to serve as secretary of housing and urban development, making her the first black woman in the presidential line of succession. Harris said at the time of her HUD appointment that her gender and race made her a "two for one" and called the hoopla around her nomination the result of "tragic exclusion." In stories about her experience as the first, she described herself as lonely.
Carter later named Eleanor Holmes Norton head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and she recalls being "marketed" as the first woman to hold the position.
She still has a framed photo in her congressional office of herself posing with both Shirley Chisholm and Coretta Scott King, who came to see Norton and celebrate her EEOC post.
A cadre of black women were introduced to national politics during the Rev. Jesse Jackson's unsuccessful bids for the presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988. They included Brazile, the first African American to direct a major political campaign, and Minyon Moore, who was an assistant to Clinton and served as director of White House political affairs and the Office of Public Liaison.
"We kind of burst onto the scene," Moore said. "It became more normal to see an African American woman in a position of power."
In their days in the Clinton administration, Moore would lean on Alexis Herman, the first African American woman to serve as labor secretary, and Hazel O'Leary, the first to serve as energy secretary.
"You never felt alone," Moore said.
Now, the Obama women call on their predecessors and say they are getting to know one another as they find their way in Washington. Jarrett and Rogers have a deep personal friendship forged in Chicago. Others are acquaintances or work friends who met during the Clinton administration, on Capitol Hill or during Obama's campaign. Some are hoping lasting bonds will form, which could leave Washington with a good old sisters network.
"We are fortunate that we are in a time where it isn't new that African American women would have important roles in Washington. It is not becoming old hat, but it is something people are more comfortable with," Butts said. "It is both absolutely as it should be, and it is also a bit surreal."
Butts put an interview on hold to pick up a call from Cheryl Mills, who in the Clinton administration became the first black women to serve as deputy White House counsel. Mills, now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's chief of staff, understands Butts's job and the dynamic of working in the White House bubble.
When Jackson moved from New Jersey to take up her EPA post, she phoned Herman, who now owns a District-based company that advises corporations on workplace diversity.
"She's been through some of what I'm seeing," Jackson said. "She knows what it's like to have to figure out this town. . . . It's definitely nice to be in a place where there are more of us."
Jackson said the advice Herman gave her is private but, as a whole, the Washington sister-friends have done everything from recommend churches and hairstylists to offer fashion advice and babysitting services, Jackson said.
"As one of them put it: 'We're honest. We will tell you, that suit does not work. It makes your butt look big. That would work for somebody else but not you. No, don't show up looking like that,' " Jackson said, smiling. "I don't have sisters so I always loved close girlfriends. They have made it much, much easier for the first few weeks here."
They also share hard-earned wisdom for surviving the political game.
O'Leary passed on a story about her early days at the Energy Department. During her first month, she had a poster made with photos of all the previous department secretaries and herself. Face after face was a white man, ending with O'Leary's picture. The line at the top of the poster read: "This is not your father's Department of Energy."
"In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have done that," she said with a laugh.
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
For almost twenty years I was paid less than my male co–workers. My case went all the way to the Supreme Court — I was shot down.
But today, President Obama signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and told the Supreme Court that they got it wrong. I always hoped this day would come and this is the best news I have heard in a long time.
I was there with the President when he signed the bill. Here's the video from the signing:
I can't say thank you enough to the thousands of you who've worked with us in this fight. Your e–mails to Congress, your phone calls, and your letters of support have meant so much to me and to the movement for pay equity for all women. We knew we could count on you — and we couldn't have done it without you.
In the months and years to come, the fight for fair pay will go on. We're still fighting to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, and there will be other fronts in battle to close the wage gap once and for all. But we've taken an enormous step forward today. Thanks for taking that step with me.
Sincerely,
Lilly Ledbetter
p.s. To find out more about the bill and about pay equity, visit the National Women's Law Center's website at www.nwlc.org/fairpay.
Inside Obama's West Wing
They say that proximity to power is power. And it comes to follow that the most coveted offices in Washington are those in the West Wing of the White House. Some, like press secretary Robert Gibbs's office, are spacious. Others are cubbyholes. But they are all in the same building as the president's Oval Office. Explore the interactive graphic below for an insider's guide to who's sitting where in President Obama's West Wing. (Printable West Wing Map)
Feminist.org: Your daily source for the feminist perspective on national and global events.
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act Passed Senate, Returns to House
Feminist Daily News Wire
January 23, 2009
The Senate passed by a strong majority the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (S. 181) last night after defeating a series of Republican hostile amendments. The Senate floor debate for the Act was led by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Dean of the women Senators, for Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) after Majority Leader Senator Reid (D-NV) navigated the bill to the floor.
"President Obama and the Democratic Congress are keeping their pledge to women and all workers to reverse the Supreme Court decision that gutted the right of employees to fight wage discrimination," said Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority. "We're on a roll to rebuilding women's rights and civil rights taken away during the Bush era."
The Senate Act, which has already passed the House in a version coupled with the Paycheck Fairness Act, will go back to the House as a single bill. The House is expected to pass the Senate bill on Tuesday. President Obama is expected to sign it into law shortly thereafter. In almost straight party line votes the Senate kept the pledge of President Obama to sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act almost immediately after being sworn in.
Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson's killer amendment was defeated 55-40 in a nearly straight party vote with Democrats voting against it – only Republican Olympia (ME) voted with Democrats. Several other debilitating Republican amendments also went down to defeat.
The Ledbetter Act corrects the Roberts Supreme Court decision that gutted the ability of women workers to sue for wage discrimination. The Act passed helps not only women, but all workers who are victims of wage discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, national origin, age, or disability.
Media Resources:Feminist Majority; Interview with Eleanor Smeal 1/22/09; CSPAN; Feminist Daily Newswire 1/9/09, 1/21/09
U S W C: U.S. Women Connect (see women's resources tab on this website)
US Women Connect The outcome of this three-year effort was the creation of US Women Connect. US Women Connect was created to serve as the lead NGO catalyst to move action www.wc.org women2000. More results from www.uswc.org
Connecting women in all 50 states for the U.S. women's agenda
LINKING U.S. WOMEN ON THE GROUND AND ON THE NET
Dear Senator Obama,
U.S. Women Connect has been the anchor for the U.S. women's agenda since the Fourth Women's World Conference held in Beijing in 1995. Sadly, there has been little U.S. government support since then for the goals expressed by millions of women in this country. Many nations of the world have surpassed us in the numbers of elected women, in caring for the most vulnerable, and in recognizing women's expertise on the most pressing issues facing the world.
We are writing today to urge your immediate and decisive recognition of the women's agenda. It is summarized in the attached document, "Women and Children First." You can announce your commitment immediately and follow up within the first 100 days of your presidency, helping the United States step back into place as a beacon of justice emulated around the world.
We offer you our non-governmental network of women in all 50 states, with expertise and connections on every issue, in every organization, to make those dreams come true. Please let us know how we can help you create these systems and implement these policies so that change can happen.
Sincerely,
The USWC Board, including President Rosemary Smithson, Missouri Women's Leadership Coalition Vice President Marilyn Fowler, Women's Intercultural Network – California Women's Agenda Secretary Bonnie Watkins, Minnesota Women's Consortium Treasurer Ardyce Pearson, At-Large Member Hon. Jacquelyne Weatherspoon, New Hampshire Hub State and Harvard Class of 1991 Kathy Wan Povi Sanchez, Tewa Women United and many others.
