Does anybody remember the White House Office for Women? It was a
Clinton-era relic officially called the White House Office for
Women’s Initiatives and Outreach. When the Bush Administration
closed the office and moved women to the custody of the Office of
Public Liaison, the Left was furious. What?! Treat women as regular
citizens and not as members of a special victim subculture? All
that was seven years ago and I had just about forgotten the matter,
but I have a hunch it could be aiming to come back. The old guard
feminists and their student followers are swarming around the two
Democrat stars and are waiting to pounce on either liberal
administration. Some go for Hillary (NOW and its president Kim
Gandy, Barbra Streisand, Congresswoman Maxine Waters) and some for
leading man Barack Obama (Maria Shriver, Caroline Kennedy, former
NARAL President Kate Michelman, Susan Sarandon). Either way, count
on seeing the tired old ultra-feminist agenda thrust on an
agreeable Democratic president; one willing to see the strongest,
freest women on Earth as hapless victims. Lord save us.
Since it’s been awhile, let’s remind ourselves what that agenda
might include.
First, remember some of the long-standing feminist causes:
“Abortion and Reproductive Rights, Affirmative Action, Economic
Equity and Sexual Harassment, Electoral Politics, Fighting the
Right, Global Feminism, Lesbian Rights, Media Activism, Racial and
Ethnic Diversity, Violence against Women, Women in the Military and
Women-Friendly Workplace.” Also on the list these days are:
“Working for Peace, Judicial Nominations, Title IX/ Education,
Health.” Can you stand it?
The List is apt to take form in such dreadful policy as
“comparable worth,” lying in wait in the Fair Pay Act (sponsored by
Sen. Obama) and the Paycheck Fairness Act (sponsor: Sen. Clinton.)
The idea, as described by lawyer Roger Clegg, is that “companies
set wages based not on supply and demand — that would be the free
market — but on some notion of social utility. The goal is to
insure that jobs performed mostly by men (say, truck drivers) are
not paid more than those performed mostly by women (paralegals,
perhaps.)” If you are asking who will set the wages, you can
certainly guess — “the government.”
“Economic Equity” will step down from The List and become tax
increases, beloved of both Democrat candidates. Never mind the cost
to millions of women — the fastest growing segment of small
business — and never mind the millions of workers these businesses
sustain; let’s take more of their money away. How? By raising
individual tax rates under which these business women must report
their earnings; the earnings they use to reinvest in their
businesses and increase their workforce.
Watch out for “Global Feminism.” Sounds like a return of the
United Nations’ “Campaign to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women” (CEDAW) a horrible treaty with a marvelous name.
CEDAW is a litany of feminist and socialist demands that offers
nothing to American women; but that imposes a new imperialism on an
unwitting world. CEDAW wants quotas for everyone and everything; it
wants government wage setting; it wants government-run childcare
and it wants every child and baby signed up; and of course, it
wants every Mommy at work. CEDAW hates “discrimination,” which it
defines as “any distinction on the basis of sex” in “any…field,”
and “by any person, organization or enterprise.” Any organization?
Any field? How about Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, Army Rangers, the
NFL, the Rainbow Girls or the Radio City Rocketts? This turkey has
been rejected by the Senate repeatedly; but count on the Sisters to
bring it back.
As for National Security and fighting deadly enemies, that is
dubious with “Working for Peace” on The List. Feminists can count
on their allies at Code Pink — “a women-initiated grassroots peace
and social justice movement working to end the war in Iraq, stop
new wars, and redirect our resources into healthcare, education and
other life-affirming activities.” These life-affirming activities,
the Sisters forget, will not happen if we refuse to protect and
defend them.
Feminists have spent seven years going after the Augusta
National Golf Club and promoting “Love Your Body” activities, while
paying less attention to the real mistreatment of women in the
outside world. Says columnist Mark Steyn, “The Western, feminist
Left is like those Japanese guys in the jungle who don’t know the
war is over.” Indeed they don’t know; and they have two candidates
who don’t know either and are willing to go along. It’s deja vu all
over again.
