As women all over the net observed throughout the Democratic primary, the silver lining in the beyond-the-pale misogyny (especially from so-called progressives) that greeted our first viable presidential candidate is the awakening of a feminist consciousness in millions of women. Amy Siskind spoke for those millions of women (and men!) when she delivered her now famous 'We Are Not Your Sweeties, Howard Dean' speech [video] at the May 31st Count Every Vote Rally at the shameful DNC Debacle in D.C.
And here she is again talking about a new feminist agenda, but of course it's a very old feminist agenda. The only thing new is that enough women are finally pissed off enough to do something about it. There's also nothing new about the fact that progressives (led by the likes of kos) denigrate us by calling us "Republicans." As anyone familiar with feminist history knows, if they're not denigrating you, then you really aren't much of a feminist.
A Movement Is Born: The New Agenda
August 11, 2008 --On Monday, 30 women from around the country who are leaders of various women's organizations or have worked as community activists came together in Westchester, NY, to found a group called The New Agenda, a non-partisan organization to advance women’s issues.
"We will pool our talents and leverage already established 'friends of the family' organizations to launch a grass roots and grass tops effort to register women voters, organize a national 'get out the vote' effort around women’s issues," says Amy Siskind. "Our long-term goal is to cultivate and groom women to run for public office at all levels of government – including the presidency," adds Siskind, a former Wall Street executive who is active in Democratic politics and is a founding member of Together4US, which is supporting efforts to put Hillary Clinton's name on the ballot at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
"The first order of business for our group is to persuade candidates for the presidency, Senate and House to incorporate a number of women’s rights goals and policies into their platforms," says Siskind. These include:
Mandating paid maternity leave;
Ensuring that affordable healthcare is available to women and children;
Passing the Fair Pay Act in the Senate;
Helping women establish and run small businesses;
Reducing domestic violence;
Allocating 20 percent more party money to female candidates than to male candidates until the number of women elected to Congress is on par with their percentage of the population;
Strengthening FCC regulations to penalize content that denigrates women.
"One women’s rights issue conspicuously missing from our list: abortion," Siskind points out, adding, "It’s not that The New Agenda doesn’t view choice as a central women’s issue, it’s that Roe v. Wade has been used a single defining issue to hold women voters hostage in the past. There are many other issues that are important and relevant to a broad spectrum of women."
The New Agenda also will look to hold men and women in the public eye accountable when they treat women with disrespect and are dismissive of issues important to them. "Although several names were put on a 'to do' list, Chris Matthews was our unanimous choice as the worst offender on women’s issues, therefore the first person on whom we will focus," says Siskind.
Many of the women who attended The New Agenda's first meeting got to know each other as a result working with pro-Hillary groups. Attendees included founding members of such groups as Together4US, Party Unity My Ass (PUMA), IOwnMyVote, Just Say No Deal and Vote Democracy ’08.
"This group is comprised of women who are "gravely concerned about the mistreatment of Hillary Clinton during the primary season, and the passion and emotion that resulted from Hillary’s mistreatment brought us together.," says Siskind.
Background: See [Youtube] Interview by Eric Shawn of Amy Siskind on June 8, 2008 regarding Hillary Clinton suspending her campaign and the DNC.
Feminist Politics Gender Democratic Party Drama Barack Obama News Michigan Hillary Clinton
