The Way Forward: Building Womens Group Coalitions
November 30, 2008
by The New Agenda
|The New Agenda, your organization, is proud to announce our first coalition press release.
This evening, The New Agenda, along with partner groups LA NOW, OR NOW, and Phoenix/Scottsdale NOW joined together to issue a joint press release titled Women’s Groups to Obama: Cabinet Numbers Don’t Add Up in which the groups urged President-elect Obama to select more qualified women.
Thus far, only two women (Sen. Clinton and Gov. Napolitano) are reportedly being given serious consideration for the 15 cabinet slots. President Clinton had 7 women in his first cabinet, while President George W. Bush had 4 in his cabinet.
In the release, The New Agenda co-founder Amy Siskind is quoted as saying:
Despite a wealth of highly-qualified women ready and willing to serve, embarrassingly few are currently being considered. Women could take a significant step backward with the Obama Administration.
Shelly Mandell, President of LA NOW added:
The women’s vote was highly significant in President-elect Obama’s success, and he could make additional history by closing that gap in his cabinet and other pivotal appointments. We urge him to do just that.
The New Agenda recognizes the importance of women working together. Members – please help us by suggesting womens organizations that will partner with us as we look to build coalitions and advance the interests of the women in our country.
This is awesome.
Congratulations on starting to form a coalition. It is, I believe, crucial to building strength. It is not easy to do and my hat’s off to everyone involved who has spent the time and effort to carve this out. I hope it will be the beginning of more to come.
Thank you for posting excerpts from the letter that has been composed. It is to the point and eloquently written. Thanks to all involved in working together to craft that.
All in all, truly wonderful. Many thanks.
Perhaps one of the first goals we could accomplish by the spearhead of the new coalition is to get women protected under hate speech laws. How do we do this? Do we go through the supreme court?
That is most definitely on the “to do” list. The effigy incident was a true eye opener for us all.
I don’t know the answer as to how we broaden the definition of hate language. When the smoke clears a bit, we’ll examine it. Please keep reminding us.
P.S.: We’re going to ban the two you suggested – yes, enough is enough.
Please add our group to the coalition!
HillarysVillage.net members seek to promote our nation’s remarkable diversity in every walk of life and in the entire political sphere. We place special emphasis upon those who have been historically underrepresented: women, minorities, members of the gay community and those who are otherwise marginalized.
We support the mission of the New Agenda and also believe that it is only by our combined and united efforts as a coalition that our goals will be met. Together we can do this!
Wonderful, wonderful action with the coalition press release! Thank you for making it happen.
What other women’s organizations can we work with right now on parity in Cabinet appointments? What additional ways can we reach Obama with our concerns before he appoints the rest of the Cabinet?
Let’s keep the pressure on—and the issue in the press—that more women must be appointed to Cabinet positions. Time is of the essence!
In response to your request for suggestions of women’s organizations that will partner with The New Agenda, I suggest you take a look at the National Council of Women’s Organizations (NCWO). Their website states: “The National Council of Women’s Organizations (NCWO) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit umbrella organization of more than 200 groups, which collectively represent over 10 million women across the country. . . . The strength of NCWO is that it provides a coalescing force uniting member organizations around a common agenda and a commitment to advancing the issues that impact women’s lives through both grassroots activism and substantive policy work.” http://www.womensorganizations.org/
Here is their “2008-2009 Handbook of Women’s Organizations and National Leaders”: http://www.hbelkins.com/NCWO/N.....preads.pdf
Although I am unfamiliar with the NCWO, it looks like a good group to explore in terms of coming together quickly to widely publicize the gender parity issue, to urge President-Elect Obama to appoint more women to the Cabinet and other prominent positions, and ultimately to work together to advance women’s interests on a myriad of issues.
One way to ensure protection of women under hate speech laws is to finally pass the ERA. There is a new effort to accomplish this.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....02357.html
Thanks for that link, Robin.
I wanted also to suggest to the New Agenda that they highlight the “new” Dems’ acceptance of Ludacris as a spokesman campaiging in GA for the runoff election.
We need to call Obama to the mat for allowing Ludacris to be a Dem spokesman after he called the new Madame Secretary of State a “b!tch” in his lyrics, not to mention said McCain ought to be paralyzed!
This is not the “change” we need!
4ERA at http://www.4era.org is a self-described, single-issue, non-partisan Equal Rights Amendment organization.
Their mission meshes well with The New Agenda.
To help locate more women’s group to build coalitions with, here is a link to the “2008-2009 Handbook of Women’s Organizations and National Leaders”:
http://www.hbelkins.com/NCWO/N.....preads.pdf
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The New Agenda is a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls by bringing about systemic change in the media, at the workplace, at school and at home. More...