Our picks for Director of Women’s Bureau….
February 10, 2009
by The New Agenda
|The New Agenda is supporting four candidates for the position of Director of Women’s Bureau:
Anita Perez Ferguson, Former President Natl. Women’s Political Caucus
Mary Beth Maxwell, Founding executive director of American Rights at Work
Ellen Bravo, Former National Director of 9to5
Robin Leeds, Winning Strategies
Today, we will feature the first two candidates:
Anita Perez Ferguson, Former President National Women’s Political Caucus
Perez Ferguson is a dynamic speaker, thinker and advocate for women. She has deep expertise in demographic diversity issues as well as domestic and international public policy. She formerly served in Washington DC as the President of the National Women’s Political Caucus and the White House Liaison to the US Department of Transportation. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the YMCA. She is the publisher of, A Passion for Politics – a collection of political commentaries that inform, entertain and advocate for every citizen’s engagement and investment in politics.
Mary Beth Maxwell, Founding Executive Director of American Rights at Work
Maxwell has been a powerful force in changing the conversation and policies around workers’ rights – particularly women, minorities and those whose voice is too often neglected in the workforce. She is highly respected for her ability to mobilize and activate broad, diverse and sustained coalitions. As the Executive Director of American Rights, Maxwell helped modernize and reform US labor laws to better meet the needs of 21st century employers and workers. Maxwell was Deputy Field Director for NARAL, directing the pro-choice organization’s electoral, legislative, media, and fundraising training programs for local affiliates. She also served as Field Director for the United States Student Association where she designed field programs to organize students in targeted congressional districts to impact higher education policy, and managed a leadership development and grassroots action program, which mobilized thousands of students.
I challenge each and every one of the new faces here that have come to our website in attack mode to answer the following:
Why is Kim Gandy more qualified than the four women that we support? Please lay out your arguments.
I’ll outright say that I’m not interested in such a challenge, Amy – I’m not really sure of the purpose of pitting us one against one another. But I AM extremely appreciative of knowing that there’s a place like this that I can come to to learn about women I wouldn’t otherwise know about. That is the real value, to me anyway, and I do sincerely thank you and all that support The New Agenda for hosting a post like this.
I actually was returning because I wanted to leave a link for a possible future post for The New Agenda to consider, about SCOTUS. In case no one from The New Agenda caught this (and I say that with some trepidation because it’s clear you are on the up and up), Marie Cocco wrote this excellent column about the importance of women on the Supreme Court:
http://www.truthdig.com/report.....me_sexism/
Oddly, though she writes for the WaPo group, I could only find it on TruthDig – I’m not sure why. Anyway – I thought it was a really important column and this was her concluding graph:
And last thing – have you seen the Bill O’Reilly picking on Helen Thomas clip!? Total ugh:
http://www.writeslikeshetalks......these-men/
I was alerted to it by the Women’s Media Center which I’m pretty sure I’ve seen referenced here before.
Thanks again. Looking forward to the other profiles, and if you would like links I have from my interviews with Ellen Bravo, please let me know – I really adore her.
Ooops – I put two links in my last comment – let me know if that doesn’t work – I have a draft of the comment saved – I’ll re-enter it without the links. Tx.
Judging by your description of her, Anita Perez Ferguson has no experience whatsoever in labor issues. What in her background makes her appropriate for a position in the Department of Labor?
Thanks for stopping by Jill.
I just signed a petition that Women’s Media Center is circulating on O’Reilly.
Yes, we are aware of the Supreme Court issue. Concerned given that President Obama has so far only picked 5 of 22 women in his cabinet. But we are premature to speak out I think.
PG,
Ferguson is someone who has a keen understanding of demographic trends and therefore the challenges and needs of the current and future workforce. She has also been successful in getting more women engaged and invested in politics and policy – the first step in finding their voice and power. Plus – too often workforce issues are defined by patriarchal terms – the office, the plant, the lab walls. Womens place in the workforce is much broader than those place-based parameters.
I figured but am glad to hear it re: O’Reilly.
Re: SCOTUS – I saw the title of Cocco’s piece on my BB and wasn’t sure what it was going to be about, but as I read it, I thought she did a pitch perfect job on the absolute frustration w/such things as terms for life on the bench. She was the columnist who wrote the great piece about what she won’t miss re: misogny – do you remember that one? I thought it was one of the best.
Women’s place in the workforce isn’t defined just by the places where they work — that would be a rather literal meaning of “place in the workforce” — but that still doesn’t explain why Ferguson is appropriate to work in the Department of Labor. Moreover, given the criticism of Gandy for being too political by some of the commenters here, I’m surprised to see someone as steeped in the Democratic Party as Ferguson being put forward as the preferable alternative. She served as Director of Training for the Democratic National Committee, ran twice as a Democrat for the House of Representatives, and has written primarily about politics.
As for Ms. Ferguson’s expertise in demographics, that seems to be based mostly on her having been Affirmative Action Commissioner and Chair of the Ethnic Advisory Board for Education in California. I can’t find any research or publications she’s done on the topic of demographics generally, much less the specific area of demographics as they relate to the workplace. Her educational background is a B.A. in Communications, an M.A. in Counseling Psychology and an M.A. in Management. I could see her as a good pick for a Department of Education Women’s Bureau perhaps, but Department of Labor? Why?
In contrast, Gandy’s credentials for this specific position are:
- a law degree that she used to litigate sex discrimination employment cases;
- served on the drafting committees the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which gave women the right to a jury trial and monetary damages in cases of sex discrimination and sexual harassment;
- testified before Congress about the problems facing undocumented workers who are women;
- literally stood with Hilda Solis, the nominee for Secretary of Labor, in testifying and rallying for more ownership by women of media outlets…
Could someone explain to me how Gandy has been BAD for women’s labor issues? I have listed several positives.
Some fabulous suggestions!
Thanks for the synopsis of their qualifications.
SYD
[...] we featured Anita Perez Ferguson and Mary Beth Maxwell. Today, we feature the other two [...]
Thanks to everyone at TNA who put together these bios. I greatly appreciate these posts. Very informative. Thank you!
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