We should defend every woman who is the victim of spittle-inflected invective of the sexist variety, whether we agree with her politics or not, and Michele Bachmann is no exception. The display of hatred toward her that marked Chris Matthew’s “journalism” on Tuesday night was unsettling for many of us. We’re used to it from Chris, but that doesn’t make it any more palatable to watch. It’s fair to note that Matthews did not start this latest round of invective directed at Bachmann, he was just worked up after a …

Rebecca Traister’s article Cowgirl Country in the New York Times Magazine this weekend was an interesting read for what it did and didn’t say. I’m thrilled to have another female voice at the Times, especially one talking about politics and women, but I do wish Traister would take the time to do some cursory research when she writes her articles, and develop her arguments more thoroughly. A little questioning of her own assumptions might help, too.
I was particularly bothered by this paragraph about the lack of American women in our …

Obama and His Economic Advisors
Graphic compliments of Optixmom.
This article has been cross-posted from Peacocks and Lilies.
Today we protest the gender imbalance within the Obama Administration. As TNA president Amy Siskind rightfully notes, the President’s scorecard when it comes to women is very poor:

Obama’s cabinet picks are just 25% women.
Obama’s czars are only 12% women.
No women have leadership roles in running our country’s economy.
Obama has only one woman in his inner-circle:  Valerie Jarrett.

I will never forget the day of Oklahoma City Bombing. My daughter was 2 at the time, and was at her on-site daycare when I heard the horrific news that The Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City had been hit, including their on-site daycare. Watching the news as the emergency responders pulled so many toddler bodies out of the wreckage really hit home. I wept and immediately left work to gather my baby in my arms, filled with the bittersweet knowledge that but for the grace of something, we were …

This article has been cross-posted from Peacocks and Lilies. See update below the fold.

At the end of the last college basketball season I wrote about the University of Connecticut  women’s basketball team being within striking distance of beating the men’s record (UCLA) for longest winning streak. Since 1974, that record has stood at 88 straight wins.  At the end of last season, UCONN needed eleven wins. The new season has started and so far they’re still winning.
Today #1 ranked UCONN plays game number 10 at Madison …

In the wake of the recent midterm election, four races among the 252 featuring female candidates remained too close to call. Two are still uncertified, one race was lost, and one has been won.
Republican Renee Ellmers has been declared the winner in her bid to unseat incumbent Democrat Bob Etheridge in North Carolina’s 2nd District. Ellmers won despite little party support, and a self-financed recount that Etheridge asked for. She is one of the women Sarah Palin endorsed on the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment.
Three-term Democratic Representative Melissa Bean …

Here at TNA headquarters we have a slogan: Show us the women! This year we saw a historic 252 races involving female candidates. Now that election day has passed, it’s time to begin the analysis. We saw the women, but how well did they do?
We’ve taken the data from Rutgers Center for American Women in Politics and crunched a few numbers to see what happened. Here’s what we’ve collected so far:

Women did pretty well over all. We have so far won nearly half the seats women ran for, which is …

There are approximately 252 female candidates running this year in various races, according to Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics. Until Election Day, we will occasionally be posting links to volunteer opportunities and/or online phone banks of various female candidates so that our readers can take advantage of the information by stepping up and helping out. If you have the time, take a look and find something you can do to get more women elected.
As a reminder, The New Agenda does not endorse candidates, and these efforts should …

I will never forget the night in 2008 when I was accused of being a “Vagina Warrior.” This accusation came from a young female writer who patronized the same beer joint I did, and who I had previously understood to be a thoughtful politically interested party.
Not in the heat of 2008. Gone was our friendly familiarity as she and her young group of friends discussed their liberal politics. After announcing snidely to her friends that I was voting for McCain/Palin, (which she knew based on previous conversations) she exclaimed, “She’s …

As reported recently in Politico, Democratic women are in danger of losing electoral ground in the midterm. This stunning development threatens to decrease the number of women in Congress for the first time in 32 years.
Here’s what you won’t read in the article: If Democrats emerge with fewer women in Congress this year it will not be just because of a Republican wave (or avalanche); it’ll also be because the Democratic Party and its national apparatus have statistically defunded more races involving women than men. Are we to believe that …