Women's Issues

For my mother and grandmother, for my daughters and yours, I promise you that I will work tirelessly to ensure that women everywhere are treated fairly, equitably and are given every opportunity to achieve their full potential.   In this great land of ours, equal must mean just that: equality for all.

I entered this race because future generations, including that of my three daughters, depend upon it.  This country needs to follow a new direction - one that is progressive for all Americans, one that finally grants women the equality for which they have long fought.  

First and foremost we need to make a fundamental change from the bottom up.  To do that it is essential for women to be better represented in electoral politics, from local races, to state legislatures, to Congress. Women's voices are critical in the fight to make America a better place. Today, only 16 percent of this Congress is female.  That must change.

We must bring back into focus what issues are important to women living in America today - equal pay for equal work, better healthcare and education. Women have had the right in our country to equal pay for equal work for more than 40 years. Despite this, the Department of Labor reports that women continue to make less than men for equal work - just 74 cents to every $1 a man makes. 

This is patently wrong.  

In 2007, my opponent chose to allow this blatant injustice continue.  Last year, Phil English, our current congressman, had a chance to do as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg urged and give women back their rights and to support equal pay for women. However, Congressman English chose not to do the right thing. Instead, he voted against the Fair Pay Act. In doing so, he sent a clear message to women and minorities everywhere that we don't matter, that we don't deserve to make the same amount as men and that it's OK to cheat us.  

I am here to tell you that it's not OK.  This kind of prehistoric thinking must end.   

Equal pay in the workplace is just one of the ways in which the current Congress has failed women. There's a health care crisis in America. This issue goes hand-in-hand with workplace equality. 

Women are less likely to have coverage through their employers and more likely to depend on coverage through their spouses. Women are also more likely to have higher out-of-pocket health care expenses than men and use more health care services than men. Consequently, women have a greater need for comprehensive health care. 

However, my opponent's record on healthcare is dismal.

Congressman Phil English most acutely demonstrated his lack of understanding of women's health care issues when he voted to allow companies to deny employee coverage for breast cancer treatment. Once again, he sent a clear message that women's needs don't matter and it's OK to deny women coverage on such an important healthcare concern as breast cancer. 

Phil English also doesn't think women deserve an equal education. 

In 1997, my opponent voted against an amendment to a bill extending authorization for federal vocational education funding (HR 1853), that would preserve a provision in existing law requiring states to spend at least 10.5 percent of their funds on programs for displaced homemakers, single parents, and single pregnant women, and on programs to promote gender equity and non- traditional training for girls and women.

Here was an opportunity my opponent had to help these women achieve their full potential. Instead of helping these women, Phil English turned his back on them and left them to struggle.