Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Women's Issues Mostly Aren't Just That

Obummer was pretty good with this.

She didn't complain. That's not what you did in that generation. And this is one of the reasons why one of the first — the first bill I signed was something called the Lily Ledbetter bill. And it's named after this amazing woman who had been doing the same job as a man for years, found out that she was getting paid less, and the Supreme Court said that she couldn't bring suit because she should have found about it earlier, whereas she had no way of finding out about it. So we fixed that. And that's an example of the kind of advocacy that we need, because women are increasingly the breadwinners in the family. This is not just a women's issue, this is a family issue, this is a middle-class issue, and that's why we've got to fight for it.

I think increasingly people get that "women's issues" largely aren't just that, that discrimination, lack of access to contraception and proper health care, and screwed up gendered societal messages and expectations affect us all.