By Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Foundation and Publisher of Ms. Magazine
This blog is part of the #HERvotes blog carnival.
The Feminist Majority Foundation and Ms. magazine are proud to join a number of organizations representing millions of American women in an effort to mobilize women voters in 2012 around preserving women’s health and economic rights.
Right now, a slew of historic gains for women are under threat of being weakened, cut, or eliminated by extremist policies at the local, state and federal level. These attacks–on Medicaid, on Social Security, on Medicare, on the Affordable Care Act, on the Equal Pay Act, on the Violence Against Women Act, on family-planning, on workplace protections against sex discrimination, and more–are attacks against women, plain and simple.
HERvotes has released a list of the top 10 historic advances for women’s lives and security that are under threat.
These laws weave the safety net that ensures that women and other vulnerable populations are protected at times when we are ill, poor, unemployed or discriminated against. It’s unjust for leaders to prioritize Wall Street corporations over Main Street women and families.
Our best hope to keep the safety net in place is our collective voting power. That’s why, from now through Labor Day, Ms., the Feminist Majority and dozens of other women’s groups will be blogging about the real-life effects of the attacks on women’s rights. Check back here daily for more women raising their voices in defense of our rights.
Women must mobilize, register, and flex our electoral might to hold onto our crucial health and economic rights. Join the effort by blogging, Tweeting under the hashtag #HERvotes, supporting efforts to register women to vote, and most of all, helping the highest number of women in history to vote in 2012.
It’s been an honor to work with a number of extraordinary women to launch this campaign–and the list continues to grow! My heartfelt thanks to:
- American Association of University Women — Linda Hallman, Executive Director/CEO
- Black Women’s Health Imperative — Eleanor Hinton Hoytt, President
- Black Women’s Roundtable, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation — Melanie Campbell, Executive Director
- Dolores Huerta Foundation — Dolores Huerta, President
- MomsRising — Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director
- National Coalition of 100 Black Women — Dee Dee Strum, President
- National Congress of Black Women — Dr. E. Faye Williams, Chair
- National Council of Negro Women — Avis Jones De-Weever, Executive Director
- National Council of Women’s Organizations — Susan Scanlan, Chair
- National Council of Jewish Women — Nancy K. Kaufman, CEO
- National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health — Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, Incoming Executive Director
- National Organization for Women — Terry O’Neill, President
- National Partnership for Women and Families — Debra L. Ness, President
- National Women’s Health Network — Marcia Greenberger, Co-President
- National Women’s Law Center — Marcia Greenberger, Co-PresidentNational Women’s Political Caucus — Linda Young, President
- Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need — Cindy Pearson, Co-Founder
- Women’s Information Network — Carla Reed, Chair
- Women’s Research and Education Institute (WREI) — Susan Scanlan, Executive Director
Photo from Flickr user sleepyneko under Creative Commons 2.0.
