Women in the U.S. Elections

Four years ago, on days like today, Cindy Sheehan — whose son Casey was killed during the U.S. invasion of Iraq — was leading anti-war and civil rights protests in the streets of the United States. Women, young people and pacifists became the backbone of support for Democrat Barack Obama, who promised to end America’s infamous wars, close the Guantanamo Bay torture center and lead the world economy out of recession. Four years later, in a letter to Obama, Cindy accuses the man she calls a “Republicrat” of “sending our children to die in wars or kill other mothers’ children” (1,303 soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan during his term), of keeping Guantanamo Bay open and of increasing drone attacks by 300 percent since the Bush years. In addition, she attacks him for his “Presidential Assassination Program,” which allows him to order the execution of any person* inside or outside of the U.S., and for his ratification of the National Defense Authorization Act, under which citizens can be indefinitely detained.** Small wonder that Colin Powell, Secretary of State in Bush’s cabinet, is endorsing his re-election!

Another woman, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, was actually arrested for trying to condemn the two-party nature of the presidential race at a university debate.

Women in politics move in an arena dominated by men: women make up just 16 percent of members of Congress, and only eight percent of mayor’s seats are held by women. The glass ceiling holds back even the First Lady, Michelle Obama, who gave up her career to dedicate herself to home and family despite being qualified to hold a high-ranking position.

Transforming social and economic conditions, promoting equality, and increasing opportunities for women in order to enable them to balance work and family: none of this enters into the plans of either of the gentleman candidates.

During his term as president, Obama has launched some initiatives to lessen the profound inequalities that women suffer in terms of income, health care and education. He has set up the White House Council for Women and Girls, approved the Lilly Ledbetter Act in favor of equal pay for the same job and repealed legislation that required NGOs operating in poor countries while receiving U.S. state funds to refrain from providing abortion care. He is also responsible for the Affordable Care Act, which makes health care more available to women, obliges insurance companies to cover the full costs of birth control (including abortion, which costs around $500), mammograms, HIV and other tests, and does not admit the right to conscientious objection to abortion. Mitt Romney has promised to repeal this Act.

One in five women in the United States has been a victim of rape, causing the issue of abortion (legal since 1973) to erupt in the debates. Speaking in support of a ban on abortion even in rape cases (which Bush exempted), one Republican candidate stated that pregnancies as a result of rape are “something that God intended to happen.” In 2010, some 683,000 women — most of them black and impoverished — were raped and subsequently accused of “genocide” by the pro-life lobby because they are the group of women who have the most abortions. Now politicians debate what to do about the results of sexual assault, instead of working toward a society free of men who think they own women’s bodies and souls “by the grace of God.” Romney, another sexist, has suggested that single mothers should find themselves a husband instead of receiving state benefits. Why does God not prevent these rapes, wars, evictions, or the birth of these reactionary individuals?

Women make up 52 percent of the electorate in the U.S., hence the contest for their vote. In 2008, 56 percent voted for Obama, though he lost that support in the 2010 congressional elections.

The Ever-present Class Struggle

Women take on a single dimension of “womb-owner” in the minds of both candidates. The fact that women demand the right to choose what happens to their bodies does not detract from their right to live decent lives as citizens. The poverty rate, which is higher in the U.S. than in other western countries, also has a feminine aspect that cuts across all racial and ethnic groups. Black women are more likely to be poor than Hispanic women, and Hispanic women more than white women. Women fall into poverty more than men, and the number of impoverished women over the age of 65 is twice the figure for men of the same age. Women make up 60 percent of the 43 million living in poverty, and their 15.5 million children also number among this marginalized group at the heart of the leading world power.

In the last two years, 450,000 women — many of whom are single parents and the head of their household — have lost their jobs. The Obama administration claims to have created some five million jobs, though critics claim the figures have been manipulated by reclassifying some of the unemployed as not forming part of the active labor force and by including some part-time workers whose jobs were not previously classed as employment in order to raise the number of employed.

And amid all this is the squandering and self-indulgence of the Obama family: Michelle and her daughters’ trip to Spain in 2010 cost the taxpayers half a million dollars. The good lady spent another ten million on holidays the following year and a further four million on a New Year’s vacation at the end of 2011.

Women — suffering higher prices for food, housing, health care, education and petrol — recall how the president has failed to fulfill his pledge to abolish income tax for low-income seniors and raise taxes on the rich, reinforced the link between public spending and the defense industry, and injected millions of dollars into the same banks that have evicted thousands of people from their homes. Today, women have become a significant presence in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Obama has minimized the real problems experienced by U.S. citizens and lost credibility. His “change” has turned out to be more of the same, and it is here that Romney plays his card. Neither of them is convincing.

* Editor’s Note: Any person suspected of terrorist activities.

** Translator’s Note: Sheehan wrote “we mothers won’t send our children to die in wars or kill the children of other mothers” in a Mother’s Day blog in 2009 (http://cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com.es/2009/05/more-things-changeby-cindy-sheehan.html). The other criticisms of Obama come from entries to the same blog during October 2012. The well-publicized letter that she sent to Obama on 5 August 2012 appealed for the release of the Cuban 5.