Womens Chair's blog

The Young Democrats of America has announced its partnership with Emily's List, a Political Action Committee dedicated to training and supporting pro-choice, Democratic women who are seeking to serve in public office.
Atima Omara-Alwala, Vice President of the Young Democrats of America writes: "For the remainder of 2011 – 2012, Emily’s List will be hosting their signature Political Opportunity Program (POP) to train female candidates.

Today is Women's Equality Day, the 91st anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. President Obama's Proclamation for Women's Equality Day 2011 stated: "Even before they gained the right to vote, America's women were leaders of movements, academics, and reformers, and had even served in the Congress. Legions of brave women wrote and lectured for change. They let their feet speak when their voices alone were not enough, protesting and marching for their fundamental right to vote in the face of heckling, jail, and abuse.

The Richmond Times Dipatch's PolitiFact Virginia recently made clear that Gov. Bob McDonnell is costing the state money with his archaic political views. On Monday, June 27th, PolitiFact validated a claim made by NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia that "Virginia spends $400,000 on abstinence programs while losing $2.5 million in federal funds due to Gov. Bob McDonnell's 'political agenda.'"
 

When given the task of writing about how jobs and the economy relate to women's issues, I first thought it might be fairly telling to look at the unemployment numbers for men versus women. And yes, without considering any outside factors, things look great! The unemployment rate is over 2% lower for women than for men age 20 and older. Women tend to work in fields like health care and education, which are less changeable even during hard economic times, whereas those that men are employed in, such as manufacturing and construction, are hit much harder.

Happy Primary Day!

Not surprisingly, but still refreshingly, Obama’s proposed 2010 budget looks pretty good for women. Featuring moderate increases in money allocated to global health, family planning, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the most exciting part has got to be the complete cutting of funds to abstinence-only education, and putting $110 million towards the new Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative. This funding will go to researching which types of sex education actually work, and which ones—cough, abstinence-only, cough—need to be done away with.