Women Issue in Presidential Race

Women's issues at centre stage in U.S. presidential race

U.S. Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks in Washington, Wednesday, April 4, 2012. (AP / Manuel Balce Ceneta)

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The Canadian Press

Date: Sunday Apr. 15, 2012 2:45 PM ET

WASHINGTON — The challenges facing American women have taken centre stage in the national political debate as President Barack Obama and Republican front-runner Mitt Romney do pitched battle for the hearts and minds of the country's all-important female voters.

Romney's attempts to stop a growing deluge of women to Obama were met with mockery on Sunday by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, who derided him for his claim last week that women accounted for a whopping 92 per cent of the jobs lost since the president took office.

"It's misleading and ridiculous," Geithner, making the rounds of the Sunday morning talk shows, said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "It's just a political moment."

Geithner conceded that the second half of the recession involved more female job losses due to teacher and education-related layoffs precipitated by state budget cutbacks.

It was mostly men, however, who found themselves out of work at the start of the recession in 2008 due to construction and manufacturing job losses, he said, meaning the pain was felt equally by men and women over the course of the economic downturn.

"The recession ... was already a year in the making before President Obama came into office," Geithner said.

"It's a meaningless way to look at the basic contours of the economy in that period of time, again because it starts artificially at a time when the president came into office and the crisis was still building momentum."

Politifact, a nonpartisan fact-checking organization, has in fact rated Romney's claim as "mostly false."

Nonetheless the so-called "war on women" has become a flashpoint in the 2012 election campaign, even before Romney was all but assured the Republican nomination last week when his only real rival for the crown, Rick Santorum, dropped out of the party's presidential race.

Polls suggest that Santorum's controversial stances on birth control and working mothers, in fact, sent women who consider themselves independent voters into Obama's camp.

A high-profile brawl earlier this year about access to birth control, resulting from Republican efforts to portray Obama's health-care policies as trouncing on the rights of Catholics, also put women's issues at the forefront of debate.

Republicans were hammered in public opinion polls on the issue, especially after conservative icon Rush Limbaugh called a Georgetown University law student a "slut" and a "prostitute" for her congressional testimony in support of Obama's policies on access to birth control.

Last week, Republicans had their revenge when a relatively obscure Democratic strategist, Hilary Rosen, said on CNN that Ann Romney had "never worked a day in her life." Even though both Obama and his chief strategist, David Axelrod, condemned Rosen for her remarks, Republicans said it revealed Democratic contempt for stay-at-home mothers.

"I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work," Ann Romney tweeted shortly after Rosen's remarks.

The Romney campaign has since churned out bumper stickers reading: "Moms drive the economy."

It's all part of a full-court press undertaken by the Romney campaign to woo women away from Obama and into the Republican fold given female voters will likely represent almost 53 per cent of the electorate in November.

The former Massachusetts governor has repeatedly said during recent campaign stops that the president's policies have waged a "real war on women."

And yet a four-month-old video has surfaced that could prove damaging to Romney's efforts to portray himself as a white knight to stay-at-home mothers, in particular those who don't have the benefit of a spouse earning millions.

Shot in early January at a town hall event in New Hampshire, Romney spoke of his proposed welfare reform proposals when he was Massachusetts governor that would have required parents with young children to get jobs.

"I wanted to increase the work requirement," Romney said.

"I said, for instance, that even if you have a child two years of age, you need to go to work. And people said: 'Well that's heartless,' and I said: 'No, no, I'm willing to spend more giving daycare to allow those parents to go back to work. It'll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work."'

Conservatives have long railed against welfare, advocating for policies that would force welfare recipients back into the workforce.

During his failed run for the U.S. Senate in 1994, Romney also acknowledged that many women have no choice but to work.

"This is a different world than it was in the 1960s when I was growing up, when you used to have Mom at home and Dad at work," he said. "Now Mom and Dad both have to work whether they want to or not, and usually one of them has two jobs."

Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Politics/20120415/Womens-issues-at-centre-stage-in-US-presidential-race-120415/#ixzz1sBXeABrJ

women in the arabs

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/03/opinion/pelosi-women-africa-democracy/index.html

(CNN) -- Last month, a delegation of members from the U.S. House of Representatives, which I was honored to lead, met with inspiring women of North Africa who are helping to change the world.

In Cairo, Egypt; Tunis, Tunisia; and Tripoli, Libya, we held discussions with women who are committed to ensuring that women have a seat at the table and are able to succeed in this rapidly changing and strategically important region. It is an uphill climb, but there is no better time than the present.

The women we met were outspoken in their belief that the new governments must be truly democratic, and that longstanding biases against full participation by women in their society must be abolished. These women came from many different backgrounds and viewpoints, yet they are aware that while their moment is now, the obstacles are great.

Some had participated in the massive Arab Spring demonstrations that challenged decades of autocratic rule. Others had studied in the United States and other countries and then returned to build a future where women's voices are equal to those of men. Some are already serving in government but spoke about a need for more women to serve and to lead in forming new democracies in the Middle East.

One message came through clearly in every discussion: They look to the United States as an essential partner in their efforts to build democratic societies.

Women journalists played a crucial role in the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Women are already deeply involved in rebuilding the political and economic systems of their country. Although just 10 of more than 500 members of the new parliament are women, the signal we received is that Egyptian women are committed to expanding their influence and their ranks, and to ensuring that the constitution under development will fully protect the rights of women in Egypt.

Similarly in Tunisia, Deputy Speaker Mehrezia Labidi pledged to lead the effort for women's rights and secular law in her nation. Women already hold 26% of the seats in the Constituent Assembly, which is responsible for drafting Tunisia's Constitution.

The determination of Tunisian women has been demonstrated outside the legislative chambers as well. In the midst of unrest at the University of Manouba, a young woman watched outraged as a zealot tore down her country's flag, and she then courageously climbed the flagpole to restore the flag to its rightful place, winning the plaudits of her countrymen.

Fundamental to opening opportunities to women in public and private life is expanding their access to education. The young women with whom we met in Tripoli were unanimous in their belief that improving the quality of education for all Libyans is essential to the success of their revolution and the modernization of their country, particularly in light of the utter failure of the nation's secondary schools and universities under Moammar Gadhafi.

What I heard from the women of North Africa was a refrain I have also heard in Iraq and Afghanistan and throughout the Middle East: Women and young people are weary of war. They are fed up with leaders who use ideology, religion and war to distract from the real challenges to peace, prosperity and democracy: a lack of education, a failure to provide jobs and economic opportunity, and the subjugation of women. They employed social media such as Facebook and Twitter to circumvent the repression imposed for decades by autocratic regimes and demonstrated astonishing bravery to liberate their countries from tyranny.

They have succeeded in that first phase: Gadhafi, Mubarak and Tunisia's Zine el Abidine Ben Ali are gone. These young women are under no illusions about the challenges they face. They are deeply committed to building democratic societies, and they are looking to us. We cannot fail them.

Leaders throughout North Africa and the Middle East must honor the role women played in freeing their countries: All their citizens -- including women -- have important contributions to make at this historic moment. That is a lesson it has taken the United States many generations to learn, but it is surely one of the most important pieces of wisdom we can share with developing democracies around the world.

ch. 24

the main topic that this chapter is talking about is globalization, and how after world war 2 it had all changed. as many countries instead of trading and receiving products for certain countries, everyone as okay with everyone else. they all had used each other. for example, the barbie and ken dolls where a very popular thing as India made their own version sara and dara. both of these type of dolls were made in china. has they both use china for the making of the product and india and united states pay of the barbie and and sara dolls.

MLK and Gandhi Quotes

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” - Gandhi


"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." - Martin Luther King Jr.


I think that these quotes are the same because in life there is always a step they someone must go or look up to, to do well of believe that there is something good in life to look forward to. As Gandhi explains to live life to the fullest and make everything you did in life be known forever. as Martin Luther Kings explains it as you must walk up the stairs in life, yet the steps are not show as you must make your own staircase in life.

Ch. 23

Nelson Mandela became South Aftica's first black president in 1994. as he was sent to prison for 27 years for treason, sabotage, and conspiracy. in the late 1940s many countries ended the time of empires and got their independence. countries like india, pakistan, syria, the phillipines, jordan, and israel. this chapter to me is mainly about the inportance of many countries coming out of ruling of empires as they grew tired and opressed with the ruling. as there were many struggles in many peoples live trying to get their independence. as Mohandas Ghandi came in to this situation as he became the leader of the INC. as Ghandi as he attacked the mistreatment of untouchables in  India and the bad parts of modernization.as not many people agreed with the ideas of Ghandi because it was the time of when Muslims and Hindus are in conflict. as both Hindu got their independence in india mainly for Hindus and Muslims got their independence in Pakistan.

ch 22. Part 2

this chapter is is mainly about the Russians and the United States throughout the Cold war. as there has been conflict with both about missiles and atomic bombs in which they could use against each other. as then cuba came into this war against the united states, as Fidel Castro came into power in 1959. as Castro aligned himself with the Soviet Union. as this started the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962.

Section 5 and 6

works had to work a lot, that the fact that the working conditions were extremely terrible. working in the sun and spraying poisonous chemicals while they are working. as they work long hours and working in fields and hurting their back while trying to pick things up. as i read i felt shocked on how people could actually live and would have to work for this day after day. even if they get injured during work they must keep going because someone could replace them and will lose their job.