Activity # 11

I found it really interesting searching for the women’s issues associated with each candidate for the United States president. The first candidate that I researched was Senator John McCain. The first thing that I came across was that McCain wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade and return the decisions of abortion to the individual states. I was not shocked about this because Republicans typically are pro-life. Other than that, I could not really find any other important parts to McCain’s campaign that were geared towards women’s rights and issues.
The second candidate that I researched was Senator Hillary Clinton. Clinton had a page labeled a Champion for Women which explained her stance on women's issues. First of all, Clinton plans on strengthening equal pay laws and disparities between women and men. She has introduced the Paycheck Fairness Act to set a higher standard and increase oversight of employers. She has also tried to increase access to capital and other support for women-owned businesses. She also stands as a pro-choice advocate and wants to expand access to family planning services, which includes low-income women. She also states that she wants to microfinance programs that enable women to start their own businesses. She has championed the Prevention First Act, to expand access to family planning services for low-income women and make health insurance companies to cover contraception. She has also helped pass the Family and Medical Leave Act and helped found the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancies which has significantly reduced teen pregnancies. She has also helped make Plan B available over the counter. Clinton also put on her website that she has spoken out against the Supreme Court’s April 2007 decision that failed to recognize the importance of women’s health and that she has spoken out strongly against sex trafficking.
The last candidate for president that I researched was Senator Barack Obauma. Obauma had an area called learn where Barack stands under his page about women. Obauma stated that he is going to work to overturn the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that restricts racial minorities’ and women’s ability to challenge pay discrimination. He will also pass the Fair Pay Act to ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work. He also would expand programs like the successful Nurse-Family Partnership to all low-income, first-time mothers. Obauma has also introduced the Microbicide Development Act to fight against AIDS. These are products under development that women would apply topically. He has also fought to fight Heart disease and ovarian cancer as well as breast cancer by maintaining funding for the Centers of Excellence in Women’s Health, being a co-sponsor of Johanna’s Law, and helped pass legislation in Illinois to expand insurance coverage for mammograms. He plans to reduce health risks due to mercury and support stem cell research. He also, like Hillary Clinton, is pro-choice. Obauma has introduced the Prevention First Act to increase funding for family planning and comprehensive sex education. He has also co-sponsored and helped reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. Obauma also plans to promote women in math and science, protect title IX, improve afterschool and daycare opportunities, investing in women-owned small businesses, and improving child support collection.
After reading about all of the candidates, it was pretty clear that Senator Hillary Clinton and Barack Obauma put more effort into women’s issues than John McCain. There was a lot of material on Barack Obauma’s website about what he would like to do to help women. Hillary Clinton also had a lot of material on her accomplishments for women’s rights and seemed to care about them as expected from a woman candidate. I think that these candidates have put a lot of effort into this topic because they want to enhance women's rights and they realize that a lot of their voters are women! I do not think it was very smart on Senator McCain's part to not provide that much information on what he would do for women. Overall, I believe that Obauma was the best at addressing all of the issues associated with women. However, based on this topic, I think that Clinton or Obauma would make a great president.