Feminist Peace Network

Yesterday my local newspaper had a blurb in the Health section saying that women were more stressed out about the economy than men.  Just gave the stats, no analysis, but it’s a fair bet that men are more likely to be worried about their retirement benefits while women who are paid less in the first place and less likely to have benefits to worry about are more focused on putting food on the table, having shelter, education and healthcare, so yeah duh, we’re more stressed–just my take.

However I found it refreshing that in this election cycle that has almost completely ignored ‘women’s’ economic issues, the Economists’ Policy Group on Women’s Issues (EPGWI) has issued a report card on where the 2 main presidential candidates stand on health care, pay and employment equity, retirement security, taxes, paid leave, child care and early education, poverty, non-traditional families, domestic violence and reproductive rights:

“Republican presidential candidate John McCain barely got a passing grade on issues that matter to women while his Democratic rival Barack Obama scored a “B” in report cards awarded Thursday to the two men by US economists.

The Economists’ Policy Group on Women’s Issues (EPGWI), made up of economics professors and researchers from 25 US universities, gave McCain two “Fs” — the failing grade — for his positions on pay and jobs equity and reproductive rights.

The 72-year-old Republican also got six “Ds”, one mark short of failing, and two Cs, with his grade averaging out to D overall.

Obama, 47, scored two “As” — at the opposite end of the scale from an “F” — for reproductive rights and domestic violence. All the rest of his marks were Bs.

EPGWI, which hasn’t issued candidates’ report cards since 1992, when Democrat Bill Clinton ran against incumbent Republican George H. W. Bush, decided to do so this year “because we felt women’s issues were being upstaged,” said Nancy Folbre, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

“We’re tired of hearing about the “Joes,” as in six-pack and Plumber, and want more attention paid to the “Joannes” — the women in our economy who typically earn less money and shoulder more family responsibilities than men,” Folbre said.

“What about Josephine the working mother, Wanda the waitress, Sarah the school teacher?” asked Folbre.

“These women care about health care, pay equity, retirement security … and want to know where the candidates stand on these issues,” she said.

The 10 issues on which the candidates were graded were health care, pay and employment equity, retirement security, taxes, paid leave, child care and early education, poverty, non-traditional families, domestic violence and reproductive rights.

The panel of economists, comprising both women and men, awarded the grades based on the candidates’ policies.”

As we have said more times than  I can count on this blog, if we are to have a healthy economy, these issues must be addressed and the voices of those most affected must be included in that process.

Filed under: Uncategorized, U.S. Politics, Economics