Election 2012 Year of the Woman : Heart & Soul

Election 2012 Year of the Woman

Posted by cbrown on Friday, October 5, 2012 ? Leave a Comment?

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Obama and Romney court female voters
? in different ways

? By Marcia Davis

The day after Ann Romney took the stage at the Republican National Convention in Tam-pa to deliver a speech about her husband, presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a group of Black women gathered in Florida for a roundtable discussion.
The topic across the bridge in St. Petersburg that afternoon was ?What the 2012 Election Means to Black Women.? The event, sponsored by the Black Women?s Roundtable, included Republicans and Democrats who discussed what they would tell President Obama and his challenger if they had the chance.
Education, jobs, the economy and the criminal justice system were at the top of their lists, according to Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, a nonpartisan group dedicated to increasing civic engagement and voter participation in underserved communities.
?There was also a lot of conversation about the fact that people are concerned about our voting rights, too,? says Campbell, who noted the Roundtable hosted a similar panel the following week in Charlotte, N.C., during the Democratic National Convention.
Earlier in August, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health? organized women in 10 states across the country ? from California to Texas to New York ? to speak out on reproductive rights, immigration and health care in general. There was a special focus on the Affordable Care Act ? or Obamacare, as it?s come to be known by both supporters and opponents.
Soy Poderosa! ? ?I?m powerful? ? was the theme for the group?s third annual week of action, which urged participants to tell their personal stories, as well as write their governors to demand full implementation of the new health care law.
?What we are seeing is a rise of women of color doing a lot of writing and blogging, and tweeting and Facebooking,? says NLIRH?s executive director Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas. ?It may not be this organized movement but rather people coming from a very authentic place to express their rage.?
All of it ? the roundtable, the letter-writing, the social networking, the rage ? is unfolding in the context of one of the most consequential presidential races in recent history. On that much, at least, Democrats and Republicans agree. The choice is stark, with each party offering vastly contrasting views on how to handle a slowly but rebounding economy, and how to define the nation?s social values ? be it on issues of gay marriage, immigration or access to abortion.
And not since 1992 ? when four women were elected to the U.S. Senate on the heels of the extraordinary Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas battle before the Senate Judiciary Committee during Thomas? Supreme Court confirmation hearings ? has gender politics been on such raw display.
In February, there was Rush Limbaugh on national radio calling a young law student a slut and prostitute for her support of contraceptives; and U.S. Rep. Todd Akin (R) of Missouri shocked the country in August with his fantastical comments on ?legitimate rape.? Akin?s remarks may have derailed the GOP?s efforts to unseat Missouri?s Sen. Claire McCaskill to reclaim a majority in the U.S. Senate.
Obama and Romney are on opposite sides of access to abortion services, with Obama supporting a woman?s right to choose and Romney, who at one time held the same view, now opposing it. His running mate, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, has been a longtime abortion opponent.
From the fight over reproductive rights to an 8-plus percent unemployment rate, women live their lives at the nexus of the economic and social issues that are defining this election.
For many women of color ? and their children ? life at that intersection can often be filled with great challenges and even greater peril. Women were hit hard by the recession, from job loss to home loss to hunger. They are more likely to be poor, more likely to be sick, more likely to be without health insurance. And they are more likely to be on the front lines of the nation?s immigration battles. Collectively, though, they still may be the least likely to pierce the national consciousness.
An exception, one could argue, has been the estimated 1.7 million ?Dreamers,? young men and women for whom the president has offered temporary sanctuary ? at least a two-year deportation deferment for undocumented immigrants under 31 who arrived here as children. Now, if they meet the qualifications, which include having a high school diploma and no criminal record, they can live without fear of deportation and receive a work permit.
But it seems that beyond the ?Dreamers? ? as they are called after proposed legislation known as the Dream Act ? few in the national discourse are drilling down into the realities of what it means to be Latino, Black and female in America.

The Planned Parenthood Action Fund held a rally in Syracuse?s Hanover Square, part of an 11-state ?Women are Watching? bus tour encouraging voters to support the re-election of President Obama.

HEALTH DISPARITIES
AND AFFORDABLE CARE

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The facts are straightforward and disturbing: A frightening percentage of Black women and Latinas simply are not well.? The numbers tell the story. According to the federal government, in 2009, 21 percent of Black women and 18 percent of Hispanics reported being in fair or poor health, compared with 11 percent of non-Hispanic White women. Hypertension, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and obesity strike women of color disproportionately.
?Black women earn less, we have less wealth and resources and, therefore, we are less likely to be able to afford the kind of preventive care or the kind of medication that we need in order to be in compliance when we have chronic diseases,? says Eleanor Hinton Hoytt, president and CEO of the Black Women?s Health Imperative.
For Hoytt and activists such as Gonzalez-Rojas, the Affordable Care Act ? the largest and most controversial safety net law in decades ? is a big step in the right direction.
The health care system overhaul requires Americans who can afford it buy health care insurance, and extends coverage to about 30 million of the nation?s poor and low income through an expansion of Medicaid. The Supreme Court upheld the law in June, while also ruling that states could not be forced to expand Medicaid coverage. From its inception, the GOP has fought the law, and the Romney-Ryan campaign has vowed to undo it.
But activists like Hoytt and Gonzalez-Rojas see the law as a lifeline for women of color. About 20 percent of African Americans and about a third of Latinos are uninsured.
?Although it?s not perfect, it is our first opportunity for Black women, and poor women and other women of color, to have access to preventive care services so that we can even begin that journey toward health and wellness,? Hoytt says.
Like Hoytt, Gonzalez-Rojas can list the law?s benefits ? from allowing families to keep children insured until they are 26, to not allowing insurance companies to turn away those with preexisting conditions. There also are preventive care services specific? to women.
On Aug. 1, eight new provisions covering preventive care for women came on the books, and no longer require deductibles or copays. They include well woman visits; gestational diabetes screening; domestic violence screening and counseling; breast-feeding support, including supplies; HPV DNA testing for those 30 and under; STD counseling as well as HIV screening and counseling. Without a doubt, the most controversial is the provision that provides contraception and counseling.
Gonzalez-Rojas sees a critical need for the services in Latino communities, where there?s a desperate need for coverage and the median age is 27 ? prime reproductive years.
Immigration is important to NLIRH, too. The organization advocated for undocumented immigrants to be included in the health care law, but to no avail. Undocumented immigrants won?t be allowed to buy insurance from the health care exchanges that are supposed to start in 2014 ?even with their own money,? Gonzalez-Rojas laments.
?Given the divisive political climate and all the anti-immigrant and anti-women rhetoric, it?s really damaging for our communities and women of color in general,? she says.
Jennifer Ng?andu, deputy director for the health policy project at the civil rights group, National Council of La Raza, puts it this way: ?When it comes to immigrants and women?s health care, it?s almost as if they are damned if they do and damned if they don?t. An immigrant woman who is pregnant is just as stigmatized as one who is not. They are at the intersection of two worlds, where they have the ability to be stigmatized first as a woman and then as an immigrant.?

THE GROUND VIEW
Sharon Hart and Jersey Garcia see change in the big and small moments of the lives of the women they encounter.
For 25 years Hart has worked at N Street Village, which bills itself as the largest provider of women-only services for the District of Columbia?s homeless population. Just a four-minute drive from the White House, N Street assists about 900 homeless and low-income women annually.
N Street?s programs include a wellness center that provides everything from yoga classes to diabetic counseling. They run a permanent resident facility as well as day programs.
?We have seen an increase in the homeless population,? Hart says. ?It?s not the stereotype anymore.?We see more people who are homeless because they have medical issues or they have lost their jobs.?
Approximately 1,000 miles away in Miami, Garcia is the executive director and lone staffer of Mi Lola, a community organizing effort supported by the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. Garcia engages women on issues such as reproductive rights, immigration and health care. Texas, which also has a large immigrant population, has a similar effort.
Women overall are paid 77 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earn, but for Black women that number is about 62 cents and for Latinas 54 cents, the National Women?s Law Center reports. And Black and Latina women are more likely to work in low-paying jobs, such as home health aides, maids and housekeepers.
The population served at N Street in the District of Columbia is mostly African American, but includes Whites, some Latinas, some women from Africa, even Korea, Hart says. Health issues are critical for many of them.
?Every day we?re dealing with women, and we know what the difference it makes when you have insurance and when you don?t have insurance. We have a lot of women with some serious health problems,? Hart says.
?Most of our population is between 40 and 70 years old ? Anything that happens with Medicare and Medicaid will affect that population.?
Some older women have been able to remain at N Street through major illnesses, but sometimes, Hart says, clients must be moved to a nursing home, when Medicare and Medicaid needs become even more acute.
In Miami, Jersey Garcia has seen what can happen to women who go from believing no one cares what they think to finding the power of their voices in visiting legislators? offices.
?We picked up women to come and talk to Sen. [Bill] Nelson?s staff and talk about what was important to women with the Affordable Care Act,? she says. ?When women left that office, they felt empowered?.A lot of women, and specifically women of color, feel very intimidated by the legislative process?. They feel that how they speak doesn?t resonate with those in power.?
Part of Garcia?s job is to connect the dots on issues, from jobs to health care to immigration to issues specific to women?s health.
?People in the community are fighting around having a just wage for their work ? That is integral to reproductive rights and health,? she says. ?If I don?t have a just wage, then I can?t afford the health care needed.?
But Garcia is also finding another challenge that is true for many Americans and not at all unique to Latino communities: When it comes to the health care law, there?s confusion, misinformation and ignorance. Too often, women are unaware of the preventive care measures that the new law covers.
?When I?ve gone to give presentations about the Affordable Care Act, people don?t know anything about it,? Garcia says. ?What they have heard is that it is bad. They just say, I just know that it?s bad. They are making us buy insurance and nobody should make us buy anything.?
So she gives them the list of benefits covered in the law, and tells them about the differences it can make in their lives. She shares her own story, too, of being unable to afford an IUD, which was $800 in 2010 after delivering her daughter.? She chose a contraception pill instead.
?Now with the Affordable Care Act [women] don?t have to pay for contraception. By 2014, all plans should be able to not charge you a co-payment for contraception, mammograms or pap smears ? breast-feeding equipment. I remember going crazy to find [affordable] breast-feeding equipment to rent.?

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MEDICARE AND MEDICAID
We are often reminded that more than half of poor children live in households headed by single women.
In 2010, four in 10 single-mother families were poor, and that was about one in two for Black and Latina single-mother households, according to the National Women?s Law Center.
More than one in five Black and Latina elderly women was poor and one in six elderly women living alone was poor.
?For African Americans and Latinas, it may be one of the seminal events of our lifetime,? Maya Rockeymoore says of this year?s election. ?The difference is between access to health care when you?re old, a secure check when you become older, and whether you can have access to Medicaid when you?re younger.?
Rockeymoore is president and CEO of Global Policy Solutions, a consulting firm in Washington, D.C. In June, she was elected to chair the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. And for a while now she?s been a passionate opponent of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan?s policies. Ryan, of course, is Romney?s vice presidential running mate.
The Ryan budget, which the Republican-dominated House passed and the Democratic-led Senate rejected, would make deep cuts to programs such as educational Pell Grants and food stamps; and make long-term changes to Medicare, such as raising the eligibility age and creating a voucher program. It would also significantly change Medicaid, making the federal part of the program a block grant to the states. And it proposes repealing the Affordable Care Act, which would mean reversing the planned expansion of Medicaid, the key avenue to the health law?s effort to provide coverage to poor families.
?The Paul Ryan budget actually eliminates Medicare as we know it and it turns Medicare into a voucher program,? Rockeymoore says. ?African Americans and Latinas and their children are disproportionately represented on the Medicaid rolls.?
She worries about Social Security, too. ?Women of color have a heavy reliance on Social Security benefits, as well as their children,? she says. ?We tend not to work in those jobs with private pensions. Social Security tends to be all we have.?
As devastating as the Ryan proposals are, Romney?s proposals could be worse, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The nonpartisan think tank observed, ?Governor Romney?s cuts would be substantially deeper than those required under the austere House-passed budget plan authored by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI). Over the 2014-2022 period, Romney would require cuts in programs other than Social Security and defense of $7 trillion to $10 trillion, compared with a little over $5 trillion under the Ryan budget.?

ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE
new Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez delivered a dynamic speech at the Republican National Convention. She was one of several Latinos to make high-profile appearances in Tampa. The others were Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, Texas candidate for the U.S. Senate, Ted Cruz and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, who introduced Romney before his acceptance speech.
About two-thirds of Latino voters have said they support Obama, but there are voters who agree with Martinez and Rubio in their support of Romney, according to Latino Decisions, a political opinion research organization that specializes in polling Latino populations.
?Too many Americans are out of work, and our debt is out of control. This election needs to be about those issues,? Martinez told the convention audience.
By focusing on the economy and women?s concerns about jobs, the GOP has tried to close the historic gender gap and repair damage caused by comments made by Rush Limbaugh and U.S. Rep. Todd Akins of Missouri ? now a Senate candidate whose remarks abut ?legitimate? rate? caused a firestorm in August.
But even Martinez, who is an abortion opponent and whose name was mentioned as a possible Romney running mate, has acknowledged differences with her presidential candidate. Among them is Romney?s idea that people who were not in the country legally should ?self-deport.?
In an interview with Time magazine, Martinez asked: ?What the heck does that mean??
Latino voters are seen as more diverse in their political leanings than African Americans who vote Democratic more than 90 percent of? the time, according to polls. Renee Amoore is an exception. She is an African-American businesswoman in Pennsylvania, as well as the deputy chair of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania. She also sits on the advisory board for the Romney Black Leadership Council.
?Of course, I care about health care,? she says. ?We all know the job employment situation?. It?s really bad. My thing with President Obama: I think he?s a good guy. The whole thing is I just can?t agree with his policies. I don?t want government telling me were to get my health care from.?
Even so, she says: ?I don?t want people to have foreclosures on their homes?.I don?t want unemployment. I think everyone should get health care.? She continues, ?Entitlements are coming to the point where people are saying we can?t give them because we can?t afford it. Why not think outside of the box and look for other ways to support it??

GETTING TO NOVEMBER
About 66 percent of women voted in 2008 compared with 62 percent of men, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Translation: 70.4 million women went to the polls compared with 60.7 million men. In the 2010 midterm elections, according to the bureau, 46.2 percent of women reported voting compared with 45 percent of men. Overall, 66 percent of women reported being registered voters.
It?s no secret that for three decades a gender gap has meant more women than men breaking for the Democratic Party. No one expects that to be different this time around.
There?s also little mystery on where many African American and Latina women stand. In 2008, African American women were critical to Obama?s election. According to the Pew Research Center, Black women had the largest turnout rate of the electorate, rising from 63.7 percent in 2004 to 68.8 percent in 2008.
An estimated 10.2 million Latino voters participated in the 2008 elections. With Latino registered voters, 61 percent identified as Democrat, 17 percent Republican, and 14 percent Independent, the Latino Decisions polling group reported.
And in the 2010 midterm elections, Black women and Latinas again voted more than men, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.
There are more than 21 million Latinos eligible to vote in November, says Gonzalez-Rojas of NILRH, and 52 percent of registered Latino voters are women. Among them, an overwhelming majority favors Obama (66 percent) over Romney (29 percent), according to Latino Decisions.
?Latino voter turnout is going to be critical in states like Colorado, Nevada, Florida and Virginia, and while a majority of Latinos currently plan to vote for Obama, the bigger question is just how many will come out to vote?? Latino Decisions says on its Web site. ?In 2008 we saw record turnout, but so far in 2012 enthusiasm remains a question.?
The enthusiasm gap, the gender gap, and the fear of voter suppression are all questions that activists say are on the table for Nov. 6.
Jennifer Ng?andu of La Raza, however, says, ?We?re seeing big numbers of registrants. There are operations in places like Florida, Colorado and Nevada.?
But it?s not 2008, Campbell of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, cautions. Her group focuses on engaging women and youth. ?It?s not the same in terms of the historical nature of the vote,? she says.
?There is some level of frustration when you are just trying to figure out how to pay your rent, keep your house, take care of your kids,? she says. ?In tougher economic times it?s harder to get people to pay attention to the vote.?
What?s been more troubling since the nominating conventions, she says, have been the changes in voting laws, which the Justice Department has challenged in courts as efforts to suppress voting.
?But what we are starting to see is that people are starting to pay attention,? Campbell says. Her organization has a goal of adding 50,000 new Black voters in seven key states: Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin and Michigan.
?We want fair elections,? Campbell says. ?Whoever wins wins, but we want those elections to be fair.? All the agendas won?t matter if people don?t vote ? that?s on the national level, but the state races this year, too.?
Hoytt, of the Black Women?s Health Initiative, is incredulous and outraged that women are still facing the obstacles they do.
Too many lawmakers and others in our society, she says, ?have failed to appreciate those of us who are different? in race and size and age and color and hair and whatever and sexual orientation? It has destroyed our sense of valuing the human rights of individuals.
?I am pasisonate about this because I?m an older black woman,? she says. ?I fought in the 60s for civil rights, in the 70s for women?s right, in the 80s for Black women?s rights?and to have to fight this all over again, what is going on? To now say that you are going to once again deny us??
Gonzalez-Rojas understands that kind of passion.
?I think that?s going to help the women?s rights movement,? she says of the kind of anger she?s seen among some women participating in the Soy Poderosa! campaign. ?Connecting that to a political candidate makes it more clear who we are putting in office. ?
Rockeymoore also understands the challenges women and other voters face in sorting through these volatile and consequential political times.
?People are turned off of politics right now,? she says. ?They need to understand that it?s not about Mitt Romney versus Barack Obama?it?s about us.?

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Photo credits

MASTERFILE

STEPHEN D. CANNERELLI/The Post-Standard /Landov

Source: http://www.heartandsoul.com/2012/10/election-2012-year-of-the-woman/

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