EMILY's List
Why Women? A lopsided health care debate
By Stephanie Schriock on 02/26/2010 @ 05:35 PM
Five.
Out of more than 40 members of Congress and the Cabinet attending the President’s health care summit yesterday, that’s how many were women.
Shocking, isn’t it? But in a representative democracy where only 17 percent of Congress is made up of women, that’s what we get -- a group that’s far from representative.
Women in America carry a heavy burden when it comes to health care -- but when yesterday’s summit took place, there were only a handful of women’s voices at the table. Make no mistake: The women at the conference -- including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and EMILY’s List alums Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Senator Patty Murray (WA), and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (NY-28) – made themselves heard. And if you haven’t heard what they had to say, you need to. Check it out here.
Health care is a huge portion of our economic output -- nearly 16 percent -- and yet one-half of our population was hardly represented in the debate yesterday. Just imagine how yesterday’s conversations would have gone with 20 women in that room? If your own mom, aunt, grandma had been there -- the same women who gave birth, took their kids to the doctor and soothed them when they had the chicken pox, figured out how to balance the household budget and medical bills -- can you imagine what they would have had to say?
For all those women -- and the daughters and sons, nieces and nephews for whom they cared -- we must still push for equal representation.
Our women in the House and Senate have been fighters for change -- ensuring women don’t pay more than men for the same coverage and have access to preventative care, and protesting insurance companies’ practice of classifying domestic violence as a “pre-existing condition.” But there simply aren’t enough of them. As much as our women have already accomplished -- on health care, education, and the economy -- it’s incredible to think what we could do with more of them in office.
Committee chairs and ranking members made up the bulk of the participants in yesterday’s meeting, just as you’d expect. But here’s the problem: with such a small percentage of Congress made up of women, we simply don’t have the numbers of women we need for a representative showing. More women in office will mean more women voicing our issues, working on solutions, and serving in leadership roles. And it will mean more seats at the table for key events like yesterday’s summit.
I came on board at EMILY’s List because I’m incredibly impressed by what this organization has done to change the face of power in America. And, looking at yesterday’s list of White House invitees, I’m reminded exactly how much work we have ahead of us. Change isn’t going to happen tomorrow, or next year, but it will happen -- but we’re counting you to be part of it. Join our network, get involved, help make change. EMILY’s List is committed to doing just that -- until five women becomes ten, and ten becomes twenty. And our government starts to look more like America.
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