Condoleezza Rice is pure political gold!

Democrats who think it's going to be a cakewalk into the White House next November had best remember one name: Condoleezza Rice.

John McCain is a formidable candidate in his own right, but if he has the political imagination to do it, he can cause the party of Jefferson and Jackson indescribable angst with Rice as his vice-presidential pick. Read full story in the Nation

Dr. Condoleezza Rice became Secretary of State on January 26, 2005. Prior to this, she was the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor, since January, 2001.
Read more about Dr. Rice

Rice and the issues: War, Terrorism, Abortion...

Clinton stated she "embodies change"

"Change" in the debates
By Eleanor Glynn Kjellman January 5, 2008 11:30 PM Boston Globe

The boys were at it again tonight in a sort of tag team effort to accuse Hillary of being incapable of bringing about change -except for Bill Richardson who made the case for experience being important.
Hillary's comments about change- she has been a change agent for 35 years - from the special education law in the 70's right up to last year fighting Bush and the Pentagon in getting health care for the National Guard. She stands on her record and it is one that proves she knows how to make change happen in Washington. I liked her pointing out that she "embodies change"- she will be the first woman president - a huge change - one that is overdue in the US.

For full article visit: Boston Globe
Photo from NY Times article

The First American “petticoat politician” to Run for President

“We’ll overthrow this bogus Republic and plant a government of righteousness instead!” roared Victoria Woodhull in 1872 as the first female to run for president in the USA.

Although virtually ignored by history, Woodhull was well-known in her day. Woodhull was not merely a politician; she and her sister were the first female stockbrokers on Wall Street, she was the publisher of a newspaper, a lobbyist, a social reformer, lecturer, and a mother of two.

Her political platform extended beyond women’s rights. Woodhull ran as presidential candidate of the Equal Rights Party, which supported not only women's right to vote and work, but also supported nationalization of land; cost-based pricing to reduce excessive profits; a fairer division of earnings between labor and capital; the elimination of exorbitant interest rates; and free speech and a free press.

To learn more about Victoria Woodhull visit:
http://feministgeek.com/teaching-learning/woodhull/

America’s Victoria: Remembering Victoria Woodhull is a recent documentary film chronicling the life of this 19-century American feminist, which is now available on DVD from Zoie Films.
http://www.zoiefilms.com/homevideo.html

To view film clips about Woodhull including
HerStory - Victoria Woodhull (3:08), and
Victoria Woodhull Short (2:50) visit:
http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1243622980

To learn about women and the American presidency visit American Women Presidents, a national political action committee (PAC) dedicated to electing women to the U.S. presidency. Their presidential hopefuls for 2008 included Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius.

SWEDEN ranked #1 in 2007 Gender Gap Index

According to the 2007 Global Gender Gap Report:
"The five Nordic countries, which also perform consistently well in the World Economic Forum’s competitiveness rankings, all continue to hold a place among the top 10, with Sweden (1), Norway (2), Finland (3), Iceland (4) and Denmark (8) in the same positions as last year. While no country has yet achieved gender equality, Sweden, Norway and Finland have all closed over 80% of the gender gap and thus serve as a useful benchmark for international comparisons.”

At the bottom of the list of 128 counties indexed are Saudia Arabia (124), Nepal (125), Pakistan (126), Chad (127) and Yeman (128).

The United Kingdom ranked 11th, Canada 18th, South Africa 20th and the United States ranked 31st just above Kazakhstan (32) and well above Russia (45) and France (51). Ranking is based on four categories: Economic Participation and Opportunities; Educational Attainment; Health and Survival; and Political Empowerment.

While the USA ranked 14th in Economic Participation and Opportunities, and 36th in Health and Survival, it came in 69th in Political Empowerment (just behind Ethiopia) and 76th in Educational Attainment.

These rankings can be interpreted in several ways. For example one possible explanation for the USA's low rating in Political Empowerment might be that women in the USA are too busy taking advantage of economic opportunities to get involved in government compared to the women of Ethiopia, the United Emirate, Zimbabwe, Tunisia and the other counties that ranked higher than the USA in Political Empowerment for women, but lower in other categories. Or perhaps there is a correlation between Educational Attainment and Political Empowerment.

The ranking for Political Empowerment is based on the ratio of women to men in parliament and in ministerial positions, and the number of years a female has held position as head of state in the past 50 years.

Sweden, which ranked # 1 overall and in Political Empowerment, has not had a female head of state since Ulrika Eleonora whose reign was 1718-1720. (See above portrait) But Swedish women have 47% representation in parliament and hold 52% of ministerial positions. The Swedish government has actually set national objectives for gender equality, which are delineated on Sweden’s official government website.

“The main objective of the government's policy is that ‘women and men shall have equal power to shape society and their own lives’. A prerequisite to accomplish this is that women and men enjoy the same opportunities, rights and obligations in all spheres of life.”

Listed among the objectives are equal pay and ending violence against women as well as “an equal distribution of unpaid care and household work. Women and men shall take the same responsibility for household work and have the same opportunities to give and receive care on equal terms.”

The objectives do not mention education, but in Sweden the educational level of women exceeds that of men.

We look forward to your comments.

For more information on what Sweden is doing to promote gender equality visit:
http://www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/4096

To read the full Global Gender Gap Report 2007:
http://www.weforum.org/en/about/Women%20Leaders/index.htm