It’s the day after the first presidential debate, and women across the country are scratching their heads wondering: What happened to them? Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Merle Hoffman penned a featured piece on Huffington Post asking this very question:
After debating every major “right-to-life” leader in this country — including Jerry Falwell — I didn’t need to watch the debate tonight to know that no matter who the pundits say won, it is women who are losing.
In the meager segment set aside to discuss health care in tonight’s debate, both candidates brought out their shop-worn stump speeches on the merits and weaknesses of Obamacare.
At one point Governor Romney said the government shouldn’t be “telling a patient and a doctor what kind of treatment they should have.”
What an opening for Obama to come out strongly in favor of reproductive freedom and a woman’s right to choose. This was Obama’s opportunity to emphasize, with strength, that he supports Roe v. Wade — which I consider to be the Medical Equal Rights Amendment for women.
But he didn’t. Like I said, it’s the same old story.
The Latest and Greatest at OTI: A Round-Up
Did we mention we have a new Senior Editor? Barbara Fischkin has been bringing some fantastic, fresh content to the magazine. Check out what we’ve had brewing over the last couple of weeks:
The Presidential Debate and the 20 Year Gender Gap: Carole Simpson on 1992, by Barbara Fischkin:
“I had no tapes to go by,” Simpson said during a live panel presentation Thursday evening. “I don’t have any way to see how this is going to look.” So she “studied morning, noon and night. I made up my own questions, in case something happened.” It was the pinnacle of her career, so she just kept saying to herself: “Carol you gotta do it. You just gotta do it.”
Brilliance Outside the Box: Shulamith Firestone Remembered, by Barbara Fischkin:
It was a memorial service – and a call to action.
Shulamith Firestone, the brilliant, troubled feminist author, artist and activist who died in late August, was remembered at a sad but energized Manhattan memorial service Sunday night at St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery.
“The only box Shulie ever fit in was a simple pine box,” Firestone’s sister Laya Firestone Seghi told a tearful, multi-generational gathering, speaking about her sister’s funeral on August 31. More than a hundred mourners- including many feminist leaders — attended.
ReBirth of an Activist, by Pamela Leigh:
Although I was relatively engaged with feminist issues in the late 1960s and early 1970s, these matters later took a back seat to career and marriage and for too many years languished. These feminist passions were reignited one night this past March after viewing the nightly news.
Where’s the Woman’s Room This Year?, by Carol Jenkins:
I don’t count myself a pessimist, but I am apprehensive. I am most concerned about Black women and other women of color. They remain the invisibles in the debates about the economy and work, the role of government, health, education — all of the important, essential conversations we must have if we are to survive. High visibility discussions such as Anne Marie Slaughter’s Atlantic piece, “Why Women Can’t Have it All,” are useful for the privileged among us — but do little for women of any color living in poverty or working three jobs to support children.
Don’t forget to check out the incredible pieces for our new issue on the issues that will remain after the election is over! And join in on the conversation in comments, Facebook and Twitter!
Thanks for reading!