So this sounds like the President is putting money (let's hope) and muscle behind issues that can have a negative impact on the most vulnerable in our patriarchal society: women and children. Per Lynn Sweet:
Obama will sign an executive order creating the council--run by two high level Chicagoans in the White House--designed to "provide a coordinated federal response to the challenges confronted by women and girls and to ensure that all Cabinet and Cabinet-level agencies consider how their policies and programs impact women and families."According to the White House, "the Council will begin its work by asking each agency to analyze their current status and ensure that they are focused internally and externally on women."
Well a big hurrah is in order IF this isn't simply window dressing and policies will be enacted, reevaluated or scrapped if they are proven to be ineffective towards helping improve the lives of all women, but especially the poorer ones. Jarrett is brilliant so let's hope she has the authority to crack the whip so to speak and push along an often willfully ignorant bureaucracy.
As we know AIDs, HIV, STIs and human trafficking of girls is a huge problem that overwhelmingly impacts women and girls of color. So putting the family planning provision back into the stimulus bill was a good move. From signing the Ledbetter Act to this I am pleased these gestures have been made. Let it continue and let it be permanent.
