The campaign promises to women that McCain and Obama have made--thus far.
Millions of women of this country had a massive girl crush on HillaryClinton. Now, that she’s out of the picture, some don’t know whom to love. Her former rivals are trying hard to woo the female vote. But it's going to take more than hand-shaking and baby-kissing to earn the female vote.
The menu of poltical issues has to contain more than just the tired pro-choice/prolife question. Women need action on lots of other women's issues: finances, family leave, work-life issues, veterans issues, child support, etc etc.
Obama held a women’s town hall lastweek; right after McCain affirmed that he cared about the other half. So which candidate would do more to improve women’s lives? Who cares more?
The chart below contrasts what each candidate has discussed doing in the future—not what they had claimed to achieve—that would concretely affect the lives of women (as recorded in the issue statements of their sites). See for yourself who’s going to do what to better women’s lives. It could happen, especially if the 16 women in the Senate and dozens of womenin the house pitch in to help.
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| BARACK OBAMA PROMISES TO: | JOHN MCCAIN PROMISES TO: |
| CHILDREN | Expand Nurse-Family partnership to low-income first-time mothers. Increase federal support for after-school programs that have proven to help children avoid crime and drugs.
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| EDUCATION
| Work to ensure all children have access to pre-school by moving states to voluntary, universal pre-school. Quadruple the number of eligible children for Early Head Start increase Head Start funding Enforce Title IX so it provides girls opportunity to girls in all aspects of education—not just sports. Create Teacher Service Scholarships to cover four years of undergraduate or two of graduate education--in exchange for teaching for at least four years in a high-need field or location.
Reward Teachers- 70% of whom are women--with pay increases for performing well or taking on more responsibilities. |
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| FAMILY-WORK | Expand FMLA so it will apply to more employees of smaller businesses. Encourage states to adopt paid leave programs and provide $1.5 billion in start up funding. Allow FMLA to include leaves for purposes of elder care, children’s school activities, domestic violence, sexual assault or to care for someone other than a relative who lives in the home. Reform the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit by making it refundable and allowing low-income families receive up to a 50 percent credit for child care costs. Increase federal support for after-school programs with proven success in helping children avoid crime or drugs. |
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| FINANCIAL
Women tend to make up a greater portion of the working poor and suffer low wages and tax burdens. Elderly women experience more poverty and lack the savings and pension life-time male workers have. | Increase the number of working parents eligible for EITC benefits. Reduce the EITC marriage penalty that hurts low-income families. Help those who support their children with child support. (i.e. working single mothers) by increasing the EITC benefit to $1,110 Let minimum wage workers (who are often women) receive an EITC benefit of $555, or three times today’s average. Create a "Making Work Pay" refundable tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per working family—which will offset payroll taxes and eliminate tax for 10 million Americans. The making Work Pay tax will also help business owners who must pay both parts of the payroll tax. Create saving incentive plan that will match 50% of first $1,000 of savings for families with incomes less than $75,000 Enroll workers—who may opt out-- in an automatic workplace pension plan which will be required of all employers—since currently women receive almost half as much as men in pensions. Preserve social security
| Repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), which would save a middle class family with children, now set to pay the AMT, an average of over $2,700.
Double the personal exemption for dependents for families and single parents from $3,500 to $7,000.
Save the future of Social Security without raising taxes and supplementing the current system with personal accounts.
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| HEALTH | Preserve women’s right to abortion.
Reduce women’s exposure to toxic mercury (which affects 5 million of childbearing age) by reducing the amount of mercury deposited into watersheds—instead of making women avoid healthy fish.
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Believes Roe v. Wade should be overturned and will appoint judges who will do so. Will seek ways to promote adoption to deal with unwanted pregnancy.
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| LESBIANS | Have the Employment Non-Discrimination Act prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.
Pass the Matthew Shepherd Act, and reinvigorate enforcement at the Department of Justice's Criminal Section
| No explicit promises in this regard, but believes that marriage is a union between one man and one woman.
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| SENIORS Women, who live 7 years longer than men with less income | Eliminate income tax for seniors making less than $50,000 per year, providing an average cut of $1,400.
Reform the financing of long term care to protect seniors and families.
Work to improve the quality of elder care, including by training more nurses and health care workers. | Lower Medicaid premiums that cut into seniors’ fixed incomes.
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| WORK
60% of those in low wage jobs are women.
Women are also less likely to receive sick leave.
Working mothers are not easily accommodated in the workforce. | Raise the minimum wage—to an unspecified figure—and index it to inflation. Support efforts to guarantee workers seven days of paid sick leave per year Better enforce the Equal Pay Act.
Pass the Fair Pay Act to ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work
Invest $1 billion over five years in transitional jobs and career pathway programs that implement proven methods of helping low-income Americans succeed in the workforce.
Encourage investment in women owned businesses, provide more support to women-owned businesses and reduce lending discrimination. |
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| VETERANS – About 14% of the Armed Forces are female | Fight to ensure that women can get the care they deserve at the VA including mental health care and sexual assault care. |
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