Bumped. MB

As Sarah Palin enjoys being able to weather the affects of the financial crisis through shopping sprees that are large enough to be considered economic stimuli in themselves, many women (who still on average only make 79 cents for every 1 dollar their male counterparts earn) are suffering. This issue is not a rant, its not a movement, it is a disparity in our country that still has not been dealt with. People should be rewarded for their work not their gender. Its not just the $150,000 dollar wardrobe, the fact that she bases her foreign policy on being able to see a foreign nation from her window or that she couldn’t name any of the major newspapers that she reads. Instead the biggest problem is that she was selected by the McCain camp in a rushed attempt to secure potential dissenting Democrat women who saw their dreams of President Hillary Clinton vanish after the primary elections. Bad move. They banked on exploiting the female vote without really taking a stance on issues important to women.

At the “Women’s Leadership and the Economic Crisis: Does Gender Matter?” conference last month Keynote speaker Carolyn Maloney (a woman who knows how to get things done!) inspired listeners to continue to work on this issue. Maloney has been speaking out about on the issue filling the void in discussion among the mainstream media and especially the lack of discussion coming from the only female candidate for a major office. The McCain/Palin ticket looked to women to boost their numbers but won’t return the favor which is a sign that they do not have any real desire to address women’s roles as working members of the American economy.

The National Organization for Women has said women who vote for McCain and Palin are “ultimately voting against their own self-interest”. Not only is she against a woman’s right to chose but she has no intentions of fostering equal rights in the public realm either. Working women, even though Palin is one herself would not benefit.