You Can Keep Your Old Brass RingWomen should push for substance over symbolism in this election.

Read what XX Factor bloggers have written about Hillary's exit.

(Continued from page 1)

PRINTDISCUSSE-MAILRSSRECOMMEND...SINGLE PAGE

FacebookMySpace Mixx Digg Reddit del.icio.us Furl Ma.gnolia SphereStumbleUponCLOSE

It's this mind-set, along with pure Hillary loyalty, that's presumably fueling the drive on the part of her supporters to propel her to the vice-presidential nomination. Maybe this push will prove short-lived, a last burst of Clinton campaign energy, a stage of grieving on the way to greater resolution. If that's the case, I don't begrudge Hillary supporters their V.P. ardor. If it took their candidate a few days to come to terms with her own loss, her supporters—who don't do politics for a living—are due a longer grace period.

And yet I'm surprised and disappointed that the voters and groups who had aligned themselves with Clinton's candidacy aren't using this moment of maximum attention to thrust into the spotlight the rest of what could become a larger agenda. What about choosing three priorities from my back-of-the-envelope list? Or creating another list, if you like, and then holding Obama to it? If women got behind and won national paid family leave or a big chunk of new federal money for expanding preschool, wouldn't that be a better test of collective voting power than the symbolic V.P. brass ring?

This is a lesson that comes straight from our foremothers. They're the ones who pushed as hard as they could for equal pay, who won legislative victories that aim to protect us against discrimination in the workplace and elsewhere. They wanted women at the top of every field, yes, but as the Cat in the Hat would say, that is not all, oh no, that is not all. Ruth Rosen, author of The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America, points out that the 1970 Women's Strike for Equality, which culminated in a march down Fifth Avenue, was about legal abortion, equal pay for equal work, and child care. Rosen thinks that the broadening of the agenda in the four decades is as it should be. "There was a time when it was really important to point out the things that only affect women," she says. "Now it's important to point out how problems that affect everyone affect women worse. Like home foreclosures." At the same time, legal abortion is looking a little shaky these days, equal pay has been achieved more in theory than in practice, and child care hasn't really been on the national agenda since the Nixon administration.

So there's a real place now for women's groups that push legislation instead of candidates—organizations like MomsRising and 9to5, National Association for Working Women, to name just two. These groups didn't endorse Clinton or Obama. Their tax-exempt status doesn't allow them to, and they have that status because they're playing a different role than political action committees like NOW. The MomsRising and 9to5 Web sites are stuffed with information about which states are moving forward on paid family leave (New Jersey, lately) and access to preschool (Oklahoma and Georgia). "We do have Moms Vote 08," says Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, one of the leaders of MomsRising. "It's candidate bingo: You watch a debate and see who's saying what about our issues. The candidates get a point each time they mention one of them, because our goal is to get any candidate talking about the things our members care about."

And to listen to what they say. This spring, John McCain has opposed the Fair Pay Act on the probably specious ground that it will lead to frivolous lawsuits, while Barack Obama—as well as Clinton—voted for it. Women can still swing this election in ways that have nothing to do with the president's gender and everything to do with the pressing day-to-day needs of women. If it's a man who we get to give us what we want, hey, we'll take it.

PRINTE-MAILRECOMMEND...RSS

FacebookMySpace Mixx Digg Reddit del.icio.us Furl Ma.gnolia SphereStumbleUponCLOSE

Emily Bazelon is a Slate senior editor.

Photograph of Hillary Clinton by Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images.

SPONSORED CONTENT

• White Men Can't Judge?
  Why Sonia Sotomayor might really believe that Latina women make better judges.
  Dahlia Lithwick | June 11, 2009
• Does "Dry Shampoo" Really Work?
  Women writing about politics, etc.
  May 19, 2009
• What Amanda Peet, Sandra Day O'Connor, and Margaret Cho Wanted To Be When They Grew Up
  Women writing about politics, etc.
  May 12, 2009
• Search for more XX Factor XXtra articles
• Subscribe to the XX Factor XXtra RSS feed
• View our complete XX Factor XXtra archive