This election is about the future.
The economy’s future. Entitlement programs’ futures.
But it’s also about the future of the enduring struggle for true equality for women. Even with the strides women have made since winning the vote, women’s studies programs like the one at YSU are even more important today.
Sure, women have the promise of every opportunity a man has, but they still lag behind in average salary. We’ve yet to see a woman president. Only four women have ever sat on the Supreme Court.
Despite the Constitutionally guaranteed rights provided for women, some conservative politicians want to interfere with the most intimate decision a woman could make: the right to choose what to do with her body.
Todd Aiken, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, recently argued against abortion on the grounds that rape rarely results in pregnancy.
“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” he said.
As of July, Virginia state law requires any woman seeking an abortion to get an ultrasound.
And then there was that whole Sandra Fluke deal. The Republican Party bullied President Barack Obama into exempting religiously affiliated employers from covering contraceptive costs.
These offenses to autonomy reach bureaucratic hands into the personal lives of every American — man or woman — and negate conservative notions of personal responsibility.
Don’t politicians have better things to legislate?
Congress has wasted countless hours deliberating over abortion, contraception and other women’s issues, but they’re more than three years late on passing a federal budget.
Taking six classes for a minor in women’s studies won’t solve the problem, but hopefully we’ll create a more enlightened student body.