Texas NOW Blog

I've been representing Texas NOW on the steering committee for Women's Legislative Days for the last several months, and I'm thrilled to report that the day is finally here! We kick off with a welcome reception tonight, and then the cool stuff really starts. Tomorrow will be a full day of workshops on everything from global warming to violence against women, with panels of the smartest folks we could find. We'll get you all educated on the issues, and then Tuesday we head to the Capitol to make our voices heard.

I'm especially excited to report that our keynote speakers are the fabulous Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, the bestselling authors of Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future and Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism. They are great young feminist leaders and I hear they're fantastic speakers as well, so don't miss them!

We worked really hard to keep this conference accessible to everyone, so the fee is only $35 and it's FREE for students! The only thing students have to pay for is lunch if they want it, but you can bring your own. We still have a few more spots open, so come on down if you can. See you there!

Posted by Carrie at 10:01 AM | Permalink

I am so thrilled with Tuesday night's election results! Let's review, shall we?

• For the first time in US history, the House clerk will be saying, "Madam Speaker." Congratulations, Rep. Pelosi!
• NARAL Pro-Choice America tells us that we have three new pro-choice US Senators and more than twenty new pro-choice US Representatives!
• Democratic control of the Senate will help us take back the federal courts, vital to maintaining reproductive rights at the state level.
• Voters in South Dakota defeated an abortion ban! Voters in Oregon and California also defeated anti-choice ballot measures.

Here in Texas...

• We have five new pro-woman state representatives! Congrats to Valinda Bolton, Ellen Cohen, Juan Garcia, Paula Hightower Pierson, and Allen Vaught. Counting the delightful Rep. Donna Howard, who won her seat in a special election in the spring, we have six new pro-woman voices at the Capitol!
• Notice that four of the above six are women. Cohen defeated anti-feminist Martha Wong, so we have a net gain of three women in the Texas Legislature, for a total of 40. That gets us up to 22% female representation. Not great in total, but a great step forward.
• We re-elected pro-woman Reps. Mark Strama and Hubert Vo and Senator Jeff Wentworth.

That's a good day for women, y'all. I'm feeling good and looking forward to making some progress come the spring and the legislative session!

I'm also looking forward to having more time to sleep - and to post to this blog.

Posted by Carrie at 6:41 PM | Permalink

Wow, it's been a while since I've had time to post. I've got a bit of a breather today, sitting at campaign headquarters, and I'm thinking about voting.

Texas is not the most progressive state on voting rights. We have an awful history of discrimination against people of color. You have to register weeks before Election Day. First-time voters have to show ID. Etc, etc.

But we're getting better. And there are a few things we do right. Voting rights are restored to felons who've paid their debt to society. Seniors, the disabled, those who are in jail but are still eligible to vote, and people who will be out of the country can vote by mail.

And my favorite by far is Early Voting. Voting should be as easy as possible, and EV is all about making it easy. For nearly two weeks leading up to Election Day, including a Saturday and a Sunday, you can vote at your local grocery store, the mall, or the library - places you go in your daily life. I think this is great in large part because it's really respectful of working people and busy parents for whom business hours on Tuesday are just not feasible. Love it.

Early Voting starts this Monday, October 23, and extends till the following Friday, November 3. So you've got no excuse. Check out your local candidates, and then get thee to a polling place!

Info for...
* Austin and Travis County
* Dallas County
* El Paso
* Fort Worth and Tarrant County
* Houston and Harris County
* San Antonio and Bexar County

Posted by Carrie at 12:42 PM | Permalink

A shocking number of women in north Texas don't feel it's worth it to cast a ballot. And apparently Texas is 49th in the nation in the number of women who vote in congressional and presidential election. How horribly depressing.

I give props to the League of Women Voters Arlington chapter and Dallas chapter for getting started studying the problem, but the rest of y'all... what the hell is up? 33% of you say you'd vote if you had more information. Is that just laziness, or do I sense a whiff of girly low self-esteem there? I'd rather it's the latter, because that I can address more easily. Listen up, ladies: go find the information. I know we're all busy and everything, but take twenty minutes and find this stuff out. It's important. The League of Women Voters does a fantastic candidate questionnaire every cycle which includes scads of useful info and usually appears in your local paper and on your local chapter's website. Go to the candidate's websites. If you trust your local newspaper, check out their endorsements. You don't have to find out everything in the world about the candidates. Check their issues positions and experience, and then make your decisions. Not so hard, right?

Then put your big-girl underwear on and get your butts to the polls. Can't make it on Election Day? Contact your local elections board about early voting or voting by mail. Scrawl your mail ballot in crayon if you have to, but vote. Women's issues only get attention when we show them how much power we have. Use that power. You know the one I mean. The right to vote, the right that so many people suffered, fought, even died for. Honor their struggle by exercising your right. VOTE.

Posted by Carrie at 1:19 AM | Permalink

We have some darn cool women in Texas. Gretchen Ritter, a professor in the government department at UT, is one of the coolest.

Prof. Ritter has written a book called The Constitution as Social Design: Gender and Civic Membership in the American Constitutional Order, in which she argues that US women's struggles to achieve equality are rooted in our Constitution - both inspired and constrained by our founding document. She's currently featured on UT's website, where there's a a nice article on the book:

While the culture of modern-day America may have moved beyond the days when suffragist Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting in a presidential election, Ritter maintains these struggles are not so far removed from those of Anthony�??s. How the Constitution is interpreted has enormous power over what roles citizens inhabit in political and social communities.

�??How do we understand women as part of our political community?�?� Ritter asks. �??What does equality mean? Does it mean treating you as an autonomous individual, or in the case of an issue such as family medical leave, does equality mean recognizing that you have responsibilities to care for dependents who impact your ability to pursue different kinds of economic opportunities?�?�

Ritter hopes equality can mean both.

�??The issue is not, how can we treat everyone exactly the same, no matter who they are, but rather, how can we increase opportunities for everyone to participate fully in public life, wherever they�??re starting from?"

Isn't she cool, folks? I love how she draws such a clear distinction between equivalence and equality in that last sentence. The book is an academic tome, so not light reading; but Ritter's a fine writer, so for a nerd like me, this totally qualifies as summer reading. Come on, geek out with me!

Posted by Carrie at 11:27 PM | Permalink

Everyone knows that Hillary Rodham Clinton is the presumptive Democratic nominee for 2008. The conventional wisdom is that she'll have massive support among women, but Women's eNews says that might not be so. Some feminist groups are not thrilled by many of her votes in the Senate and some of her issue positions.

Clinton has teamed up with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada who opposes abortion rights, to introduce legislation aimed at preventing pregnancy by enhancing access to contraception and reducing health care costs. Critics see the bill as an attempt to shift the debate away from the controversial issue of abortion rights.

"I would like Senator Clinton, as I would like all pro-choice representatives, to start any conversation about reproductive justice and reproductive health by saying, 'I support access to safe, affordable, legal abortions,' period," said Melody Drnach, action vice president at the Washington-based National Organization for Women.

Amen, sister. I think the Prevention First strategy is a good one for advocacy groups, especially in more conservative states. Big props to our friends at Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America for this very smart campaign. But as an issue position for a presidential candidate, it irritates me. It's a very Third Way position to take, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But given all the attacks on choice in the states, I want to hear federal candidates flat-out say whether they do or do not support a woman's right to choose. Supporting reproductive freedom is not a liberal position! What's more conservative than saying the government has no business legislating your personal decisions?

Continue reading "Lots of women support Hillary - does she really support us?" »

Posted by Carrie at 1:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've been very glad to see so many strong pro-choice women here in Fort Worth. The pro-choice caucus was packed! I mean standing room only, people. There were just scads of women from all over the state - all ages, all races, disabled and not, Christian, Jewish... all kinds of ladies standing strong for reproductive rights. I was also really glad to see tons of men there, from twenty-year-old college students to senior citizens who remember the days of the back alley abortion, also passionate about women's right to choose. Woohoo!

I'm also thrilled to see so many women candidates. In 2002 the Republicans had Carole Keeton Strayhorn for Comptroller and Susan Combs for Ag Commissioner, while the Democrats had only one woman, Sherry Boyles, on the statewide ticket. So I'm glad to see Maria Luisa Alvarado, a Latina from San Antonio, so near the top of the Democratic ticket, running for Lieutenant Governor.

Barbara Ann Radnofsky told some wonderful stories, and I'm glad to hear her holding Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison accountable for breaking her promise to only run for two terms. But I was sorry to hear her fail to hold Senator Hutchison accountable for her opposition to reproductive rights after running as a moderate, pro-choice Republican. I was even more sorry to hear her ask the crowd to stand with her in promoting a goal of zero abortions. I'm all for the preventive care she promotes, but for me, part of being pro-choice is knowing that I cannot ever really know what's best for another woman or another family. I'm sick of seeing candidates running from being pro-choice.

But I was really appalled to hear Fred Head rant about the "trashy romance novel" written by Susan Combs more than 15 years ago. Criticize her policies if you want, but don't tear down a woman by bashing her for being sexual. Bad show, Mr. Head.

Posted by Carrie at 12:00 PM | Permalink

There will be one more woman in the big pink building. State Rep. Carl Isett is a reservist who's being deployed to Iraq, and he named his wife, Cheri, as his replacement.

I'm pleased to see a slight increase in women's representation in the legislature. It's been great this past year to see Ana Hernandez and Donna Howard take their seats. But since Carter Casteel lost her primary to a man and is now a lame duck, we're doing the slow-progress waltz - two steps forward, one step back.

And the overall numbers are not great. Not counting Ms. Isett, there are 33 women members in the Texas House. 33 out of 150 = 22%. There are 4 women in the Texas Senate. 4 out of 31 = 12.9%. So overall, we've got 37 women out of 181 legislators, for a not-so-grand total of 20%. According to 2000 Census data, women make up just over 50% of the Texas population. You read that right - we're half the population, 1/5 of state legislators.

Even more distressing, that actually makes us average.

Continue reading "One more woman in the Lege, and that ain't much" »

Posted by Carrie at 9:50 AM | Permalink