Okay If I Remove Your Gall Bladder?

“I hate men who are afraid of women's strength.”

~ Anaïs Nin

Gretchen Whitmer bummed me out yesterday.

Senator Whitmer (D-East Lansing), leader of the Democrats in Michigan’s 38-member State Senate, pointed out in a Facebook post that in 2006, there were 12 women senators; today there are just four. (And Senator Whitmer is term-limited so she’s out at the end of next year.) She included a link to an article highlighting the fact that in addition to the four seats in the senate, women currently hold only 24 of the 110 seats in the House of Representatives; this means women comprise just under 19 percent of the state legislature, the lowest ratio in more than two decades. (The national average is an also-low 24.2 percent.)

I find this depressing.

It’s partly why Michigan’s women got the shaft last year. In December 2012, Republicans pushed legislation through in the lame duck session that effectively bans health insurance companies from covering abortions and places new burdens on abortion clinics in an attempt to close them down. And you probably heard about Democratic State Representatives Barb Byrum and Lisa Brown being gagged last summer by their GOP colleagues – literally – for daring to use the word “vagina” during debate over bills restricting abortion. (Brown famously said, “I’m flattered that you’re all so interested in my vagina but ‘no’ means ‘no’” and Byrum loudly demanded the right to explain an amendment she sponsored but wasn’t being allowed to discuss.) Republicans determined that they “disrupted decorum” and revoked their speaking privileges for a day.

I guess taking away the right of women to control their own bodies isn’t enough; we apparently need to take away their right to speak in order to really prove who’s the boss.

There’s no shortage of reasons why we need to correct this shameful gender imbalance. Interestingly, researchers have found that women legislators provide increased access to government for traditionally disadvantaged groups of people. And a 2010 study actually found a direct link between the number of women in a group and that group’s ability to cooperate and be effective.

I don't understand...

It just makes sense for people who are affected by Lansing’s laws and regulations to help craft ‘em. Who knows more about women’s bodies than women? Who knows more about their safety and educational needs, the challenges they face that are unique to their gender, how it feels and what it means to be female in a world dominated by men? I live in a household that includes a woman and three girls. The idea that I can speak for them, predict their behavior or even understand them more than half the time makes about as much sense as thinking I’m qualified to remove your gall bladder, manage your money or pilot the Boeing 737 that takes you to LAX.

It’s ultimately not Republicans’ fault that bad public policy is emerging in Lansing. Gerrymandering notwithstanding, you can’t blame ‘em for trying to get all they can get while the gettin’s good. It’s really the fault of a lazy misinformed electorate that chooses to put these out-of-touch white guys in charge.

A Michigan Lawmaker

If you love your mother, wife, daughter, sister, aunt, niece or grandmother – or if you like it when lawmakers actually understand the impact of the laws they write – you should support Senator Whitmer’s quest to recruit female candidates and advocate for more women in policy-making roles. Only Republicans jackasses and Neanderthals want to keep women in the kitchen and out of the Capital.



Click here to read, “Women’s Rights are Human Rights: Texas Men Explain Why So Many are Joining the Fight.” And click here to read, “State By State Proof of the GOP War on Women and Why Their Bills Should Be Defeated.”




Sources: Addictinginfo.org, MLive.com, NationofChange.org, ABCNews.com.