Obama’s First 100 Days: Giant Strides for Women

By the Editors of Ms. magazine 

In reviewing President Obama’s First 100 Days, the editors of Ms. magazine are impressed by the quick reversals of some of the most egregious policies of the Bush administration, as well as a series of positive actions to advance the rights of women and girls. The Obama administration has taken giant strides for women in terms of employment, reproductive health and elevation of women’s rights domestically and globally.

As Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority (and publisher of Ms.),  says, “I’ve been working for women’s rights in Washington, D.C. since the days of Jimmy Carter, and I’ve never seen anything like the constant outreach to and inclusion of women’s leaders and the pace of actions for women’s rights.”

Obama would impress feminists even more if he appoints additional women to positions of power in his administration—currently, they comprise about 30 percent of appointments requiring Senate confirmation, according to the Washington Post.

Here’s a partial list, in date order, of the Obama actions that have moved women forward:

January 23rd: Overturns the “global gag rule”, paving the way for international family-planning programs to regain funding and improve their services. The rule had prohibited programs in developing nations that receive family planning assistance from the U.S. from even mentioning abortion to their clients. As the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists put it, such restrictions “violate basic medical ethics by jeopardizing a health care provider’s ability to recommend appropriate medical care.” Tens of thousands of poor women’s lives each year were lost; with the gag rule’s removal, women’s lives will be saved.

January 29th: Signs the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, named after the gutsy Alabama woman who realized, too late, that she’d long been shortchanged in wages compared to men at her same level at Goodyear Tire. The new law reverses the 2007 Roberts Supreme Court ruling that workers had to sue within just 180 days of the original discrimination—a standard almost impossible to meet. The Act, which covers sex, race, age and disability discrimination, codifies decades of previous interpretation that each discriminatory paycheck can be the basis of a lawsuit and that the whole term of the discrimination is covered, not just the first six months of employment.

February 4th: Extends government health insurance to cover 11 million children through the SCHIP program.

February 17th: The Obama economic stimulus package passes, saving and creating jobs not only in construction, where men dominate, but in fields where women workers are the substantial majority—health care, child care and education. The package also increases Medicaid, food stamps and unemployment benefits.

February 27th: Moves to rescind the “conscience clause” that the Bush administration forced last-minute into HHS regulations in order to allow health-care workers to deny patients abortions, contraception or any other medical procedures toward which they felt moral repugnance.

March 2nd: Chooses Kathleen Sebelius as Health and Human Services secretary, thus appointing seven women in all to Cabinet-level positions. Although his overall appointments of women to positions requiring Senate confirmation is thus far only 30 percent and needs improvement, he had appointed a record percentage (30 percent) of people of color to such posts.

March 6th: Institutes a new position of ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues within the State Department, naming Melanne Verveer to the post.

March 9th: Lifts restrictions on stem-cell research.

March 11th: In one big day, establishes the White House Council on Women and Girls and signs the Omnibus Spending Act, which restarts U.S. contributions to the United Nations Population Fund (the Bush administration had blocked these for eight years) and reinstates low-cost birth control for college health centers and clinics for low-income women.

March 19th: Pledges to sign a U.N. declaration to decriminalize homosexuality, which Bush had refused to do.

April 3rd: Calls Afghanistan’s proposed Shia family law—which would have permitted marital rape, among other measures removing women’s autonomy—“abhorrent,” helping to lead Afghan President Hamid Karzai to review the law.

April 23rd: The FDA extends Plan B availability to 17-year-olds—something highly unlikely to have happened under Bush. 

For in-depth coverage of Obama’s actions for women, join Ms.to receive our brand-new Spring issue and get the full story on nominations, the stimulus package, health-care, and more.