What effect do you think the election's emphasis on women's issues will have in an ongoing way?

It really depends on who wins, doesn’t it? Either we might take a few baby steps forward or we will take several leaps back into the darkness. (The Borowitz Report yesterday had a piece entitled, “Romney Supports a Woman’s Right to Choose…What to Make for Dinner.”)

Nothing. They’re being used as a vehicle, nothing more. And like any vehicle, once the passengers reach their destination, they’ll disembark.
Didn’t we make the EEOC to manage wage discrimination? There’s a big sign in the break room at work that suggests as much.

I think if you get the D’s in you’ll see at least a token effort to further address women’s issues. Probably timed so either the legislation or its effects are in peoples minds come the next presidential election. The thought is that it would be guided by big talk, minor advances, and a lot of campaigning to say “look what we did, look what we did!!!”

If the R’s get in, I don’t think you’ll see much movement, possibly even a correlative backslide. They’ll have made it largely without the help of those voters (I’m assuming women voters as a whole still lean D; even if not they’ll still see it as less to do with the issues OP mentioned) and won’t owe them anything unless it becomes a campaign issue of greater significance nearer the next election.

One thing that might help keep it at least on the back burner, if not cooking, will be if the election margin is slim and the fall out seems to match up to how women voted as a group. Neither side will likely forget that, but it will still be up to the block to ensure that they shout loudly come next cycle, to get anything more than hot air.

Actually, thinking about it a bit more deeply, I think the next President’s ability to choose several Supreme Court justices will have a profound impact on woman’s issues for many, many years.

^^ this!

I’m encouraged by our ability to slice and dice the electorate into special interests. We’ll soon be able to address the problems of little people, tall people, fat people. and ugly people. I look forward to the day we have a whole series of boutique laws to address these specific problems.

@Jaxk I don’t consider myself a “special interest”; I consider myself half of humankind.

It just slays me that all laws pertaining to the procreation of the human species gets cast aside as “women’s issues”, like we’re not over 50% of the population, or that the other give-or-take 50% have no contribution whatsoever to said procreation.

If the Ds win, then perhaps the Rs will get the message through their thick skulls that they can’t win without women. Women matter. Women count. Women vote.

If Romney wins, then forget it. They will continue to think they don’t need women, or blacks or hispanics. Or the disabled. Or mentally ill. Or the poor. They simply will be confirmed that they don’t have to care about anyone except business people.

Now, in a decent world, maybe if business does well, they will employ everyone equally. But since business isn’t doing well, it seems like a stretch to count on them, and anyway, they have never treated people fairly as far as I know. On average, I mean. Of course there are some good companies. But most are not good in terms of fairness issues.

@wundayatta There are Republicans in all of those categories that you have cited. The thing is that a lot of them have been told that the Republicans don’t care about them, so they should vote Democrat.

Zero, as usual.

How did the movement go the first time? We are fighting the exact same issues as we did in the 60’s and 70’s.

I believe that until there is a fundamental change in ideas about gender we will be fighting the same fights over and over again.

In my experience, women can now wear pants at work, there is less discrimination against Jews (I saw the “first” Jews hired at various companies) and Blacks can now drink at every fountain and sit in the front of the bus.

@YARNLADY Are you being facetious? Or is that what you think the liberation fights were about?

I have to agree with @Nullo here about the actuall effect.

That is because, in my opinion, women cannot/will not/refuse to take/wrestle/demand the reins of government for themselves and are content to sit back on their cute little tushies and let men continue to make the all the decisions for them.

Maybe if we are lucky, and if all y’all will get serious and get a large number of women running for and elected to congress, you can get some actual fundamental changes implemented when Hillary is elected in 2016.

Which election are you referring to? There are several in the world at any one time.

@wundayatta Sometimes I get tired when I think of the issues that seem so important at election time, yet seem forgotten in the long run.

When I was a Hippy in the 1960’s, we tried to get society to realize that some issues weren’t men vs women, but all people are really just human beings. Today, half a century later, I walk into a children’s toy store, and it is divided into the boy’s side, with trains and cars and guns and the girls side, with dolls and clothes and cute little kitchens – it’s all for nothing.

@Harold: “Which election are you referring to? There are several in the world at any one time.”

Uganda. The election next month in Uganda is what we are all talking about. How do you think women’s issues will be affected if Muntu, Mafabi, or Ekanya are elected?

@YARNLADY

* Applause *

@YARNLADY Yes. I see. I share your frustration. We fought and fought and then people declared us victors, and everyone went home, and everything slipped back to the way it was.

Particularly with the issues that came under the feminist rubric, it seems like things have been backsliding and few people care. Young women, most scarily to me, seem not to think feminism involves them. The way I see them behave, it’s as if they want to go back to the 50s. Or at least, the way the 50s were portrayed on TV in shows made in that era.

@tom_g – thanks for clearing that up. Now I understand. I was beginning to suspect it was Uzbekhistan. I am sure the Americans on this site wouldn’t have their heads so far up their own backsides that they assume everyone knows about or is interested in THEIR election!! I know they are intelligent enough to realise that this is an international site, and more than just American affairs matter and are important…................ Therefore, if they were talking about THEIR election, they’d be smart enough to identify that it was that they were referring to.

This may be of interest to those who participated in the answering this question.