Rep. Speier Calls for Commission on Women

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) introduced legislation yesterday calling for a long-term official Commission on Women. While this might be similar to the President's announcement about his White House council on women and girls, the Commission on Women would be a constant council that would outlast any White House administration.

In a recent Politico piece

"some women said the interagency council Obama announced March 11 fell short of the full-time office or Cabinet-level influence they had hoped for. Mason offered no criticism of Obama's action, but said it spurred more calls for a broad-ranging national panel."

The Commission would be apprised of a 15 member group including four appointed by the President, three by the Speaker of the House, two by the Minority Leader in the House, three by the Majority Leader of the Senate, and two by the Minority Leader of the Senate. Other woman working on the President's Council on Women and girls would serve in an advisory capacity and liaise between the two.

Most notably is the mention in the bill that the Commission would mandate at least one member be between 18 and 24 to ensure there is a youth perspective. Each member would serve a term of 5 years on the Commission and represent a diverse background regionally, generational, racially, economically, and from various industries as a means of representing a wide range of women's issues and problems facing women.

Another commitment would be that the Commission is dedicated to grassroots outreach, and allowing all women to have a voice in advocating to the Commission and the members doing outreach themselves to ensure a broad group of women are being heard.

Rep. Speier's Communications Director relayed a story she told him of her own first elected position in the 1980's on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors. There she held a hearing on the area's women in poverty and at that time, he said, women were the face of poverty. It developed in Speier a desire to work for women's issues across the board not merely at the county level but then at the state level as well. Her commitment to women continues through this legislation as well.

The Commission is part of a project of the national organization Women Count who has partnered with 55 other organizations across the country to encourage other members of Congress and the Senate to approve if not co-sponsor the legislation.

Women Count says the Commission is necessary in large part because

"as the economy became the single most critical issue in the election, the role that women play in our economic structure has never been clearer. Women are the backbone of the nation’s workforce and control 70 percent of its buying power."

Speier continues in the Politico piece

"If you look at statistics, it’s very telling. Women represent only 17 percent of Congress. The amount women make in comparison to men is only 77 cents on the dollar. ... It’s that kind of insidious discrimination that lingers.

They announced the bill Thursday because it was the anniversary of the swearing-in of Rep. Jeanette Rankin of Montana in 1917 - the first women to ever serve in Congress.

I'm pleasantly surprised by the call for at least one young woman to be on the Commission. I commend Women Count in addition to Rep. Speier for their thoughtful and youth friendly approach to solving the problems unique to the women's community and young women specifically.