by Jessica Rettig

With 73 women serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and 17 serving in the U.S. Senate -- the most female members ever in Congress -- more attention has been drawn to important women's issues, both at home and globally. Illinois Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky , co-chair of the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues, and her female colleagues in Congress work to make sure that legislation regarding the rights of women are addressed. She recently spoke about the top problems women are confronting around the world and why the government should look to women as leaders and resources. Excerpts:

What issues are on the agenda for women right now?

The bipartisan caucus on women's issues set as our "must pass" agenda: reducing maternal deaths, and combating sex trafficking and violence against women and girls. And we've done lots of work on all those issues. When we talk about maternal death, we talk about that at home and around the world. We made sure in the healthcare legislation that policies that are sold [starting] in 2014 must cover maternity care, and that "gender rating" -- that is, charging higher prices for women because our bodies are different -- will be eliminated. In the health bill, we ended the practice of viewing domestic violence or pregnancy as a pre-existing condition.

Was the healthcare bill an overall success for women?

It has some very, very important changes that help women, no question. Particularly, the fact that women have paid up to 48 percent more for their healthcare -- not just young women or women of childbearing age, but older women as well. So, ending gender rating and requiring maternity care coverage was very important.

You've spoken a lot about the recession's effect on women. Do you think Congress has taken note?

I do. I think the perception of this recession has been that it's mostly been a man's recession in terms of unemployment. We did a Mother's Day press conference with Rep. Carolyn Maloney from New York [who is chair of] the Joint Economic Committee that showed that increases in unemployment were especially steep for female heads of households and that it was really a myth that it was primarily a male recession.

Why should more domestic policies focus on women?

Aside from the fact that women are slightly more than half of the population and slightly more than half of the voters in our country, Congress needs to pay attention because all the data shows that when we attend to women, we attend to families. That goes for healthcare and education of our children, and that's really true worldwide. Also, women have faced a history of discrimination, and that's why we continue to have affirmative action programs. But issues like domestic violence are also very prevalent in the United States. More than 95 percent of the victims of domestic violence are women and we need to address it as an epidemic. In some ways we should address it as terrorism; women being terrorized in their own homes.

What are the biggest obstacles for getting Congress behind these issues?

There are two things not so much related to gender that are the problem now: time and money. Those are our only obstacles. We do see a good deal of support from our male colleagues, but all of these issues take resources, and the calendar between now and the end of the session is pretty loaded. So we're really trying to make room for these issues, and we have to convince our colleagues of how important they are to women in their district. But it's worth their while to find the money and the time to get these passed.

Is it easier to get things done with more women in Congress?

We now have a record number of women in both the House and the Senate; 73 women in the House and 17 women in the Senate. But still, if you look at even some developing countries who set quotas [requiring] 25 percent or 30 percent of women [to serve in their legislatures], we're still talking only about 17 percent of women in the House and exactly 17 percent in the Senate. Now, of course, we have a woman as the speaker of the House which is very important, and we do have women as chairs of full committees, like Louise Slaughter , chair of the very powerful Rules Committee, and Nydia Velazquez , the first Hispanic woman to chair a full committee, the Small Business Committee.

Why isn't there a congressional caucus for men's issues?

It's not called history, by accident. In general, the story of human activity has focused on men who have controlled the mechanisms of government and whose agendas have been in the forefront. And at some point, in years or millennia to come, we won't need a caucus to focus on just women's issues. These are issues that have gotten less attention than they should have.

You recently wrote an op-ed suggesting that America should focus its national security strategy on the empowerment of women. How would that strategy play out?

First of all, seeing women as part of the solution when it comes to national security issues and international security issues is very important. We have not taken full advantage of women in that regard. I had a conversation with former Secretary of State Condi Rice about this, and she was in agreement that we should see the resources that women offer. For example, the Marines have a small program, called the Female Engagement Team, in which women Marines meet with women in Afghanistan to establish dialogue, collaborate with Afghan women, build rapport, and then, as a result, get critical intelligence that might otherwise be missed. And this isn't a surprise that, if you want to know what's going on in a neighborhood, you want to talk to the women. So, I believe as intelligence assets, as peacemakers, as part of reconciliation and reconstruction programs, that we need to be involving women.

What are the qualities that make a good female leader?

One of the things that we have found in studies is that women tend to be more assertive and persuasive. They have a stronger need to get things done. Women are found to be more empathetic -- which is important to relating to voters -- and flexible. They have stronger interpersonal skills. They are able to read situations accurately and take information from all sides. And women tend to operate more in public than behind closed doors, with more transparency.

How can women empower other women?

The more that girls see women in leadership positions -- Nancy Pelosi , the growing number of women in Congress, the growing number of women in business -- the more it does help. We also need to reach out to young women. We ought to think about curricula in schools that encourage them to feel more self-confidence and take leadership positions. Studies have also shown that one of the predictors for running for office is if you're asked. So, I make sure when I talk to women's groups and young women, I tell them, "Run for office. I'll help you. We have an old-girls' network, not just an old-boys' network. And we're here to give you support."

 

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Jan Schakowsky Leads the Fight for Women | Politics

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