The last session I attended at the Big Tent was Cracks in the Glass Ceiling a panel discussion with Jehmu Greene, Political Director of WomenCount, who I met the day before at the Women Count in the 2008 Election session . Also on the panel was Marie Wilson of the White House Project and co-creator of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day, Erin Kotecki Vest, in her capacity as the political director of BlogHer, Sarah Granger an online communications expert who helps political campaigns use new media, and Lisa Witter, who wrote The She Spot: Why Women Are the Market for Changing the World -- And How to Reach Them.
This was the panel I was waiting for all week.
Old and new media
- The media still has a gender bias.
- WomenCount was able to get language about gender bias into the Democratic National Platform.
- Erin: Bloggers are having the discussion online. More mom bloggers are getting political on their blogs or starting new political blogs.
- Erin: Politicians are give women bloggers a seat at the table.
- Sarah: there is more activism online, much by women. But we still have a long way to go. Politicians don’t understand social media and don’t take blogs seriously.
- Older people (50+) are more into email than they are social networking and texting.
- Lisa: We still need to have offline opportunities for discussion.
- Erin: We need to be blogging about the threat to the Supreme Court.
The future of the woman’s movement
- Lisa: If you can see it (having a woman run for president) then you can be it.
- Young women need to have the “keep going” attitude.
- The next generation of feminists must deliver for women to get them engaged.
- Lisa: We must partner with men to go further and reach our goals.
- Marie: Next wave of feminists must take leadership or we will drown in the next wave. Women are the government in exile.
- Erin: Women are not one issue voters.
What does Barack Obama need to do to get the women’s vote?
- Erin: She talked with one of his campaign managers. She feels that Barack needs to speak directly to women and we need to hear from his wife, Michelle. There also needs to be a mix of “traditional” women’s issues along with the economy, Iraq, etc. We want to hear about policy, nut fluff.
- Lisa: Says that Barack needs to give us the details on policy, wants half of his cabinet to be women, and he needs to have more women around him and advising him during his campaign.
It was a great session to end my time at The Big Tent. I wish it was better attended – very few women in the audience and even less men. Then again, many people left at 1 p.m. to head off to Invesco Field.
So, like many mothers (and fathers and grandparents) I left to pick up the kids at school. I wanted to get out of Denver before I-25 was closed off. Plus, I had to oversee homework, snacks, play time and dinner in time to watch the festivities and Obama’s acceptance speech at Invesco Field.
Around 8 p.m. the kids and I got into bed (my husband was out of town) and watched the excitement. A perfect evening of family entertainment courtesy of the DNC.
Great post, Anne-Marie! You captured all of the things I loved about the panel, too.
Two of my favorite clips are here: http://womencount.org/blog/blog_detail/2008-08-cracks-in-the-glass-ceiling-a-womencount-panel
Posted by: Anne | September 02, 2008 at 12:14 PM