Secretary for Women & Equalities in USA!

American women desperately need a Minister (or Secretary) for Women and Equalities in the White House who will ensure that women's issues remain front and center until such time as parity is fully accomplished. Large disparities in services and opportunities continue to exist in the USA which causes women to be disenfranchised socially, politically and economically.

If women's representation in Congress changes at the rate it did in the past decade, it will take a full century to achieve a level playing field. Women deserve equal representation in the House and Senate, even if has to be mandated by quota. There are four million more women in the US than men, yet women only have 25% of the seats in Congress.

In addition to political inequality, women have not achieved economic parity with men in ANY of the states in our nation.The Status of Women in the USA report proves this: http://www.iwpr.org/States2004/SWS2004/index.htm The focus cannot , however, be only upon equal pay and halting abuse. Those are givens!

Many women are single parents and primary income earners; women cannot afford to give away their skills and talents for 76 cents compared to each $1.00 earned by men.  Women additionally need training and educational programs that move them into higher-paying opportunities and positions not traditionally held by women. Companies need to be required to hire qualified women to lead whenever one is available, to level out the playing field nationally. We need to move into the 21st century and stop pretending that men are the only breadwinners in American households; that is not based in reality.

Regarding healthcare:  If Norway can give women  fifty-three weeks of maternity leave at 80 percent pay with a guaranteed job to return to, five weeks of paid paternity leave, a national standard of five weeks of vacation, extensive day-care options, a 37.5-hour workweek, and an extra government grant should one of the parents decide to stay at home with the child from age 1 to 2...then why is the US one of four countries (Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, and Lesotho) to lack adequate maternity leave? Why are women still having to cobble it together from sick days, disability leave and vacation days? Can't we do better than 4-12 WEEKS of maternity leave? What does that pittance say about how we value women and children?

Without a Minister (or Secretary) for Women and Equalities, women's status in the US will clearly never change. Too many men in Congress have allowed "out-of-sight, out-of-mind" to rule the day. Because women are not present at the tables where decisions are being made that effect their lives, women continue to have their needs trivialized. The obstacles that stand in the way of women's equality in politics, in the workplace, and in our society also halt our nation's ability to realize its full potential. As full US citizens, women deserve just treatment. We must finally address these inequalities based on gender in the US, and a Minister (or Secretary) for Women and Equalities is the logical next step.