Our Picks for Delegate

Updated October 14, 2009

The Virginia NOW PAC – Political Action Committee –  has endorsed candidates for delegate who will work for significant improvements on issues of concern to women, including health care, pay equity, and reducing violence. The election is November 3. 

Submarines!!!

Hot off the wires from Gannett News Service:  Top Navy brass says: Women should be allowed to serve aboard submarines, and the Navy is “moving out aggressively” to make it happen.”  If women are allowed to serve on submarines – what’s next? A woman commander in chief? Here’s the story:

VA NOW PAC Needs YOU!

The Virginia NOW PAC (Political Action Committee) mailed this letter last week to NOW members. In case you didn’t receive it  – or you’d like to forward it electronically, we’re re-printing it here.  Contributions can be made by clicking Contribute above on this page or by mail: make check to Virginia NOW PAC, mail to Virginia NOW PAC, PO Box 7621, Arlington VA 22207. Questions? email vanowpresident@hotmail.com 

It’s time to pay attention to the Virginia Governor’s race!
Working women and feminism… “detrimental” to the traditional family.
Government should “prefer married couples over co-habitators, homosexuals, or fornicators.”
Birth control for unmarried couples… “illogical.”
Childcare subsidies… encourage women to enter the workforce.
Separation of church and state…. “folklore.”
These sentiments were written by Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Bob McDonnell just two years before he ran for the Virginia House of Delegates. We knew Bob McDonnell was no friend of equality, but an enemy? That’s right! McDonnell’s agenda for public service would reverse much of what NOW has fought so hard for. We need to stop him.

Badvertising: the Case of Guitar Hero

Cross-posted to Bucking the Wave.

The problem with some advertising campaigns is that they aren’t that original to begin with and then they never change. Exhibit A, Guitar Hero. Their current advertising campaign involves putting various celebrities, athletes, and supermodels into collared shirts and tube socks and dancing around a big house a la Tom Cruise in Risky Business.

At first, I found these commercials moderately amusing. Look! Celebrities and athletes kickin’ it just like us regular folks by playing Guitar Hero. Even funnier to think about them dancing around their respective houses dressed like that. But then, I began to get a bit uncomfortable…

Why does Kobe Bryant get to wear long baggy shorts when Heidi Klum is put in lingerie?

Hot/Not: Lilly Ledbetter and the Continuing Wage Gap

Welcome to our newest feature, Hot/Not, where we will spotlight a person, issue, or event that is on the brain.

Labor Day always makes us think of wage discrimination (Not Hot).  Earlier this year, President Obama signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (Hot) which amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to reset the statute of limitations with each new discrimnatory paycheck.  This was a huge victory for pay equity – but it wasn’t enough.  The Senate must now pass the Paycheck Fairness Act – S.182, introduced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she was in the Senate. This bill has 33 co-sponsors…but not Virginia’s Senators, Mark Warner and Jim Webb! Why? Virginia NOW sent each of them compelling letters, signed by dozens of Virginia voters, asking them to co-sponsor the bill. Warner replied; Webb did not. Senators Webb and Warner: it’s time to co-sponsor S. 182!

Here’s what you should know about the wage gap in Virginia…