Oh Nick Kristof, thank you for turning my grey skies blue with your latest column, “The Sex Speech.” Just back from his ten-day vacation (I know, because I missed him dearly when he was gone), he proses that one of the greatest misfortunes about Hillary dropping out (and he’s an Obama supporter for sure), is that she never get to give a great, monumental gender speech. You know, akin to Obama’s speech on race. And so, he urges Obama to do it for her.
I like that idea.
He even offers to help Obama out with some talking points. Here are some of the top lines:
- Racism is deeper, but sexism may be wider in America today.
- We aren’t always aware of our own biases.
- A conservative may end up the first woman president.
- Women make a difference in politics, but not a large one.
- Politics can make a difference for women.
And here’s my favorite point, which fell under “Politics can make a difference for women”:
If Mr. Obama wants to show that gender issues are on his radar, he could embrace an issue that no president has ever shown interest in: maternal mortality, the orphan issue of global public health. It’s a disgrace that a woman dies in childbirth once every minute somewhere in the world.
In some African countries, a woman has more than a 1-in-10 lifetime risk of dying in childbirth. If men were dying at such a rate for fathering children, the G-8 would be holding emergency summits.
Heck yeah they would.
But please don’t these talking points on their own. Read the full article and if you’ve got thoughts, share them in my comments section, or you could try Nick’s. As of now, 244 people have done just that.
