Women make up 51% of the American population, yet still aren’t
treated equally to men in areas that matter most. In this
provocative
new book, Lis Wiehl, one of the country’s top federal
prosecutors,
reveals the legal and social inequalities women must face in
their
daily lives–and provides a “Tool Box” for dealing with a
variety of
issues. From boardroom to courtroom, from pregnancy to
contraception,
from unequal pay to domestic violence, women are more often
than not
handed the short end of the stick.
• A woman earns
seventy-three cents for every dollar a man makes. • The
law labels pregnancy a “disability.” • Domestic violence
remains the single biggest threat of injury to women in
America. •
The federal government continues to increase funding for
abstinence-only education, even though it’s proven to put
our daughters
at greater risk for unwanted pregnancies and sexually
transmitted
diseases. • Health insurance plans are more likely to
cover Viagra prescriptions than birth control
pills.
What’s
worse, we’re also weighed down by a myriad of troubling
attitudes: The
media bombard us with images of young, perfect-bodied women;
acid-tongued commentators label us “feminazi” if we try to
claim equal
treatment; and the current chief justice of the Supreme
Court has a
history of opposing legislative and legal attempts to strengthen
women’s rights, and questions “whether encouraging
homemakers to become
lawyers contributes to the common good.”
Why
are powerful
women viewed with consternation while powerful men instill
respect? Why
is it that for every ten men in an executive,
decision-making role in
this country, there is only one woman in that same role? Why
do our
federal courts continue to be stacked with male judges even
though
women receive more than half of all law degrees? And why
shouldn’t a
woman be president?
Enough! Women are not equal in
our society
or under our laws and the remedy is quite simple: Besides
being the
majority of the population, we also control the economy,
spending 80
percent of every discretionary dollar, and given that 54
percent of
voters are female, we can swing an election. With our
numbers we can do
something about it.
This is a critical moment: We can
either
take the road toward equality or allow ourselves to be
driven further
away from fair treatment. The 51% Minority is a clarion call
to the
silent majority to take a stand . . . before it’s too late.
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