It struck me as strange in last night’s presidential debate that in 2002–just a decade ago–Mitt Romney knew so few “qualified women” for state government in Massachusettes, he had to go out and search them out, resulting in “binders full of women” from which he appointed a record number of women.
“We took a concerted effort” to find women and “went to women’s groups” to find candidates, Romney said.
It struck lots of people as strange, including the women’s group in Massachusettes who is speaking out today–noting they had to push Romney to appoint women; that they brought him the binders full of women, he didn’t come to them; that they watched him initially appoint some women, but then saw his commitment to women drop off during his 4 year-term. As Carol Hardy-Fanta, former co-chair of MassGAP’s higher education subcommittee told Huffington Post, “Our conclusion was, you have to hold his feet to the fire year after year.”
Boston Phoenix journalist David Bernstein weighed in today at Salon.com, affirming it was the women who went to Romney–Romney didn’t go to the women.
And the Boston Globe is reporting that one reason Romney didn’t know qualified women is that he hadn’t sought them out at Bain Capital, where only a handful of women were among the 99 vice presidents–all the rest being white males. The Globe said Romney “did not have a history of appointing women to high level positions” at Bain Capital.
The Huffington Post’s story is entitled “Romney’s ‘Binder Full of Women’ Female Hiring Boast Falls Apart.”
If he had respect for women, would he take their medical decisions away, putting some at risk of having no medical treatment for breast cancers, family planning or STD’s. Planned Parenthood does exactly that for many poor women. If he had respect for women, would he not take a loud, clear favorable stance on the Lilly Leadbetter Act. If he had respect for women, would he have used his power as a Mormon bishop to pressure a single mother to give up her child to the Mormon Church. I believe he has no respect for women so he probably has no understanding of why the above statement “binders full of women”, or his misrepresentation of the women he appointed have drawn criticism.