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I am a member of AAUW (American Association of University Women) here in Bozeman. AAUW works to promote equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy, and research. This year, through voter registration and education events, our branch has been encouraging young women to learn about the issues important to them and find out how their candidates stand on those issues.
Many hard-won women’s rights have recently come under attack. Earlier this year, HERvotes published an online article describing the “Top Twelve Historic Advances for Women Now at Risk” (available at http://hervotes.org/top-12-advances-at-risk/). I encourage all voters interested in women’s equality to read this article and then ask candidates about their positions on these issues. The people we elect in 2012 — at all levels — will be the policy makers who determine the course of women’s rights for many years to come. Voting has always been important; this year it’s absolutely vital. Learn about the issues and the risks to women’s rights. Make your vote count!
Diane Ehernberger AAUW-Montana Finance Director Bozeman
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There is no such attack on womens' rights. This is simply a leftist meme designed to ramp up outrage prior to the election. In fact, there is no such thing as womens' rights. When we look at the issue of rights, we need to understand that there are two categories of rights: legal rights and unalienable rights. Legal rights are created by laws. For example, contract law creates conditions where parties can enter into binding agreements that spell out benefits, costs, and remedies between the parties. Or, for example, Social Security, which creates a legal right to receive benefits under certain conditions as spelled out by the relevant laws. Any time a law is passed, it creates classes of people for which it applies, and the circumstances under which it applies.
The author of the letter swerves into the truth: "The people we elect in 2012 — at all levels — will be the policy makers who determine the course of women’s rights for many years to come." So sad. Since laws can be modified, expanded, or repealed, legal rights are nothing more than privileges granted by law. They are subject to the whims of the legal and social environment of the time. As such, it is the government that determines your fate, a truly unenviable place to be. But this is the sort of thing this kind of thinking fosters: a dependency on government for favors, sustenance, and the tools to live.
The second type of right is unalienable rights. Unalienable rights are intrinsic to existence. "Unalienable" means cannot be separated. They are not granted, created, or repealed. Government and law does not cause them. Government can only secure them or violate them. Unalienable rights costs no other party anything. If someone is forced to fund the activity, by definition it is not a right.
So, there is no right to equal pay, abortion, access, retirement benefits, or medical leave. We can debate the desirability of any of these concepts, but not in the context of rights. Especially to the degree that the exercise of these things requires someone else to fund them.
Here is the list of the top 12 "rights" supposedly at risk. Needless to say, not a single one of these has anything to do with rights. The list is a leftist wet dream for societal manipulation and cultural shift, carefully couched in terms like "fairness," "equality," and "opportunity."
1. Jobs and Pay Equity – The Equal Pay Act (1963), Title VII (1964), Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (2010)
2. The Affordable Care Act (2010)
3. Women’s Right to Vote (1920)
4. Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) and Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972) Supreme Court Decisions
5. Title X, The National Family Planning Program (1970)
6. Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision (1973)
7. Social Security Act (1935)
8. Medicare (1965)
9. Medicaid (1965)
10. The Violence Against Women Act (1994)
11. Title IX of the Education Amendments (1972)
12. Family and Medical Leave (1993)
There is no such attack on womens' rights. This is simply a leftist meme designed to ramp up outrage prior to the election. In fact, there is no such thing as womens' rights. When we look at the issue of rights, we need to understand that there are two categories of rights: legal rights and unalienable rights. Legal rights are created by laws. For example, contract law creates conditions where parties can enter into binding agreements that spell out benefits, costs, and remedies between the parties. Or, for example, Social Security, which creates a legal right to receive benefits under certain conditions as spelled out by the relevant laws. Any time a law is passed, it creates classes of people for which it applies, and the circumstances under which it applies.
The author of the letter swerves into the truth: "The people we elect in 2012 — at all levels — will be the policy makers who determine the course of women’s rights for many years to come." So sad. Since laws can be modified, expanded, or repealed, legal rights are nothing more than privileges granted by law. They are subject to the whims of the legal and social environment of the time. As such, it is the government that determines your fate, a truly unenviable place to be. But this is the sort of thing this kind of thinking fosters: a dependency on government for favors, sustenance, and the tools to live.
The second type of right is unalienable rights. Unalienable rights are intrinsic to existence. "Unalienable" means cannot be separated. They are not granted, created, or repealed. Government and law does not cause them. Government can only secure them or violate them. Unalienable rights costs no other party anything. If someone is forced to fund the activity, by definition it is not a right.
So, there is no right to equal pay, abortion, access, retirement benefits, or medical leave. We can debate the desirability of any of these concepts, but not in the context of rights. Especially to the degree that the exercise of these things requires someone else to fund them.
Here is the list of the top 12 "rights" supposedly at risk. Needless to say, not a single one of these has anything to do with rights. The list is a leftist wet dream for societal manipulation and cultural shift, carefully couched in terms like "fairness," "equality," and "opportunity."
1. Jobs and Pay Equity – The Equal Pay Act (1963), Title VII (1964), Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (2010)
2. The Affordable Care Act (2010)
3. Women’s Right to Vote (1920)
4. Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) and Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972) Supreme Court Decisions
5. Title X, The National Family Planning Program (1970)
6. Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision (1973)
7. Social Security Act (1935)
8. Medicare (1965)
9. Medicaid (1965)
10. The Violence Against Women Act (1994)
11. Title IX of the Education Amendments (1972)
12. Family and Medical Leave (1993)
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