Anita Finlay, writing for xoJane:
Political pandering is at a fever pitch.
Once again our votes are required. Yet neither party wishes to grant women autonomy because then we’d be free agents. Better to keep us in a perpetual childlike state of want and hope than empowerment.
As one-sided as this article is about feminism (and who here is going to protest?), Finlay stays pretty even-handed in her criticism of both major parties. For reference and good measure, here are the official Democratic Party Platform and the official Republican Party Platform of 2012.
Regardless of politics, I find Finlay’s final point particularly compelling:
The best prescription to guarantee women’s progress and prosperity is to demand it – not pray for a man to be nice to us. Rally. Protest. Get loud. Scare the crap out of both sides. We have seen this work before. Our involvement precludes our suppression.
I’m personally coming more and more to the belief that government has taken us nearly as far as it can toward gender equality. I speculate that the next great surge of feminism will be demanding that businesses take responsibility for their own actions instead of waiting for regulations they would probably only half-heartedly follow.