Where are the women?
Nowhere to be seen in discussions on the nation’s financial future, reports Kate Ackley of Roll Call in an article about the lack of women on the White House-Congress budget negotiation panel. 15 women’s organizations have asked the White House to include women in negotiations on the national budget between the White House and Congress. ...
The women’s groups who wrote to President Obama, including the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce and the National Women’s Political Caucus, cited Cabinet secretaries Kathleen Sebelius (Health and Human Services) and Hilda Solis (Labor) as high-level officials who should be at the table to represent women’s priorities.
Today's issue of "open government" mostly centers around the degree to which the government makes accessible its documents and other communiques to the general public. However, open government can also mean the degree to which elected government officials avail critical decision making opportunities to all interested segments of the population. The critical nature of the nation's budget negotiations is one case in point-- if only a fraction of the country is represented in these meetings, its final agreement may very well be skewed in favor of the representation present at the meetings. All interested voices need to be kept in mind when making important decisions.
