Your Money and Your Life, by Martha Burk

Table of Contents

Your Money and Your Life
Read an Excerpt

Table of Contents

1   Your Money and Your Life: What’s at Stake?
2   Women Can Control Any Election: The Gender Gap
3   Who’s in Charge? Why Does it Matter?
4   Where We Stand: We’ve Come a Long Way, but There’s a Long Way to Go
5   What Do Women Want – or at Least, What Are We Thinking?
6   Politicians with Forked Tongues: Beware the False Prophets
7   Your Life, and Many Others: Ending the Wars
8   Your Money: the Economy
9   Your Life: Reproductive Rights
10 Your Life: Health Care
11 Your Money: Social Security
12 Your Life: Long-term Care
13 Family Leave and Sick Leave
14 Child Care
15 Education and Title IX
16 Your Money: Taxes
17 Your Money: Pay Equity
18 Affirmative Action
19 Your Life: Violence
20 Human Rights
21 Women in the Military
22 Global Women’s Issues
23 The Last Word – Equal Constitutional Rights

Appendix   The Political Parties and Their Platforms
                        2004 Republican Party Platform
                      2004 Democratic Party Platform
Notes
Index

Return to top
Jump to Read an Excerpt

What Others Say About Your Money and Your Life

Martha Burk shows us there is still work to do - and shows us a road to gender equality that goes straight through the voting booth!
    - Susan Scanlan, Chair, national Council of Women’s Organizations

Whether you're a young woman worried about your future options, an employed woman fighting to break the glass ceiling, a mom out of the paid workforce, a retired woman struggling to make ends meet, or a feminist activist trying to change the world, this book has the information you need.
    - Eleanor Smeal, President, Feminist Majority Foundation

Martha Burk spends her time breaking barriers for women.
    - Augusta Chronicle (Georgia)

Martha Burk is much more than simply an advocate for women's issues. Her broad range of experience and understanding of the political process make her uniquely qualified to outline what's at stake-not just for women, but for the country as a whole-in the upcoming election. A timely and important call to action.
    - Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico

What every woman needs to know to bring about real change for themselves, families and communities, and for this nation.
    - LaDonna Harris, President and Founder of Americans for Indian Opportunity;
Convener, National Women's Political Caucus

Your Money and Your Life is a manifesto for this year's woman voter and for male voters who care about the women in their lives. Martha Burk empowers the reader to cut through the doubletalk, irrelevancies, and false promises, and focuses directly on what's at stake for women not only in the `08 election, but also in the years beyond. Where women stand, what women think, and what we need-with tough questions for candidates to hold their feet to the fire. Your Money and Your Life should be carried to every political rally, every press conference, every precinct meeting-and into the voting booth.

Return to top
Jump to Table of Contents

Excerpt from Your Money and Your Life

Too often an election will be dramatically characterized as the “election of the century,” or “the most important election in our lifetime.” But this time it may be true.
    In the past eight years, the U.S. has gone from record surpluses to record deficits. We are at war in two countries with no end in sight. Gasoline prices have doubled since 2000. Our country has been flooded with contaminated consumer products, including the toys our children play with, and our food supply is becoming less safe. Climate change is threatening the planet, yet the government is unresponsive.
    But most importantly, women’s rights, for which we fought so hard in the 20th century, have been steadily eroded since 2001. The first federal abortion ban in history became law in 2007. Title IX, the law requiring equal educational opportunities for girls and women, has been weakened. A woman-hostile Supreme Court has seriously curtailed our right to challenge employment discrimination. The wage gap remains, and we are the only industrialized country without some form of paid pregnancy or family leave. The childcare system in the U.S. is a patchwork of “make-do” arrangements that leaves families struggling, and the few federal anti-poverty programs that exist have been cut to the bone. Social Security, women’s main retirement program, remains under pressure, and long-term care is an increasing problem that families must solve on their own.
    There are many other pressing national issues we don’t normally think about as “women’s” issues, but that is indeed what they are. The economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the health-care crisis, tax policies—all affect women in different ways than they affect men, and all are growing concerns.
    If this sounds like a doomsday scenario, it’s not—though it is a challenge. Women have the opportunity in 2008 to take control and make the changes needed in the elections and beyond, but having the opportunity is not enough. We must also have the will, firmly grounded in essential knowledge. . . . click here for full excerpt . . .