Signing On for Hillary Clinton - These Women Get It

Official portrait.

The letter below by Christine Stansell, Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago, and its impressive list of signees offers evidence that feminists in this country are finally closing ranks behind Hillary Clinton – and for good reason.

(Courtesy of Politics on the Huffington Post)

We are women who support Hillary Clinton for the presidency of the United States. We do so because we believe that she will be the best president for the entire country. And as feminists, we also believe that Clinton is the best choice for attending to issues of special importance to women.

We write to you now because it's time for feminists to say that Senator Obama has no monopoly on inspiration. We are among the millions of women and men who have been moved to action by her. Six months ago, some of us were committed to her candidacy, some of us weren't, but by now we all find ourselves passionately supporting her. Brains, grace under pressure, ideas, and the skill to make them real: we call that inspiring. The restoration of good government after eight years of devastation, a decent foreign policy with ties to world leaders repaired, withdrawal from Iraq and universal health care: we call that exciting. And the record to prove that she can and will stand up to the swift-boating that will come any Democratic nominee's way: we call that absolutely necessary.

Clinton's enormous contributions as Senator, public servant, spokesperson for better family policies and the needs of hard-pressed women and children are widely known and recognized -- even by her opponent. Her powerful, inspiring advocacy of the human rights of women at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 was heralded around the world as a stunning departure from the normal anodyne role of First Lady. Corporate special interests managed to defeat the health care program she advocated in 1994, and her own leadership opened the plan to attack. But she kept on fighting, acknowledging her mistakes, and in ensuing years she succeeded in winning expanded coverage for children. Now she has crafted the only sensible and truly universal health care proposal before the voters.

On the Iraq war, many of us believe she made a major mistake in voting for Joint Resolution 114 in 2002 -- along with the 28 other Democratic senators, including John Edwards and John Kerry. But we also note that her current opponent, when asked about that resolution in 2004, responded that he did not know how he would have voted had he been in Congress then. We do not know either. But we do know that at the time, his opposition to the war carried no risks and indeed, promised to pay big dividends in his liberal Democratic district.

Now, the two candidates have virtually the same plan for withdrawal from Iraq. And on the critical, broader issues of foreign policy, we believe that Senator Clinton is far more consistent, knowledgeable, modest, and realistic -- stressing intense diplomacy on all questions and repairing our ties with world leaders.

We are keenly aware that much is at stake -- not just on national and international security, but on the economy, universal health care, the environment, and more. Our country needs a president who knows the members and workings of Congress, and has a proven record on Capitol Hill of persuading sympathizers, bringing along fence-sitters, and disarming opponents. There is an irony in her opponent's claim to be able to draw in Republicans, while dismissing her proven record of working with them as a legislator. We need a president who understands how to make changes real, from small things like the predatory student loan industry to large things like the Middle East. Hillary Clinton has the experience, knowledge and wisdom to deal with this wide range of issues.

Our country also needs a president who has a thorough mastery of "details" --yes, details -- after eight years of Bush and Cheney. The job of restoring good government is overwhelming, and will require more than "inspiration" to accomplish it. We believe that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Justice Department, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, the Environmental Protection Agency, and many more can be restored to full and effective functioning only by a president who understands their scope, regulations, personnel, problems and history. Knowing these "details" and acting on them are essential to begin the healing and recuperation of the country.

How many of us have heard brilliant and resourceful women in the workplace dismissed or devalued for "detail-orientation" in contrast to a man's supposed "big picture" scope? How many of us have seen what, in a man, would be called "peerless mastery," get called, in a woman's case, "narrowness"? How many women have we known -- truly gifted workers, professionals, and administrators -- who have been criticized for their reserve and down-to-earth way of speaking? Whose commanding style, seriousness, and get-to-work style are criticized as "cold" and insufficiently "likable"? These prejudices have been scandalously present in this campaign.

With all this in mind, we believe that Hillary Clinton is the best candidate for president, because she is the surest to remove the wreckage and secure the future. Politics is not magic. Hillary Clinton as president promises what government at its best can truly offer: wise decision-making and lasting change.

Ellen Carol DuBois, Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles

Christine Stansell, Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago

Gloria Steinem, writer, New York City

Michele Wallace , Professor of English, Women's Studies and Film Studies, City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center

Faith Ringgold, artist and Professor Emeritus of Art, UC San Diego

Robin Morgan, writer, New York City

Janet Holmgren, President, Mills College

Deborah Nelson, Director, Center for Gender Studies, University of Chicago

Jennifer Baumgardner, writer, New York City

Peg Yorkin,, Chair, Feminist Majority Foundation, Beverly Hills,

CA

Heidi Hartmann, President, Institute for Women's Policy Research, Washington, DC

Catherine Stimpson, Professor, New York University

Judith B. Walzer, former Provost and Professor of Literature, The New School, New York City

Margot Canaday, Society of Fellows, Princeton University

Ellen Chesler, Director, Eleanor Roosevelt Initiative at Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute, Hunter College, CUNY

Blanche Wiesen Cook, Professor of History, John Jay College and

Graduate Center/CUNY, New York City

Sonya Michel, Professor of History, University of Maryland, College Park

Alice Echols, Associate Professor. University of Southern California, Department of English Vivian Gornick, writer, New York City

Wendy W. Williams, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center

Carol Berkin, Presidential Professor of History, Baruch College & The Graduate Center, CUNY

Morgan Lawley, film director, Los Angeles

Clare Coss, playwright, NYC

Jean Baker, Professor of History, Goucher College

Batya Weinbaum, Writer, Empire State College, Saratoga Springs, NY

Ellen McCormack, Assistant Corporation Counsel, City of Chicago

Deirdre Bair, biographer, NYC

Esther Rothblum, Professor of Women's Studies, San Diego State University

Amy Richards, writer, New York City

Ann Snitow, Eugene Lang College

Megan Marshall, biographer, Boston, MA

Irene Tinker, Professor Emerita, University of California Berkeley

Kristen Timothy Lankester, former United Nations Deputy Director for Women's Rights

Florence Howe, Publisher, Feminist Press at CUNY, NYC

Cynthia Harrison, Associate Professor of History, Women's Studies, and Public Policy, The George Washington University

Gloria Feldt, writer

Laura Karpman, Film composer , UCLA, Los Angeles

Anne K. Mellor, Distinguished Professor of English, University of California, Los Angeles

Beth Baron, Professor of History, City College and Graduate Center, City University of New York

Marilyn Boxer, Professor of History, San Francisco State University

Ellen McCormack, Assistant Corporation Counsel, City of Chicago

Marjorie J. Spruill, Professor of History, The University of South Carolina

Louise W. Knight, biographer, Evanston, IL

Karen Offen, historian, Stanford, CA

Claire Moses, University of Maryland

Marla Stone, Professor of History, Occidental College

Carrie Menkel-Meadow, A.B. Chettle Jr. Professor of Law, Dispute Resolution and

Civil Procedure, Georgetown University Law Center

Judy Lerner, International Committee of Peace Action at the United Nations

Carmen Delgado Votaw, President, Pan American Liaison Committee of Women's Organizations, Bethesda, MD Rochelle G.

Ruthchild, Professor Emerita, The Union Institute and University,
Cincinatti, OH

Chin Jou, graduate student, Princeton University

Abby Arnold, Santa Monica, CA

Roberta McCutcheon, Chair, History Department, Trevor Day School, New York City

Helen Tilley, Assistant Professor, History Department and African Studies, PrincetonUniversity

Linda Frank, Graduate Student, UCLA

Barbara Gershen, Program Manager, Program in the Study of Women and Gender, Princeton University

Vivian Endicott Barnett, New York City

Barbara Gault, Silver Spring, MD

Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., Clinical professor of psychiatry, UC/San Francisco

Beverly Wildung Harrison, NYC

Anne Goodwyn Jones, Whichard Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, East Carolina University
Dr. Marcia Synnott, Professor of History Emerita, University of South Carolina

Dr. Judith S. Weis, Dept. of Biological Sciences, Rutgers University

Maribel Morey, JD, graduate student, Princeton University

Cynthia Boiter, Lecturer in Women's Studies, University of South Carolina

Nancy P. Moore, South Carolina

Alida Black, Editor, Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, George Washington University

Artemis March, Director, The Quantum Lens, Cambridge, MA

Sandra F. VanBurkleo, Assoc. Prof. of History; Adjunct Prof. of Law, Wayne State University

Linda Stein, New York City

Lauren Sklaroff, Assistant Professor of History, University of South Carolina

Greta Krippner, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan

Heather Arnet, Pittsburgh, PA

Mary Shorba, Chaplain, Phoenix Hospice, Mendocino County, CA

Linda Jupiter, Jupiter Productions, Fort Bragg, CA

Jean Twitty, Republican officeholder, Springfield, MO

Suzanne Roberts, Columbia, South Carolina

Susan Deller Ross, Professor of Law, Georgetown University

Carter Heyward, Cambridge, MA

Susanne Smith, Principal of Student Services, Spackenkill Union

Free School District, Poughkeepsie, NY

Pamela Ellen Ferguson, Austin, TX

Lois Rudnick, Chair, American Studies Dept., University of Massachusetts/ Boston

Cynthia Burack, Associate Professor of Women's Studies, The Ohio State University

Chocolate Waters, New York City

Glenna Mathews, Visiting Scholar, Starr King School for the Ministry, Berkeley, CA

Laurie Swindler, Normal, IL

Jayne Baron Sherman, New York City

Marianne C. Fahs, Professor of Urban Public Health, Hunter College, City University of New York.

Fran Diamond, California League of Conservation Voters, Los Angeles

Linda Lucks, President, Board of Neighborhood Commissioners, Los Angeles

Sally Miller Gearhart, writer, San Francisco

Tobe Levin, University of Maryland in Europe, Frankfurt, Germany

Sheriden Thomas, Tufts University, Medford, MA

Kathryn Yandell, Professor Emerita, Texas Lutheran University, Seguin, TX

Holly Elliott, Washington D.C.

Jane Gurko, Professor of English, San Francisco State University

Marlene Springer, President Emerita, College of Staten Island

Dr. Susan Corso, Somerville, MA,

Margaret Sears, Essex, MA.

Manette van Hamel, Woodstock NY

M. J. Bridge, , Alexandria, VA

Claire Reed, New York City

Kate Black, Willits, California

Keithe Bisnett, Cathedral City, CA

Naomi Williams, Encinitas, CA

Rose Mary Mitchell, San Francisco

Zoe Ann Nicholson, President, Pacific Shore, CA NOW

Jenny Warburg, Durham, NC

Anita Taylor, Professor Emerita, George Mason University, Fairfax VA

Jan Levy, New York City

Donna Deitch, Desert Heart Productions. Venice, CA

Beth Holmgren, Professor, Duke University

Daysi Morey,, Miami, FLA

duVergne R. Gaines, Los Angeles

Mary Lee Warner, Radio Kansas Public Radio, Lawrence, Kansas

Margaret Moore, Director, National Center for Women and Policing, Feminist Majority Foundation, Los Angeles

Michele Kort, Journalist, Los Angeles

Sandra Saathoff, Medical Lake, WA

Linda Fowler, Asheville, NC

Dorothy Haecker, San Antonio, Texas

Melissa Sue Kort, Professor of English, Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa CA

Valerie Fields, Member, Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education

Linda Hunt Beckman, Professor of English, Emeritus, Ohio University, Athens, OH

Kate Ullman, Palm Desert, CA

Margaret Blanchard, Professor Emerita, Graduate Studies, Vermont College of Union
Institute & University

Lesley Stein, Bradenton, FL

Susan Rennie, Emerita Professor, Vermont College of the Union Institute, Montpelier

Kathleen Herrington, Montpelier, VT

Judy Murphy, State Coordinator, Vermont NOW

Ruth Cooper Reidbord, American Institute of Certified Planners, Pittsburgh, PA

Linda Boyd Kavars, Editor, Inside/Out, New Paltz, NY

Kristin L. Bishop, Chair, Women's Political Action Network, Riverside County, CA

Karen Storey, President, SuccessStory, Inc., Palm Springs, CA

Sally Apfelbaum, New York City

Anne Cognetto, Hudson Valley, NY

Lauren Levy, Catskill, NY

Elizabeth W. Oakman, Columbia, SC

Patricia Wilson, Ossining, NY

Rona Fields, Washington, D.C.

Barbara Ottaviani, Hunter College, New York City

Jane Dreher Emerson, Columbia, SC

Veena Talwar Oldenburg, Professor of History, Baruch College and Graduate Center/CUNY, New York City

Deanne Upson, Washington, D.C.

Elizabeth Quinn, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY

Nancy Moore, Folly Beach, SC

Stephanie Rex, Slippery Rock, PA

Joyce Berkman, University of Massachusetts/ Amherst

Lisa M. Brennan, Stratford, CT

Victoria M. Capozzi Stratford, CT

Jan Whitman, Director, Food Bank of the Hudson Valley, Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY

Heidi Li Feldman, Professor of Law, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Georgetown University

Katheleen Loughlin, Professor of History, Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, MN

Mollie Camp Davis, Professor Emerita, Queens University, Charlotte, NC

Lupe Anguiano, Director, Stewards of the Earth, Oxnard, CA

Marie Deyoe, Schenectady,

Lucia Petrulli, Belmont, MA

Vivian A S Power, Mendocino College, Ukiah, CA

Corin R. Swift, Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

Syd Whalley, Executive Director, Western Center of Law and Poverty, Vallejo, CA

Shauna Lani James, Government Department, Harvard University

Sharon Isbin, The Julliard School, NYC

Ana I. Schwartz, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Texas/ El Paso

Sandra R. Levitsky, Department of Sociology, University
of Michigan

Sally Schindel Cone, Greensboro, NC

Rachel Lulov Segall, New York City

Patty Mooney, Crystal Pyramid Productions, San Diego CA

Mary Warshaw, Beaufort, SC

M. Junior Bridge, Alexandria, VA

Nina Sundell, NYC

Nieves M. Zaldivar, M.D., Delmarva Foundation, Washington, DC

Pat Cohen, Farmingdale State College, Farmingdale, NY

Liz Snow, NYC

Marion Browning-Baker, Portsmouth, VA

Margaret McKean, Associate Professor of Political Science, Duke University

Adele W. Miccio, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The Pennsylvania State University

Angie Sadeghi M.D. Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, LosAngeles

Barbara Helmick, Washington DC

Barbara Bonfigli, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Bethany C. Tronsky, New York City

Carole Emberton, Assistant Professor of History, SUNY-Buffalo

Carrie Bills,Green Mango Real Estate, Austin, Texas

Charlene Ellis, East Dummerston, Vermont

Christine Steiner, Los Angeles, CA

Ellen Gavin, Brava/Theater Center, San Francisco

Esther Rothblum, Ph.D., Professor of Women's Studies, San Diego State University

Gail Rogers, Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies

Janet Sunter, Molecular Virology, University of Texas at San Antonio

Susan Swinney, Colchester, Connecticut

Mia Mildred Yang, Colchester, Connecticut

Judith Kroll, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Linguistics, and Women's Studies

Pennsylvania State University
Julie Young, Santa Barbara, CA

Kathy Weber, Artistic Environments, Santa Monica CA

Rabbi Leila Gal Berner, Dept. of Religion, George Washington University, Washington D.C.

Kirsten Grimsad, Professor, Antioch University Los Angeles

Gay Cheney, Browns Summit, NC

Kathleen Daugherty, Newport Beach, CA

Jo Oppenheimer, NYC

Wendy L. Kahn, Washington, D.C.

Paola Dussias, Department of Spanish, Italian, Pennsylvania State University

Mitt Seeley, Topanga CA

Judith G. Miller, French Department, New York University

Elisa Gonzalez, San Antonio, TX.

Stephanie A. Shields, Professor of Psychology & Women's Studies, The Pennsylvania State University

Donna Fairfield, Greensboro, N.C.

Juanita Castro, Miami, FLA

Jane Kinney-Denning , Pace University, NYC

Barbara Posner Beltrami, Setauket, NY

Jan Doerler, Vermont Woman newspaper, South Burlington, VT

Ashley Bogosian, NYC

Carolyn J. Brown, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Daphne Uviller, writer, NYC

Gretchen Gross, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Vermont

Manuela Soares, Pace University, NYC

Daniela Gioseffi, writer, NYC

Kay F. Turner, Performance Studies, Tisch School/ NYU, NYC

Miriam Grace Monfredo, writer , Rochester, NY

Eileen Kessler, OmniStudio, Inc., Washington DC

Judith Johnson, Professor Emerita, English and Women's Studies , SUNY/Albany

Beverly Salerno, North Caldwell, NJ

Deborah Siegel, Woodhull Institute, Ancramdale, NY

Kathleen J. Hancock, University of Texas, San Antonio

Eileen Andrade, University of California /Berkeley

Carolyn T. Green, Executive Director, Piedmont Senior Care, Greensboro NC

Elaine D. Ingulli, Professor of Business Law & Women's Studies,

Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

Marilyn E. Vito, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

Dorothy Goldeen, President, Dorothy Goldeen Art Advisory.

Pam Turkett, Piedmont Senior Care, Greensboro NC

Frances Sjoberg, Literary Director, University of Arizona Poetry Center, Tucson, AZ

Mary Anne Ferguson, Professor Emerita, English and Women's Studies, University of Massachusetts/Boston

Geri Critchley, Washington, DC

Lisa Mullenneaux, Penington Press, NYC

Jil Clark, Boston, MA, Albany, NY

Lily Rivlin, NYC

Carol Leung, Texas Teachers Retirement System

Judith Lorber, Professor Emerita, Graduate Center and Brooklyn College, CUNY, NYC

Dorothy O. Helly, The City University of New York

Jillian Denby, artist, NYC

Stacy J. Mara, Little Chute, WI

Adrienne Marcus, Lexington Center for Recovery, Hudson Valley, NY

Karla Tonella, Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, The University of Iowa

Jane Augustine, writer, NYC

Barbara Marks,, Professor Emeritus, UCLA School of Theater, Film, Television &

Jacqueline R. Kinney, Attorney, California Legislature

Deniz Ozan-George, Refugee Services Coordinator, MA Office for Refugees and Immigrants, Boston, MA

Maria Meilan, NYC

Elisabeth Prugl, Associate Professor, Department of International Relations, Florida International University, Miami

Terry Weaver, Greensboro, NC

Diana Festa, NYC

Pat Ashbrook, Flagstaff, AZ