Quote of the Day

"This is not a favor to women; it is not simply a nice thing to do. No country can get ahead when it leaves half of its people behind."—Melanne Verveer, a US State Department Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues, at a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing called this week to examine the role of women in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.

The full inclusion of women into policy-making roles has been an issue championed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her entire career. She has spoken to the need for equality, and the rich mine of ideas and passion and energy that goes untapped when women are marginalized, on countless occasions. It is no surprise, but no less delightful for its predictability, that her State Department would take an active approach to addressing inclusion in what blooms from the Arab Spring.

Less charming is this, buried deep in the same article:

The United States, which along with states like Iran and Somalia, has yet to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, should do so, said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California. She said repressive governments could use that fact as a pretext to not live up to their own obligations under it.

The U.N.-sponsored treaty has languished in the U.S. Senate since its adoption in 1979.

I will note that the US Senate currently has a Democratic majority. Still no action for the nation's women.