Green Party’s Jill Stein on the Feminist Case Against Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton‘s plan to win the White House relies heavily on winning the support of women voters. And she shouldn’t have much problem doing that: Not only does she have the endorsements of many marquee women’s organizations — EMILY’s List, NOW and Planned Parenthood, for example — she’ll likely face Donald Trump, a candidate who is despised by women at historic rates. (A recent poll found seven out of ten women voters have unfavorable views of him.)
Trump’s accusations that Clinton has coasted through life with gender-based advantages may have helped shore up his credibility with resentful men’s rights activists, but it probably helped Clinton more. She raised $2.4 million off his infamous “woman card” remarks, one of her best fundraising pushes of the campaign.
For many women voters, the choice between the likely major-party nominees is relatively easy: One of them has a demonstrable history of misogyny, and does things like say women should be punished for getting an abortion, and the other supports equal pay for women and stronger protection for reproductive rights.
But as Jill Stein, the Green Party‘s presumptive presidential nominee, would like to remind voters, Clinton isn’t the only woman in the race. Stein makes a strong argument that the Green Party platform is better for many more women than Clinton’s.
The Democrats are close to putting a woman at the top of their ticket — a historic first for a major party in America — but the Green Party has mounted all-female tickets in the last two presidential election cycles and has a provision that requires 50 percent of party leadership positions to be held by woman. “I think that ensures that we have a balanced and humane set of policies,” Stein says.
Stein stresses that reproductive rights and equal pay — both of which the progressive Greens support, of course — aren’t the only “women’s issues.” The Greens want more, like “Medicare for All” single-payer public health insurance that includes reproductive health care. They want equal pay, but they also want a $15 minimum wage for all people.
“Everybody is entitled to solid living wages, which we don’t hear from Hillary Clinton. She’s quick to talk about parity, but parity at poverty, and that’s not adequate,” Stein says.