She speaks with energy and enthusiasm about the rather daunting task of unpacking all the issues that have been loaded on the feminist bandwagon: women in prison, immigration, homophobia, health care, the environment. She says women are angry again, and that will be the unifying force.
The Bush administration spent millions of dollars on the marriage movement, trying to convince women that the way out of poverty was to get married, she said, "instead of spending that money to create jobs for those women."
The abstinence-only requirement in exchange for sex education dollars did irreparable harm to young women, she continued.
The workplace continues to be segregated, she said, and women are stuck in part-time work where there are no benefits, no opportunities for advancement and where they are the most vulnerable in an economic downturn such as the one we are now experiencing.
"And the idea that you spend your way out of a recession by putting all the money into projects that hire mostly men is a huge problem."
Equally outrageous, she said, is the fact that pharmacists and hospitals are asserting some kind of right to refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control or to refuse to administer the morning-after pill to rape victims.
She will seek to mobilize women in their own communities to demand accountability from local institutions as well as from the people who represent them in state legislatures and in Congress.
"I don't think I will be getting as much sleep as I used to," she said, laughing. "I will be traveling - going to the places where women are organizing."
Susan Reimer's column appears Mondays.
