The 2011 New Hampshire Women's Caucus Platform
Adopted Nov. 12, 2011, at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, New Hampshire
The New Hampshire Women's Caucus Platform identifies the issues that are critical to women and families, and calls on women and men to engage in and act on these issues, both individually and collectively, to bring about positive change and improve women's status in the state, nation and world.
The top three issues, identified by vote counts at the caucus session, are:
Demand affordable and accessible heath care, including reproductive health care
Call for equality and flexibility in the workplace, especially equal opportunities and pay for women, and affordable, high-quality child care
Promote U.S. ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), an international bill of rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979. (The United States is one of seven nations, along with Iran, Sudan, and Somalia, that have yet to ratify the treaty.)
Other significant issues discussed and considered important to women include:
Women and the Economy
Support equal wages for women in the U.S., who are paid significantly less (an average of 20 percent) than men
Call for continued support for the Social Security program for women
Women, Health and Healthcare
Demand that the medical community significantly step up its efforts to prevent, detect and treat domestic and sexual violence
Promote greater awareness of domestic abuse of women and children
Call for better health insurance coverage and treatment for mental health issues
Support women's reproductive health rights and end government intervention in women's health choices
Expand and improve sexual health education programs in U.S. schools
Increase public support for Planned Parenthood programs and other reproductive health services
Global Women's Issues
Eliminate human trafficking, in which 70 percent of the victims are women and girls forced into prostitution
Support micro-financing, health care and education for women and girls, globally and domestically
Other Issues
Ratify the Equal Rights Amendment
Support women in leadership positions at all levels of society and elect a woman as U.S. president, and leadership education of young women and men, including a focus on issues of gender
Call for more non-partisan education and communication of women's issues
Support progressive candidates and issues
End discrimination and violence against members of the LGBTQ community and support Marriage Equality
Insist on examination of negative media portrayals of minorities and of violence perpetrated against women
Address exploitation of women and children by the sports industry
Improve literacy in the U.S. and globally
Call for more research on environmental toxins as carcinogens
