Last Saturday, I left home at 7:30 in the morning to spend the day contemplating the future of women’s issues in my state, the nation, and the world. Luckily there was coffee. The occasion was the New Hampshire Women’s Caucus, a daylong conference on women’s issues and policy priorities. Since New Hampshire hosts the country’s first presidential primary, it receives tons of national media attention for its electoral politics. The caucus was a chance to inject women’s issues into that conversation. It was also a chance to contemplate topics including affordable childcare, workplace equality, and why compromise can be so totally annoying.

The caucus took place in New London, NH, on the campus of Colby-Sawyer College, which organized the event. (Disclosure: My husband teaches at the college, and a close friend served on the caucus steering committee.) The day began with a series of panel discussions on women and workplace equality, health care, and global issues.

Panelist Carol Folt, the provost of Dartmouth College, spoke about the importance of affordable childcare to advancing women’s careers. “I wouldn’t be here” as a provost and former professor with a Ph.D in ecology, she said, if it weren’t for the childcare Dartmouth offers. Women who aren’t lucky enough to have employer-subsidized care wind up socked by extra worry and costs as they try to maneuver through the most intense periods of their careers. This is particularly true for academics, who often spend the period from their late 20s to mid-30s finishing grad school and then working long hours to secure tenure. And as in so many other areas, low-income and single mothers suffer the most. In New Hampshire, Folt said, the average cost of child care eats up 37% of the typical single mother’s income.

Other panelists — both academics and activists — spoke about pay equality, Social Security (which women rely on more than men), domestic violence, reproductive rights, and other topics of interest to progressive women. Then it was time for the caucus itself.

In a traditional electoral caucus, like the one that gets so much attention in Iowa every four years, participants publicly ally themselves with individual candidates to choose delegates and, ultimately, presidential candidates. But the caucus format can also be used by groups to decide on a slate of issues or priorities. The goal of this one was to determine a focused platform of issues summing up “What Women Want Now” — at least as determined by one group of academics, progressive activists and college students.

Attendees were seated at round tables, and we began by discussing the issues we had heard about that morning within those small groups. We decided on the three issues we thought were most pressing, and presented those to the room.

Next came the fun part: Voting with our feet. Organizers had placed signs around the room representing the nine topics we had heard about that morning. They instructed us to go stand by the sign that we thought should was the most crucial issue facing women in 2011. I marched over to the childcare sign to meet the other women who chose the same issue. We smiled at each other and congratulated ourselves on being so correct in our priorities. (Privately, I rolled my eyes at the women across the room who made passing a decades-old UN resolution their top priority NOT THAT THERE’S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT.) Next to us, the women who had chosen workplace equality as their top issue starting cajoling us to join forces since our issues are so intertwined. Absurdly, I found myself resenting that in order to merge — which was a totally logical move — my side had to walk 10 feet while the other group stayed put. That’s how a caucus works: solidarity, then annoyance, then compromise, then consensus.

As the day progressed, we heard from many more speakers, including Terie Norelli, an incredibly inspiring state legislator (bet you’ve never heard that phrase before) and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sheryl WuDunn, who spoke about women as economic catalysts worldwide. I finished the day fired up, provoked, and exhausted. Luckily my husband was at home cooking dinner for me. Not to pooh-pooh health care and economic empowerment, but is it too late to add “getting someone to make dinner for you” to the caucus platform?

Learn more at www.girleffect.org and join the movement at www.facebook.com/girleffect.

These words come from the Declaration of Sentiments, the result of the historic two-day Seneca Falls Convention held in New York State in 1848, a time when women were civilly dead.

Since gathering this morning for the first New Hampshire Women’s Caucus, 163 years after that group of women and men gathered in New York, it is clear that women have made a great deal of progress on almost every front, but still have a long way to go. This progress is represented in part by the women who spoke in our morning panels to educate us about important issues. They are professors, directors of organizations, dream makers, world shapers. They are women.

We came here to look to each other for the answer to the question: What do women want now in advance of the New Hampshire state primary and the 2012 state and national elections? And now we have an answer.

At the caucus held today at Colby-Sawyer College, we ranked not our choices for elected officials, but for the issues most vital to women. and on which we can work together to effect positive change in society.

There are many issues women care about with intense passion. Our panelists argued for nine issues this morning and other issues were introduced by the nearly 200 invested and engaged participants who came here to learn and take action to improve the status of women here in New Hampshire and planetwide.

Every issue introduced had merit. Our caucus participants considered the urgency of the issue, the size and vulnerability of the affected populations, whether the issue has a history of unmet needs, and the issue’s level of support.

After this process, the top three answers to the question what do women want now, the issues voted on and adopted for the NHWC Platform are:

1. Make health care, including reproductive health care, affordable and accessible to all;
2. Require equality and flexibility in our workplaces, including equal opportunities and pay, and affordable, quality child care;
3. Move the U.S. toward ratification of the U.N. Women’s Rights treaty, which calls for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

This is the New Hampshire Women’s Caucus Platform, announced on Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s 195th birthday. We know she would be proud of the work done here today. This platform is what those who are in and who are running for office need to know women want now.

It is hard to spread innovation. It is hard to make change. It is hard to make people listen and learn to see issues they thought they knew about with new eyes. But women’s issues are America’s issues. We all have to vote, and we have to speak up. Educate yourself and engage. The journey continues after the caucus ends. Vote. Run for office. We need your talent and energy!

Don’t let disagreements stop the conversation before it starts. We can work together. Women must always be advocates for change.

This announcement was made as part of the New Hampshire Women’s Caucus by Assistant Professor of Humanities Margaret Wiley and was written by Kate Seamans, assistant director of Communications at Colby-Sawyer College. The announcement was made prior to the event’s keynote address by Sheryl WuDunn.

Susan D. Wright (at left), former First Lady of Dartmouth College, trustee of Colby-Sawyer College and Advisory Board member for the N.H. Women's Caucus, joined a contingent of students, faculty and staff from Dartmouth for a photo opportunity. Dartmouth Provost Carol Folt, Professor Lisa Baldez, Director Kistin Fjeld were panelists and Stephanie Chestnut brought a large group of students to participate.

The New Hampshire Women’s Caucus featured a panel that discussed strategies and resources for bringing about social change. The panel included Editor Jeff Feingold and Southern New Hampshire University Social Media Director Karlyn Morissette on traditional and new media; Executive Director of the Albert Einstein Institution Jamila Raqib and WomensTrust Founder and President Dana Dakin on community, non-profit and non-governmental organizations; and Former N.H. Legislator Elizabeth Hager and current N.H. Representative Terie Norelli on government, legislative advocacy, and politics.

With state primaries and a major election year ahead, Representative Norelli, in her eighth term and now serving as minority house leader, suggested ways to engage and make a difference. Stay informed about issues, meet and exchange views with political candidates, and work for candidates who champion your causes, she advised. Get involved with organizations that advocate for constituencies you care about such as The Children’s Lobby or a local domestic violence prevention group. “Write letters to the editor, go to a public hearing and testify, and contact your local legislator by email, phone or mail with your concerns,” she said. “With 400 of us, there’s one near you! Be sure to vote and encourage your friends and family to vote.”

Panel moderator Melissa Meade, associate professor of Humanities at Colby-Sawyer, closed the panel by asking the audience, “Who among us will run for office? Who among us will reach the media, or start our own media? And who among us will withdraw our obedience?”

Echoing statements made throughout the day, Colby-Sawyer Assistant Professor of Humanities Margaret Wiley encouraged everyone to work together for positive change. “Women’s issues are America’s issues,” she said. ” It’s hard to make change…to make people listen and learn to see issues they thought they knew about with new eyes…The journey continues after the caucus ends. We need your talent and energy.”

~Kimberly Swick Slover, director of Communications, Colby-Sawyer College

This is an excerpt of the 2011 NH Women’s Caucus Platform press release, read the full press release here.

Caucus Volunteers, left to right: Christi Wilson, Bernard Botchway, Mike Gregory, Jessica Foye, Lin Chen, Shanshan Chen.

The New Hampshire Women’s Caucus, which took place on Nov. 12, 2011, at Colby-Sawyer College, began with opening remarks by Ann McLane Kuster, a public policy advocate and community activist, who called for more women in leadership roles in the U.S. Congress and on Wall Street. “Women bring a special sensibility to these areas; we’ve held our babies and watched our parents die. Our collective voice needs to be heard in Washington (D.C.) on the issues of the day: getting back to work, balancing our budgets, ending these two wars,” said. A candidate for U.S. Congress, Kuster said that “We can’t do this on the backs of the sick and the poor. Women are bearing the brunt of this downturn in the economy and need to be heard in this election. We’re talking about American values: liberty, equality and justice.”

Programs of great importance to women and families are at risk of dismantlement by the federal government, Kuster explained, most notably: Medicare, Social Security, the U.S. Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency. “Also at risk is women’s control over their own bodies. Our right to private decisions is in danger,” she added.

On the Women and the Economy panel, Dartmouth College Provost Carol Folt spoke to “The Importance of Child Care: Empowering Women in the Workforce.”

“Safe, reliable, nurturing and affordable child care is essential to developing the full capacity of women in the work force,” Folt said. “A recent study of American women who left the workforce to have children found that 93 percent wanted to return to work, but only 40 percent returned to full-time positions because of high child care costs.”

The development of quality, state-supported child care and education could be a core part of a long-term solution, according to Folt. “The aim is to solve two interrelated problems, the high cost to families on one side, and the expense of delivering high-quality child care on the other. she said. “These issues need to be part of the national conversation.”

Monica Zulauf, executive director of YWCA New Hampshire, spoke to the need for equality and flexibility in the 21st century workplace, and began by pointing out that women in the U.S. still earn at least 20 percent less than men. “Economic and political power won’t equalize until salaries do,” she said. “We need workplaces that fit with being women; 80 percent of married and partnered women are dual earners; their pay is essential for sustaining the family.” Issues of flexibility involve more than just choosing “flex time,” Zulauf explained. “It’s about when, how and where we work.”

Sarah Chaisson Warner, executive director of New Hampshire Citizens’ Alliance, addressed the need for protection of Social Security benefits for women, who make up 57 percent of its beneficiaries ages 65 and older, many of whom have no other income. She challenged assertions that Social Security is about to run out of funding and adds to the federal deficit, noting that the program is predicted to pay out benefits through 2041 and by law it cannot add to the deficit.

The most urgent need is for more jobs, which puts money into the system. “We are in a jobs crisis. Let’s take Social Security out of the conversation regarding the deficit. Eliminate the cap on taxable income, roll back tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, and Social Security is solvent,” Warner said. “Social Security is a mainstay for women in this room, in New Hampshire, across the country.”

Heather Farr Gunnell, program director for the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) program through the New Hampshire Coalition against Domestic and Sexual Violence, identified domestic and sexual violence as serious threats to public health.

“In the U.S., 1.5 million women report abuse every year, and it affects one-third of women in New Hampshire,” Gunnell said, explaining that many victims endure multiple assaults, most of which go unreported. The health effects for victims are severe and last a lifetime: most victims suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and many are plagued by chronic pain, headaches, gastrointestinal issues, and major psychological and eating disorders. She recommends that medical professionals screen their patients at every visit, and that the medical industry engage in public awareness campaigns about the dangers of domestic and sexual violence, just as it communicates so effectively about the symptoms and treatment of influenza and other major public health issues.

In New Hampshire, approximately 10 to 12 percent of the population, and 17 percent of the nation, lack health insurance, which limits their access to timely care and results in poorer health outcomes, higher costs, and lower quality of life, according to Kristina Fjeld, deputy director of the N.H. Area Health Education Center and director of the N.H. Uninsured Project at Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. Fjeld advocated for increased access to comprehensive health insurance to both improve public health and contain health care costs. One of every four dollars paid for health insurance covers the costs of care for uninsured and underinsured people, and the gap between the true costs and what the government pays through Medicaid, Medicare and other government-sponsored programs, according to Fjeld.

Jennifer Frizzell, senior policy advisor for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, addressed the need for comprehensive health care and reproductive health services for uninsured women. In New Hampshire, Planned Parenthood serves 16,000 people per year, and 70 percent of its primary care patients are poverty-level women who cannot afford health insurance.

“It’s critical for women to have access to comprehensive health care,” Frizzell said. “Primary care will affect the rest of their lives. Well-woman exams, birth control and cancer screenings are cost-effective prevention actions,” she said. The Affordable Care Act has reduced gender discrimination in cost and care, Frizzell explained, by emphasizing preventive services and eliminating co-pays and deductibles for birth control and health screenings.

~Kimberly Swick Slover, director of Communications, Colby-Sawyer College

This is an excerpt of the 2011 NH Women’s Caucus Platform press release, read the full press release here.

Xanthe Hilton speaks about health care.

Participants expressed strong support for workplace equality and flexibility, especially equal opportunities and pay for women, who earn an average of 20 percent less than men. They also called for affordable, high quality child care, the lack of which stymies the capacity of women across the socioeconomic spectrum to provide adequate financial support for their families and to advance their careers.

Additionally, the platform calls for the U.S. to ratify 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, which defines women’s rights as human rights. The U.S., along with Iran, Somalia and Sudan, remain among the seven nations yet to ratify the treaty.

The platform demands that the medical community vastly improve its efforts to prevent, detect and treat domestic and sexual violence. Protection of the Social Security program is part of the platform, as is the call for greater support for micro-financing, health care and education for poor women and girls in the U.S. and globally. Participants also called for the elimination of human trafficking, in which 70 percent of the victims are women and girls forced into prostitution; 50 percent of all victims are children.

The caucus participants also seek greater public support for Planned Parenthood programs and other reproductive health services that are seen as vital for healthy women, families and communities. Additionally, they stress the need for improvement and expansion of sexual health education programs in U.S. schools; an end to discrimination and violence against members of the LGBTQ community; and strong support for marriage equality. The platform also conveys an urgent need for more women in leadership positions at all levels of society, including as U.S. president; for more leadership education for young men and women, especially in examining gender roles; and for greater support of progressive candidates and issues.

Participants called for an examination of pervasive negative depictions of minorities and women in the media, and specifically, of violence perpetrated against women. They also expressed support for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment; for increased awareness of domestic abuse of women and children; and for addressing the exploitation of women, children and men by the sports industry. Finally, the platform calls for more affordable housing; sustainable jobs; accessible health care and insurance for treatment of mental health issues; increased non-partisan education and communication focused on women’s issues; and more research focused on environmental toxins as carcinogens.

~Kimberly Swick Slover, director of Communications, Colby-Sawyer College

This is an excerpt of the 2011 NH Women’s Caucus Platform press release, read the full press release here.