General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGloria Steinem and Friends Want Obama to Appoint a Female to Head FCC
Last edited Mon Mar 25, 2013, 01:23 PM - Edit history (1)
____________________
tweeted by, Gloria Steinem ?@GloriaSteinem 27m
Every @FCC chair in history has been a man. Make number 29 a woman. My letter http://bit.ly/10rIUeS Add your voice http://chn.ge/UIJJjA
March 22, 2013
The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
We're writing to make sure that with all that crosses your desk, you see a piece of good news. The best qualified candidates to chair the Federal Communications Commission are all women. You will be able make good policy and good history at the same time.
You have the chance to democratize the media with one key appointment when you nominate the next Chair of the Federal Communications Commission. We are writing to urge you to pick a woman.
This would be a truly historic appointment. There has never been a female chair of the Federal Communications Commission and a woman chair would go far to making women more visible and powerful in the media and technology.
As we step into 2013, women are still underrepresented in the leadership of America's media and its technology industries. Women hold only 6 percent of all TV and radio station licenses and under one-third of TV news directors are women. Of top executives working for technology companies just over 5 percent are women. Media companies have some of the most powerful resources at their disposal in shaping attitudes and culture. And as the Internet transforms American media and telecommunications, it has become central to the nations competitiveness as well as the future of culture, news, and communication.
A number of well-qualified candidates are reported by The National Journal to be under consideration for the top job at the FCC, including former OECD Ambassador, Karen Kornbluh, current FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel, Clinton administration FCC executives Susan Ness and Cathy Sandoval.
While there is no easy fix to getting women into the top jobs in the telecom and media industries, the government watchdog can and should be headed by a woman. The FCC holds broad regulatory power over the most important media, communications, and technology companies in the United States. Plus, there is a powerful "bully pulpit" effect to having women at the head of this agency.
You earned the majority of the womens vote because you represented views on issues from violence against women to pay equity. In your second term you can demonstrate your commitment to equality in leadership in a different but equally important area of the federal government, oversight of the media and telecom industries.
The FCCs broad regulatory authority over huge swaths of the U.S. economy makes it a very powerful government agency and over the next year it will face a series of critical decision points from how to structure a complex wireless spectrum auction to how to respond to an anticipated decision in a legal challenge over its authority to enforce its Open Internet rules. In addition, it must decide how to help improve broadband speed, service, and pricing in the United States when its rules are under pressure from industry. In the late 1990s the US had the highest broadband speeds and penetration rates of almost anywhere but today the U.S. comes in sixteenth and the average U.S. cost per megabit per second is several times that in South Korea, France, and the UK.
The next FCC chair must be someone who is willing to put the publics interests first and work to ensure that American businesses and workers have the tools they need to ensure U.S. competitiveness in the 21st century. Consumers want an independent FCC chair not an industry insider but someone who is willing to put the needs of consumers over the desires of industry executives.
The identity and personal experience of a regulatory chief matters. William Kennard, for example, who was appointed the first African-American chair of the agency by President Bill Clinton, made a top priority of closing the digital divide for African-Americans and for Americans with disabilities. Never in the 80 years of the FCC has a woman of any race or group been its chair, though women have been the nation's majority for a long time.
The post atop the FCC is one of the most important opportunities available to raise the bar for representational diversity and decision-making in the media and telecom sectors, which are the infrastructure of this generation and of the future.
This petition has already been signed by activists from across the country who agree with us that the time is now for the FCC to be headed by a woman. The time is now.
Most Respectfully,
Siobhan Sam Bennett
President & CEO of She Should Run
Julie Burton
President of The Womens Media Center
Melanie Campbell
CEO & Executive Director of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
Geena Davis
Founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media
Margot Dorfman
CEO of the U.S. Womens Chamber of Commerce
Madeline Di Nonno
Executive Director of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media
Lauren Embrey
Chair of the Board of The Women's Media Center
Gloria Feldt
Co-Founder and President of Take The Lead
Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner
Executive Director & CEO of MomsRising
Sandra Finley
President & CEO of the League of Black Women
Jane Fonda
Co-Founder of The Womens Media Center
Kim Gandy
President & CEO of the National Network to End Domestic Violence
Eleanor Hinton Hoytt
President and CEO of Black Womens Health Imperative
Shelby Knox
Director of Womens Rights Campaigns for Change.org
Terry Lawler
Executive Director of New York Women in Film & Television
Pat Mitchell
President and CEO of The Paley Center for Media
Robin Morgan
Co-Founder of The Womens Media Center
Terry ONeill
President, National Organization for Women Foundation
Anika Rahman
President & CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women
Susan Scanlan
Chair of the National Council of Womens Organizations
Karen See
President of the Coalition of Labor Union Women
Eleanor Smeal
President of the Feminist Majority Foundation
Katherine Spillar
Executive Editor of Ms. Magazine
Gloria Steinem
Co-Founder of The Womens Media Center
Dee Strum
National President of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women
Linda Young
Chair of the National Womens Political Caucus
djean111
(14,255 posts)just sayin'.
It shouldn't matter what gender, race, ethnicity, etc. a person is--all that is really important is that whoever heads it is the most qualified for the job. The same is true for other positions, as well.
bigtree
(85,998 posts)"There has never been a female chair of the Federal Communications Commission and a woman chair would go far to making women more visible and powerful in the media and technology.
As we step into 2013, women are still underrepresented in the leadership of America's media and its technology industries. Women hold only 6 percent of all TV and radio station licenses and under one-third of TV news directors are women. Of top executives working for technology companies just over 5 percent are women. Media companies have some of the most powerful resources at their disposal in shaping attitudes and culture. And as the Internet transforms American media and telecommunications, it has become central to the nations competitiveness as well as the future of culture, news, and communication."
I think these points raised are worthy and fair considerations.
bigtree
(85,998 posts). . . that shouldn't be a caution about considering appointing a woman. The appointment would/should be judged on the merits of the nominee; man or woman.
bowens43
(16,064 posts)why are we still thinking that it should be?
demwing
(16,916 posts)Why wait generations for balance to find itself? Let's create balance now.
UnrepentantLiberal
(11,700 posts)bigtree
(85,998 posts). . . and aspirations in office.
Certainly there's a binder-full somewhere . . .
What about the concerns expressed in the letter?
bluedigger
(17,086 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Female=adjective.
Woman=noun.
demwing
(16,916 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)"female" would imply that they wanted girls to be considered.
demwing
(16,916 posts)you were quibbling that "female" was inappropriate because it was an adjective. It's also a noun.
bigtree
(85,998 posts)"This would be a truly historic appointment. There has never been a female chair of the Federal Communications Commission and a woman chair would go far to making women more visible and powerful in the media and technology."
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)it's going to be a corporate shill.
Don't celebrate a woman getting the position, like it's some sort of victory, unless you know they aren't beholden to the 1%. We're falling behind Romania in internet speed thanks to the too-friendly relationship between our government and big cable. The whole notion that the FCC promotes competition is a farce.
UnrepentantLiberal
(11,700 posts)they were asking him to select a woman.
demwing
(16,916 posts)I celebrate equality where I see it.
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)And I'll celebrate when we get an FCC chair who actually does his/her job as a protector of the people, and not concern myself with whether they were born with an innie or an outie.
demwing
(16,916 posts)I'll be glad when we don't have to discuss why the United States ranks a pitiful 77th on a list of countries ranked by % of political offices held by women. (http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm)
Generation_Why
(97 posts)forestpath
(3,102 posts)And I have no doubt Obama will choose a corporate shill.
djean111
(14,255 posts)That's why I mentioned Fiorina - corporate shill extraordinaire.
Right up this administration's alley.
forestpath
(3,102 posts)It would surprise me if he didn't.
Why would you be surprised if Obama didn't choose someone as bad as Carly Fiorina?
forestpath
(3,102 posts)demwing
(16,916 posts)baseless, incendiary comments must be rationalized and supported to the first person that challenges said comment.