Jean Warner, chair of the Oklahoma Women’s Coalition, has a pretty awesome blog over at Oklahoma Women’s Network Blog. So awesome she won Peace Arena’s Netroots Award! Specifically, The Buffalo Stampede Award - for best blog with a cause. She posts about many different issues that affect women and girls in Oklahoma, focusing on how celebrate, inform, and empower them. From the OWC website:

Our goal is to advance bills benefiting women and girls that can win support from members of the Oklahoma Legislature on both sides of the isle. We are currently focusing on issues that impact women and girls in Oklahoma in the areas of aging, education, health, incarceration, and violence against women.

Which is really great, since Oklahoma does rank pretty low in the nation with regards to many of those issues. It’s great to see people working to better the women and girls in this state. You do that, and it will benefit everyone. That’s what feminism is all about.

I do disagree with her though. Specifically with regards to their stance on what she explains here:

I am getting lots of questions on this topic so let’s just get this on the record.

The Oklahoma Women’s Coalition - by design - is a bipartisan coalition. We strive for a board of directors that is 50% Republican and 50% Democrat. Our goal is to support bills that benefit women and girls and that can win support from members of the Oklahoma Legislature on both sides of the isle.

Therefore, it is not our plan to take a position on “wedge” or “third rail” issues that divide such as sex education and abortion. At present we intend to address issues that impact women and girls in Oklahoma in the areas of aging, education, health, incarceration, and violence. These issues - as they affect women and girls - are not getting sufficient attention in Oklahoma which helps to explain why Oklahoma ranks near the bottom on many “women’s status” social and economic indicators. We hope to change that.

I understand why they take that position, even if I don’t agree. You don’t want to either alienate or have people dismiss your whole cause because they disagree with you on one issue; even if everything else is a no brainer, like domestic violence. I think everyone can agree that’s bad and needs to be stopped.

But here’s my thoughts.

Sex education, abortion, and other “wedge” issues are all intertwined with the other issues like violence, poverty, and incarceration. By educating young girls on contraception and risky behaviors like anal sex, we protect their health, and give them power to control when, or if, they become pregnant. That can keep them out of poverty, or even out from under the control of an abusive partner. Many women don’t leave from an abusive environment because of those two factors. Granted it’s not as simple as that, but each little bit of information helps.

Even groups who have been vocal opponents of abortion are starting to work to bring programs and change that pro-choice groups have been trying to do for years.

Some of the activists are actually working with abortion rights advocates to push for legislation in Congress that would provide pregnant women with health care, child care and money for education — services that could encourage them to continue their pregnancies.

The quote that I think everyone should take to heart comes from a pastor. I don’t agree with his anti-abortion views, but he makes a good point about working together:

“There’s got to be a way we can take some of these hot-button issues and cooperate, rather than simply keep fighting and becoming gridlocked in this hostility of the culture wars.”

I think that if the Oklahoma Women’s Coalition could use this approach and have a common goal that both sides could agree on is worthy, like reducing the number of teen pregnancies, then working on some of those wedge issues could be possible. Not to the extent that it becomes their primary focus, but to avoid the issues because they can be divisive isn’t the ideal solution either.

In any case, I hope they can help bring Oklahoma up from the bottom rankings with regards to women. We can do better, Oklahoma.

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