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Legislating by and for women This article analyzes the political work of women legislators in the 103 d and 104 th Congresses. As the first of them was under Democratic control and the second one under Republican, the political context influenced the ability of legislators to develop and draft different legislative agenda. It describes how women legislators of both parties defined womens needs, making cross-party coalitions to draft their projects, creating individual and collective strategies to represent womens interests. This report critically illuminates successes and lacks of legislation for women and by women, and the special attention is paid to the willingness of women legislators to work collectively for womens interests. Finally the authors come to the conclusion that the legislative activity of Congresswomen deserves recognition for their remarkable attempts to represent the interests of American women which are the major part of the USA population. Health care reform was worked out and discussed by the legislators of the 103 rd Congress.
The main issue of the reform was to provide women with the package of medical services that would include the important health treatment and support medical research in disease prevention. First the plan of this reform was worked out by Clinton and then aroused discussion in Congress and among different public organizations, related to that area. Due to considerable contradictions between the members, health care reform plan was defeated. Health insurance reform was the part of the 104 th Congress agenda. It included the items concerning employers health policies, individual policies, pregnancy, victims of domestic violence, prohibition to exclude any employee because of health status, etc. The CCWI formulated eight womens health principles as the basis for health care reform.
On the Senate side, health care reform was supported by Senator Barbara Mikulski. Her hearing might have created a common ground for women legislators, but diversity in angles of vision caused debate over the issue. Women members of both parties suggested amendments concerning various items of the plan but it didnt help them to find out a single strategy. Health insurance reform agenda was set by Senator Kassebaum in concert with Senator Edward Kennedy. It has been constructed and promoted mostly with the help of Republican Congresswoman. Several women organizations, such as CCWI and women legislators worked over health care reform collectively.
On the contrary, very few organizations and women worked collectively on health insurance reform. The exceptions were Womens Policy Inc and the Womens Legal Defense Fund. The work of women members of the 103 d and 104 th Congresses had a number of positive and negative features. Among the achievements the most remarkable are: women legislators represented the obligation to present women in Congress in two ways by their physical presence and by making sure the legislation gives women equal rights and access despite of numerous challenges, members of both parties tried to find out a common ground to build up womens agenda the greatest support was found in issues concerning womens health and violence against women The negative point was that women legislators could not represent the interests of all women, because of the differences in their experience and outlook. Moreover, they tried to pass beyond the womens needs that may cause conflicts between the men and women and their parties. They worked in the conditions of strong influence of the key staff of their parties, the head lines of these parties; they had to take into consideration the interests of coalitions and so on.
These aspects prevented women legislators from being occupied only with the interests of American women, they had to represent. But, due to the considerable womens impact on the content of legislation, their activity should be regarded as positive and useful for the whole society.
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Research essay sample on Health Care Reform Common Ground
