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Obama raises issue of women’s empowerment at G-8 summit

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Brogan Driscoll
WVoN co-editor 

President Obama raised the issue of women’s empowerment at Saturday’s G-8 summit at the Camp David presidential retreat in western Maryland.

As leaders joined to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and the world economy, Fox News reported that he said:

“We had a brief discussion around the issue of women’s empowerment, where we agreed that both, when it comes to economic development and when it comes to peace and security issues, empowering women to have a seat at the table and get more engaged and more involved in these processes can be extraordinarily fruitful”.

Women’s rights have also become a battleground for the 2012 presidential candidates, with Democrats accusing Republicans of waging a ‘war on women’, not least because of their attacks on Planned Parenthood, America’s leading reproductive health care provider.

These attacks are, by all accounts, causing the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, some concern because of reports that they have led to a surge of support for Obama.

And Obama is not letting up. Speaking to women graduates from the all-female Barnard college in New York recently, he urged them to: “fight for your seat at the table, or better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table”.

Obama is not the only politician to appeal to women. Newly elected French president, Francois Hollande, made some pretty impressive promises to women. He has already delivered on the first with an equal number of men and women in his cabinet,

Let’s hope he keeps some of the rest of those promises and that Obama lives up to the hype that he’s currently spouting. If they do, this could be an interesting year for women.

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