Life

Forget Weiner. Meet the Other Mayoral Candidates

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By Elissa Strauss July 26, 2013

Sick of hearing about “fool me twice, shame on me” Anthony Weiner’s approach to women? Me too. So let’s take a look at how the other front-running candidates for New York City mayor approach women and the issues that affect us.

Bill de Blasio

De Blasio is the only candidate that has a page dedicated to women’s issues on his campaign website. On it he declares his commitment to prevent sexual assault, protect reproductive rights, demand proper enforcement of protective orders, ensure housing to victims of abuse and fight for paid sick leave so that staying home with a sick child doesn’t force someone to risk his or her job. He also says he will take measures to end workplace discrimination, make workplaces more family friendly, support women and minority-owner businesses and try to put an end to human trafficking and street harassment. This is in addition his commitment to creating a truly universal pre-K and after-school programs for Middle School students, both of which would surely help working parents.

John Liu

Liu says he will expand opportunities for women- and minority-owned businesses to do business with the City of New York. He also gained the endorsement of NOW’s Brooklyn-Queens for his work fighting sexual trafficking and stressing the importance of pay equity legislation as comptroller. Overall, Liu says he aims to help working families by raising the minimum wage and creating jobs — something that will help men and women alike.

Christine Quinn

If Quinn wins she will be the first female and openly-gay mayor the city has ever had, something many see as an important symbolic achievement for all women, regardless of her policies. Quinn won the NOW-NYC endorsement for her work on fighting sex trafficking, preventing “pregnancy crisis” centers from deceiving women, and pushing legislation that made it illegal to obstruct a woman’s access to a reproductive health center. She has also fought for protecting after-school programs and making childcare affordable and accessible to working families. Though many questioned her loyalty to working mothers when she blocked a vote on a paid sick leave bill.

Bill Thompson

Like Liu, Thompson doesn’t have much in the way of a platform on women-specific issues, though he does say he wants to make our schools better, streets safer and help the working and middle class, all things that will help women. Quinn attacked Thompson for accepting support for his mayoral bid from former Senator Al D’Amato who, Quinn said, is “isn’t just anti-woman, he is anti-choice, anti-Medicare, and anti-civil rights.”

Which mayor do you think is the best for women?

Follow Elissa Strauss on Twitter at @elissaavery.

Elissa Strauss has written for the Forward over a number of years. She is a regular contributor to CNN, whose work has been published in a number of publications including The New York Times, Glamour, ELLE, and Longreads.

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