Flanders, Laura.   The W Effect: Sexual Politics in the Bush Years and Beyond.   Feminist Press: New York, 2004.  

"Working Women's Lives and the 'W Effect': An Interview with Ellen Bravo" is a short interview with the director of 9to5 or the National Association of Working Women.   The purpose of this organization is to work for economic justice among women.   Throughout the article Bravo provides an explanation of the current political agenda of George W. Bush and its current and inevitably long-lasting consequences for working women.   Bravo's main concern is Bush's efforts to privatize and dismantle the EEOC.   Women should be concerned with the rapid changes being made to the EEOC because inevitably with a lower paid non federal employee system, gender and race discrimination complaints are not going to be as of critical importance as they once were.   Bravo continues by explaining the hypocritical "W effect" and its backlash on women's rights.   The interview delves further into the Family Time Flexibility Act, Family Medical Leave Act and TANF, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.   Essentially, Bravo provides the analytical tools necessary for deconstructing George. W Bush's politics from a gendered perspective. - B.H.

This article traces the Bush administration's anti-labor initiatives from privatization to the   "consolidation" of the EEOC with a special emphasis on the loss of rights experienced by working women.   Blaming a strong alliance with business, Ellen Bravo, director of 9to5 of the National Association of Working Women, claims that Bush's administration has repeatedly said one thing and done another; Bravo argues that while most Republicans claim to be pro-family, many Republican-based initiatives have, in fact, harmed families by taking away their sick leave, reducing welfare aid, putting restrictions on overtime pay, and curbing the minimum wage.   The result is a loss of rights on the behalf of workers- mostly women - who have to choose between their jobs and caring for their family and who are unlikely to find help in the fight against discrimination.    The article, filled with vagueness about specific legislative action and a sense of lurking doom, both reflects and adds to the feeling of powerlessness created by the current opacity of the government; it is sure to leave the reader and the common worker feeling lost and pissed off.   - C.P.