8 most powerful political moms

by The_Stir, on Thu May 5, 2011 6:54am PDT

Image via marcn/Flickr

Written by Sasha Brown-Worsham for CafeMom's blog, The Stir.

When it comes topolitics, sometimes we agree, sometimes we don't. The same can be said of motherhood. Some of us believe in strollers, others in slings. Some of us co-sleep and some of us use cribs. But in the end, we are all bonded by motherhood. It's a unifying force that, even when we totally disagree politically, can bring us to some form of unity.

Moms get it. We know. And on Mother's Day, what better way to celebrate all the moms who are making a difference in our country (agree or not) than with a list of the 8 Most Powerful Political Moms?

So, here they are in all their glory. Like them or not, these are the women who are taking policies out of the domestic sphere and making decisions that affect mothers everywhere.

The 8 Most Powerful Political Moms:

Barbara Boxer: Boxer is the junior US Senator from California who won a tough re-election campaign last fall after being challenged by Carly Fiorina. She is the Chief Deputy Whip of the Democratic Majority. Boxer has two children and became involved in politics largely because the Vietnam War was happening just as her children were born and she was actively involved in protesting it. After Robert Kennedy was assassinated, she was pulled from the private sphere to fight for her own children, as well as everyone else's.

Sarah Palin: Palin started her political career when she was elected to be the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. Next she was the youngest person and the first woman elected Governor of Alaska, an office she held for nearly three years. She was the Republican Party nominee for Vice President, becoming the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party. She also has five children ranging in age from their early 20s to toddlerhood and is a grandmother of one. Motherhood is a huge part of her persona and she is one of the famous "Mama Grizzlies," a group of political women who view motherhood as a driving force behind their beliefs.

Michelle Obama: She may be "just" the wife of the President, but our First Lady is a highly successful lawyer and power broker in her own right. She has degrees from Princeton and Harvard Law School and is a former Chicago city administrator and community outreach worker as well as the mother of two girls, Sasha and Malia Obama. In the White House, she has used her position to combat childhood obesity and push for better nutrition and health education.

Christine Gregoire: She is the second female governor of Washington and was elected in 2004. She also has two daughters and was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003. Healthcare is a major cause for her because of it.

Nancy Pelosi: As a member of Congress, Pelosi has made a name for herself as a two-term Speaker of the House whose role put her second in line to the presidency if something were to happen. She was the first woman in that office and is still the highest-ranking female politician in American history. Currently she is Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives. She is also a mother of five whose daughter is now a documentary filmmaker focusing on political campaigns.

Michele Bachmann: Bachmann is a member of the United States House of Representatives for Minnesota and has been mentioned as a potential 2012 presidential candidate. She is the first Republican woman to represent the state in Congress. She and her husband have five children together and have fostered another 23 children. A major focus of her political career has been education and another has been abortion, both issues deeply tied to her own role as a mom.

Nikki Haley: Haley is the Republican Governor of South Carolina and the first Indian-American to serve in that role. She is also a mom of two, a boy and a girl.

Hillary Clinton: The former first lady and mom to Chelsea Clinton has come a long way since her days in the White House. Currently, she is the United States Secretary of State, but she was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. She once told Marie Claire a bit about what it was like to be a working mom: 

Like every working mother, there's guilt involved in deciding how you're going to balance family and work. I tried to put as much time into taking care of Chelsea myself as I could. Bill and I alternated reading to her every night ... I think it's a false trade-off to say quality time versus quantity -- you have to have both. So if you have long work hours like I did, how do you get rid of things in your life you don't need in order to put that extra time into your children?

 


Who do you think is the most powerful political mama?

South Korea ratifies EU free trade deal

Wed May 4, 10:30 pm ET

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea's ruling party rammed the country's free trade agreement with the European Union through parliament amid an opposition boycott in a result that now paves the way for the tariff-slashing accord to take effect as early as July.

The approval came in a one-sided late night vote Wednesday that was pushed through the National Assembly by the Grand National Party against opposition wishes. EU lawmakers approved the deal earlier this year.

The free trade agreement brings together increasingly affluent South Korea, Asia's fourth-largest economy, with the 27-member EU, the world's largest economic bloc. Trade between the two sides totaled $92.2 billion last year, a gain of 17 percent from the year before.

A total of 169 National Assembly members were present and 163 voted in favor of the legislation. One lawmaker voted against it while five abstained. The assembly has 299 members.

"I announce that the free trade agreement between the Republic of Korea and the European Union has been ratified," National Assembly Speaker Park Hee-tae said after the vote.

The main opposition Democratic Party boycotted the session in a dispute about providing safeguards for farmers and small retailers, Yonhap news agency reported.

Negotiations toward an agreement began four years ago soon after South Korea and the United States concluded negotiations on a free trade deal. Despite the later start, Seoul and Brussels stand to see their accord take effect first — a potential development that has worried U.S. businesses who see European rivals potentially gaining an advantage in the South Korean market.

The EU ranks as South Korea's fourth-largest trading partner behind China, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Japan. The U.S. is South Korea's fifth-largest trading partner.

South Korea and the EU signed their agreement in October of last year and EU lawmakers approved it by a wide margin in February. Both sides have said they want it to take effect in July.

The passage comes as South Korea's free trade deal with the U.S. remains unratified in both countries. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said last month during a visit to Seoul that the administration of President Barack Obama is determined to see the agreement ratified this year.

The deal is the biggest for the U.S. since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 and would bring the country economically closer to South Korea, already a key long-term security ally.

The South Korea-U.S. agreement, negotiated under the administration of President George W. Bush, stalled under Obama after his government complained the pact did not adequately address a large deficit in auto trade favoring Seoul. The two sides reached a revised deal in December that the U.S. said it felt could win congressional approval.