Hello, im bonnie erbe. Welcome to to the contrary, a discussion of news and social trends from diverse perspectives. Up first, cabinet concerns. President obama is catching flak for his first few cabinet nominations for his second term that for leaving out women and persons of color, especially after women voters secured his victory in last falls election. Although president obama wanted to nominate susan rice as secretary of state to replace hillary clinton, so far hes appointed men to head up the departments of state, treasury, and defense. And the highprofile position of cia director also went to a male. Long time friend of this show, h,lda salis surprised everyone by announcing her resignation this week. Do would care how many women and women of color in the cabinet. The diversity of this nation. This is a president that said that that is important to him, hes lived up to it i believe he will do it in terms of his second. I think mitt romney has an opportunity to bring over his binder of women and hand it over to president obama which weve heard has had hostile environment in the white house. I think the bottom line is, he did fairly good job the first time, he hasnt delivered yet. He needs to. Diversity at the highest level of government is going to deliver better results and better electoral and outcomes, what is he waiting for. I dont know where to begin quite frankly. Because president obama ran one of the most divisive campaigns in recent memory. Did he it to divide and conquer the electorate. He got over 55 of the women vote. And what does he give his electorate for electing him a second term . Im going to appoint all white men to cabinets of really importance, defense secretary, cia, im missing one and state. And ruth markus, she writes for the Washington Post this is first time in 16 years we wont have secretary of state of color or who is a woman. I think for this president i think its funny because ruth went on to say its almost like mad men on tear steroids. They and president is only face of diversity. I think it wait, let me just that everybody i know but everybody come on legs be fair. I was on the show where you guys couldnt stop mocking mitt romney hold on. For asking for binders of women. This whole binder of women was blown out of proportion. Now what happened, everybody blew it up. What happened is mass gap were the ones behind the binder full of women. What they did lets got get in to that i do want to raise the point that what seems so effortless really in pulling together his first cabinet which included lots of women and persons of color in high positions. It has completely gone out the window this time. Its kind of like, you know, im in office now for i cant run again. The heck with you guys and everybody says time to make it up. No, he does not. Because the because the three fop jobs are gone and ability to make history is pretty much gone. Theyre talking about a woman in congress, how many female commerce secretaries going back to Barbara Franklin and the post nixon era. Again we have to go back to the fact that we have seen that these unnamed women officials have come out said president has a woman problem where his circle, inner circle, theyre men. And they did the whole thats just not enough. There is fundamental problem here that he needs to address and should take the opportunity to put more we totally agree with that on this side of the table. The thing that is representative i think is that its an anomaly, his first term was an tea anomaly we all assumed everything ever r was going to be fine. Year of the one, 1992, historic number. We are on board, man, we thought organically the problem would solve itself, wrong. What we have to have is this deliberate concert effort to have always have women and diversity or just doesnt happen. Lets look at the numbers. The numbers are that throughout First Administration 42 of the appointees were women. Roughly to in the cabinet . Broadly speaking his appointments that includes roughly same under clinton administration, 10 more than under the bush administration. Let me finish. All these people who are arguing that first initial high level appointments are white men, i do agree, i think he can do better than that moving forward. The fact of the matter is for some of these people take with it a grain of salt, i feel like crocodile tears. They were the same people hurling insulting and horrible indictments of susan wright within she was first quoted as secretary of state. Now at the same time that they were hurling these attacks towards them we would love kerry, guess what, white male. Which one do you want. Answer that. The attacks are coming from democrats particularly democrat women i your party, theyre not coming who . Let me finish. You said that president s first term was anomaly, i dont know what you mean by that because he was the first black president elected of the United States of america, a keen awareness and sensitivity to the fact that diversity, his diversity and diversity of the American People got him elected the first term and second term. Wait a minute wait a minute, i just want to put a little bow around this. To say to bonnies point it looks to everybody particularly women who were outraged in the Democrat Party that the president saying, hey, women, i know i gave you julia, i made a lot of promises that we were going to take care of from you cradle to grave but i dont care. I think charlie wrangle said, if let me explain. When i said anomaly that high rate of diversity in his cabinet. We have to remember whether its obama or bush, right . That everything thats wired against women and we saw it beautifully or terribly in the susan rice situation. It is sexist, what she went through was sectionist beginning to end of story. Poor judgment. I disagree. The groundwater in this country, ranked 95th in the world. Our groundwater is sexist is wired against womens ascension in leadership. Id like to go back to that inner circle working in the white house i can tell you when president bush was there he had condoleezza rice, karen hughes, harriet miers, he was suffer sounded by these surrounded by the women. That is who the president meets with every day. You can have lower political appointee, is that is great. But we should have more women and hispanics and african americans, but that inner circle that is those are folks that influence the president. Those people surrounding the president , white men. But closest adviser is i agree. There will be more. Wait a second. I do want to talk to you about that. There will be more. He had a chance, female secretary of defense or treasury, never been one before. And everybody inside and outside washington knows treasury, defense and state are really the only cabinets that matter. Since hes already made those appointments, at least put the names up, can he really make it up . From where i sit he cant. Those are the if you want to consider the holy grail, you can say theyre the holy grail but not only cabinet positions. We have labor that we have to replace. We know that which is which is how the with which a excuse, which female labor secretary since president roosevelt first nominated first female to that office. We still need another one. Thats what i would argue. In this country we need to make sure we have representation. I agree. This country has a diversity and leadership at the highest levels of this government, fact is up to us to push our leaders to make sure that that is the case. Thats what were doing here. Also dont just want women, blacks or anybody given positions because of the color of their skin or gender. No, no. Wait. Thats are we not past dash da. No, were not actually because the democrats run a campaign of identity and you dont have to be i think the one at a time. Lets put the you would agree to that. Lets just put i would agree that white men are not nobody else talk. Lets put the partisan gauntlet down and say we as women all agree obama could have done a lot better. And thats what our nations need. Needs diversity in highest offices. Let us know what you think. Please follow me on twitter bonnieerbe. From women in government to womens health. Binge drinking, often thought of as an issue for men, is an underrecognized problem for u. S. Women. According to a new government study, 14 million women or 13 binge drink. Among High School Girls, the figure is closer to 20 . Binge drinking is defined for women as four or more drinks on one occasion. Women binge an average of three times a month. Experts believe the increase is in part due to Marketing Strategies including flavored alcoholic beverages. Binge drinking is more common among nonhispanic whites and becomes more common as Household Income rises. How concerned should we be . Very concerned. What i admire about center for disease controls authors of this study they said number one thing that we can do, parents can Start Talking to their kids. Guess what, kids take examples from parents. If they watch their parents drink a lot to excess and get sloppy drunk theyre probably going to do it. Also, the study said that most of these kids are getting alcohol from adults in their lives. I think, bonnie, this goes back i sound like an oldfashioned Norman Rockwell lady. But parenting is always one of the keys im not saying only one. But sam and i were talking earlier you talk to your kids, there are consequences to bad behavior, drinking is not your friend especially for women. Absolutely. I have 28yearold daughter, 26yearold, first grandchild im excited. We dealt with that right when they were at those teenage years. It was real clear in our house, you dont drink. Were not the strictest household in the world but the downside of drinking is so profound, especially for girls. At the dinner table when they got to be of age there is wine at the table. Wed drink at the table. Other thing that Research Shows is that girls and boys that grow up in households where you readily sit down to the dinner table together as a family have much lower rates of these kind of behaviors. I agree with you 100 . As mother of five girls i am incredibly panicked by this. But it really is a serious issue that needs to be dealt with. I think i wish that they could get video cameras, they did this in the documentary, capture these girls all passed out, drunk and stupid and show it to these girls. Say, look at you, you can die. You can get or get in a position you dont want to be in. You lose self control. You lose the importance of who you are. Part of that is teaching not only parents but teachers being involved in this conversation with them about self respect and fact that you want to be in control. You dont want anyone to control you. In that case i think thats an important discussion to have. This is a lot about peer treasure, a lot about being accepted because everyone else is doing it. We need to teach our young girls to love themselves for themselves. And not necessarily rely on these crutches in order to be accepted. What i find interesting about this particular study is that it really hits segment that one would think advantaged. Affluent girls, white girls, you wonder what in the world is that it they feel this need to put themselves in such danger when you know who is really most impacted by this problem, that should create situation where we start to think what can we do to target that segment to shay we need to make sure these girls love themselves. You know, part of it, too, is blamed by the report on marketing and coming up with flavored drinks. Im sorry, but i was a dumb teenager but are there dab i wasnt dumb enough to just go out and buy flavored liquor because i saw ads for it. How intellectual are these ads any more . What happened last election with the republicans billions spent on messaging that went no where. Exactly. I went over to costco in can, it was a pink bottle that said girl it was it was like liqueur vodka drink. Catches your eye. If theyre able if theyre of age able to buy that why not. Go ahead. I was going to say you have five girls. You said its about showing young women images of do you think this makes you we have to focus on messages of empowerment taking charge of your life. I think its very troubling to your point that one out of five High School Girls is bingee drinking. How do we as a community, i think were all raising good points, as parents, as mentors, as teachers, i think we should have young women should be sat around a table at home, at school, environments like girl scouts and brown hes and say, i want to you watch this video. This isnt pretty, together up throwing up, passing out, you can get raped or engage in Sexual Activity that youre not aware of. Add the community to that. What is the code word here, white affluent girls, college. My first husband, University College coach, right . I was right involved in that community. When you look at the frat parties, Sorority Parties that were going on thats where all that have was going on. Talking about those communities, bingo, lot of that. Behind the headlines New Hampshire made history this year by sending an all female delegation to the 113th congress. This matriarchy up north includes both u. S. Senators, its two representatives and a woman governor. This week, governor Maggie Hassan shares her story of advocacy and Public Service with to the contrary. Im from exeter, New Hampshire, where i have lived for about 23 years. I have two wonderful children, ben and meg and my husband tom. The kids are now young adults. I am a lawyer; i worked in the area of business law, labor Employment Law for years. I gradually got involved in advocacy for our family and for my son because ben who is now 24 happens to experience severe physical disability. Hassans interest in politics is very personal. It dates back to her advocacy work and includes time in the state legislature. It was a combination of my professional skills as a lawyer and my concern that families like mine and people like my son had advocates for them in our state capital that drew me to Public Service. One of the great privileges i had was serving as majority leader for the first female majority legislative body in the countrys history. And when you go around and talk to the women who serve in our legislature, its often stories about getting involved in a Community Effort or to advocate for families or Something Like that, that draws them into Public Service. Hassan credits her husband with encouraging her to run for office. But she also had the support of female politicians. Senator shaheen as governor appointed me to my first Public Service role which was serving on an Education Finance committee where i was representing the voices of Public School parents. Shes the first woman in our countrys history to serve as a senator as well as governor. Shes a great role model and im always happy to take advice from her. I wouldnt presume to give her advice. I think she ran a great campaign. Shes gotten there, i have offered to be helpful in any way i can but i think shes off to a great start. Now the two women are working together again, one in washington and one in New Hampshire. Hassan says it should not come as a surprise that New Hampshire is americas first matriarchy. The state legislature, which is an all volunteer body is filled with women. You have women who have a history of volunteering at the community level, gradually realizing that they want to take what they know and the issues that are of concern to them and their constituents to concord in that role. This year five women governors will lead their states. Hassan is the lone democrat in that group. As a woman and democrat the governor hopes to bring all sides together. Whats most important for us right now is making sure that we have a balanced budget and we have tools to bring educators and businesses together so we can prepare a Skilled Workforce for the 21st century economy. New hampshire should be and can be an economic leader. We already are a place with low taxes, low unemployment and stronger than average economy. We want to make it even stronger. Sam bennett, with the female governor and four female senators in congress women, what can New Hampshire do that other states cant do . What kind of power does it give to the women of the state . This is a story were particularly proud of, womens campaign fund, we were her First National endorsement we grabbed the rest of the nation kicking and screaming to endorse her. She would have been terrific to make an amazing governor. One might ask why is New Hampshire the state that has this all woman delegation . There are research that shows perfectly the story that women run for office because they want to change the world. Men run for office because they see pathway to power. New hampshire has the lowest compensated state legislature in the country. My state, pennsylvania, ranked 47th in the country among all women in elected office. Highest paid state legislature. This is correlation between what they get paid and dominance of men or women in that legislative body. Very interesting. Other factor going on additional Research Shows that theres a twin fact if there is already woman serving the chance that another woman will serve unthat position or another possession goes up exponentially. High number of senatorial bodies where you have twin sets two of women senators. The real story here is one that shaheen told that we as women need to encourage other women to run when we serve in office, we also provide very powerful role modeling. And maggie is going to be a terrific governor. Im excited. I completely agree with everything sam has said. I know this is a first but were about firsts in all seriousness you were actually right. I think what New Hampshire can do for the United States of america and women is i can look in the face of those elected women and say, i can do it. You can do it. You can do it. The power that have image and what you left out i think if im right is New Hampshire has a speaker of the house i believe, their state legislature who is also a woman. And the woman who is the Supreme Court justice of the state of New Hampshire is a woman. Its like, woman power. To your point, i know your organization has done a lot of research most women when they think about running for Office Second guess themselves. Right away, i dont have to be qualified. Its a rite of passage. I like the fact that we have Bipartisan Group of women leading New Hampshire and i think its more power to everybody we should all take a lot of note in that. They were elected by the people of their state. Doesnt mean were inferior. How about from your per specktive the four members of the house and senate three democrats then kelly who is pretty hard lined conservative. Are they going to be able to get along do anything. I think so. Back to sams point women get engaged because were moms, were activists something personal that drives us i believe. I think your Research Shows that to get involved. Just because kelly might be a conservative, i dont like labels you know of, shes a left winger shes a right winger or whatever. I think that what ive seen from senator is theres a commitment to work across the aisle i think when you deal with women there is just i dont know, tenacity and passion to say, lets get this done. It was during the fiscal cliff negotiations that the women senators both republicans and democrats said, we can do this. These guys are not getting this done. Because were age i think we communicate better to one would the and get a solution. What i love about the governor of New Hampshire is she is incredibly supported by her husband. Very inspirational not only raising her one daughter, her son with cribral palsy. Shes amazing. When she spoke, i want to bring the parties together. What a great lesson for washington. Why cant we get it done right over here. When you look at New Hampshire in particular its very rich and political tradition. These are people that the first primary in the nation, theyre very involved, candidates go to the peoples houses if we can get people more engaged in the political system. Get moms and women to run it would be a dont forget pay your governors and state legislators lower salaries. All goes to the fact that women are about getting things done. Making a difference in their community, making a difference in the world. The more that we can really support those efforts by donating to women candidates by supporting them, by encouraging all those bright spots that we see in our communities throw their names in the hat. Run for the next office. More we can replicate this idea. Thank you. Lets point out. If we talk about washington, the gridlock were all struggling with. Research shows women reach across the aisle and engage in politics in nonpartisan ways that men dont do. Thats it to are this edition to the contrary. Please follow me on twitter at bonnie erbe and at to the contrary and check our website, pbs. Org ttc where the discussion continues. Whether you agree or think, to the contrary, please join us next time. That was great. Ere awesome. Favorite segment. You go, baby, yeah. Funding for to the contrary provided by the Cornell Douglas foundation committed to encouraging stewardship of the environment, land conservation, watershed protection and eliminating harmful chemicals. Additional funding provided by the colcom foundation. The Wallace Genetic Foundation and by the charles a. Frueauff foundation. For a copy of to the contrary please contact federal news service at 18883431940