Chris Woodward (OneNewsNow.com)
An author and working mother says this week's meeting between President Obama and female lawmakers was more about appearances than anything else.
President Obama met with female lawmakers, all of them Democrats, to discuss what he says are the burdens facing women in the workplace. These include "the inability to get paid leave for a sick child or parent," as well as a disproportionate number of women in low-wage professions, something the President used to reiterate his push for a higher minimum wage.
Sabrina Schaeffer, executive director of the Independent Women's Forum, thinks the gathering was all about publicity.
"Let's not forget that, for Democrats, unmarried women are a critical voting bloc," she tells OneNewsNow. "They were the basis for Sandra Fluke, and for the war on women rhetoric, and they are an important part of their base…"
Regarding the coming mid-term elections, even though President Obama isn't up for re-election, "Democrats still very much need these women to vote," she advises.
The minimum wage is often promoted as a way to alleviate poverty, Schaeffer says, but it can actually backfire on those women who "we all want to help" by promoting fewer job opportunities.
"And that means," she adds, "that lower-skilled and less-experienced workers, who already have challenges, will find even fewer job opportunities and they'll be priced out of the employment market."
President Obama and lawmakers plan to revisit these issues at a family summit planned for June.