WAMC: 51% Show # 1006 (2008-10-23)

51 % The Women's Perspective

51% Show # 1006

(2008-10-23)

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ALBANY, NY (WAMC) - The presidential race is nearing the finish line. It's been wild - with barriers broken, surprise candidates and plenty of distractions from crises everyone probably hoped would wait until after we'd left the voting booth.
This campaign, more than many in recent memory, has re-opened the gulf between the so-called red and blue philosophies. One reason for that is the outspokenly conservative Republican vice presidential candidate.
I spoke with Ellen Bravo, writer, feminist and organizer, about politics, the Palin effect, and what she calls the most important issue of all...voter apathy.

8:08 Bravo Barnett

Ellen Bravo is the former director of 9 to 5,the national organization of working women. She's the author of Taking on the Big Boys and is currently coordinating a network of state coalitions that value families that work.

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Coming up on 51%, legislation written to make sure America's low income women are heard on election day isn't working.
If you missed part of our show, you can listen to 51% anytime. Just download our podcast at wamc.org or call 1-800-323-9262 to order a CD - you'll need to know the program number. This week's show is #1006.

(Music Bed)(10:06)
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The National Voter Registration Act was passed during the Clinton administration to get more of the nation's poor into the voting booth. For awhile, it worked. Voter registration was set up in social assistance offices and other places more accessible for people who might not otherwise register. But a new study by the non-partisan think tank and advocacy center Demos shows the number of low income women registering to vote is dropping dramatically. Scott Nowakowski is with Demos' Democracy Now project.

5:51 Nowakowski Barnett.

You can find out more about Demos at www.demos.org

As part of our National Science Foundation The Sounds of Progress series, narrator, Kate Mulgrew, profiles Helen Taussig. Hers is an almost unbelievable story of achievement despite adversity.

2:00 NSF #12 Taussig

If you'd like to find out more or hear more in this series, visit www.womeninscience.org.

And finally today, it's Artspace. Today's guest is one of the legends in the field of fiction...Barbara Taylor Bradford. She made her name with the bestselling A Woman of Substance in 1979 and she's been a doyenne of the bookshelves ever since. Her newest book is Being Elizabeth.

3:35 BTB

Barbara Taylor Bradford's latest book is Being Elizabeth. It's the third and last book in the Ravenscar Series and is published by St Martin's Press.

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