Peggy Simpson
Peggy Simpson worked 17 years for the Associated Press, in Texas and Washington, D.C.; covered economics and politics for the Hearst Newspapers, served as Washington bureau chief for Ms. magazine and reported on Eastern Europe’s transition from communism to a Democratic market economy, as a freelancer during the 1990s. She has taught at Indiana University, George Washington University and at the American Studies Center at Warsaw University. She currently is a freelance writer in Washington.
Articles
Featured Columns
2012 Elections: Women Make Their Mark
Women claim the last word in the "war on women" election this year, with 55 percent backing Barack Obama and many progressive women winning House and Senate seats. More »
State Legislators Grab Platform to Defend Contraception
With a mix of humor and dead seriousness, women in state legislatures act to force their male colleagues to understand what's at stake in restricting contraception and choice. More »
U.S. Senate Races—Democrats Look to a Strong Field of Women
Several Republican women are also likely to be competitive for open Senate seats in 2012. More »
Voters Reject GOP State Initiatives—What's the Message for 2012?
In a week when voters shot down anti-union and anti-reproductive choice measures, President Obama took pride in initiatives to advance women's equality. More »
Micro-lender Fonkoze to the Rescue in Haiti
A micro-credit program and banking system for more than 200,000 women in Haiti has come to the rescue of the overall economy in the wake of the devastating earthquake. At a time when Haitian commercial banks remain closed, Fonkoze, the Haitian branch of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, mobilized over the weekend to get funds to its members in rural towns as well as Port-au-Prince. More »
The Tea Party Movement - Taking the Pulse
So far this election year, the angry grass-roots organizing energy is strongest on the right, but the Tea Partiers are hard to pigeonhole says veteran D.C. journalist and frequent WMC reporter Peggy Simpson. More »
Blog
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Calls on Progressive Catholics to Resist Pressure from Bishops on Abortion
At a critical moment for health care reform, Townsend says it is essential for religious progressives to speak up. More »
Health Care Reform: Pro-choice Forces Win the First Round in the Senate
Senate Democrats held firm to allow debate to begin on a health care bill that avoids the abortion restrictions of the House-passed measure—and pro-choice activists are mobilizing to keep the heat on. But there are many hurdles ahead. More »
Will Progressive Groups Help Feminists Stop Stupak?
After the shocking setback in the House for abortion rights, women’s rights groups turned their attention to the Senate, which could begin debate on health care reform next week. More »
Taking the Fall for Health Care Reform?
The price for health care reform in the House is women’s right to choose—and, adding insult to injury, the deal was negotiated by the first woman to serve as House speaker. More »
Health Care Reform: Post-recess Politics
House and Senate members return to D.C. next week having heard an earful from constituents on health care reform. It falls to President Obama to cut through the confusion. More »
Health Care Reform—What’s At Stake for Women?
The firestorm about the public option may miss the point for women. Women’s groups have worked with the White House and legislators to put critical expansion of care in all the major health care reform bills making their way through Congress. More »
Sotomayor’s Confirmation—What Her Victory May Cost the Republicans
Conservatives tried to convince the Senate, and the nation, that an impressive judge with an impeccable record was simply a product of affirmative action. It didn’t work. More »
First 100 Days—Feminists Give High Marks to Obama
Women’s rights activists give high marks to President Obama for his fast footwork in reversing many policies of the Reagan and Bush presidencies. More »
Quiet Push to Recognize Suffrage Sites
Spearheaded by New York Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, powerful chair of the House Rules Committee, legislation was signed into law at the end of last month that will help celebrate the not-so-ancient history of how women won the vote in the United States. More »
Chances Improve for Ratification of CEDAW
The United States has been an odd holdout in ratifying the UN treaty on women’s rights. Now it’s a priority of the Obama Administration, and Senator Barbara Boxer chairs the subcommittee that will hold hearings. Still, there’s no guarantee. More »
Obama Comes Through, Reversing Bush Era Repro-rights Restrictions
Monies to expand family planning services for poor women that were cut from the stimulus package are restored in President Obama’s proposed budget, and the administration rescinds a last-minute Bush Administration rule that would have severely weakened women’s access to reproductive health services. More »
Can Feminist Groups and Bloggers Bridge the Digital Divide?
In Washington, DC, members of feminist organizations of long standing and feminist members of the blogospere met face to face for the first time. Now comes the hard part: to see what each group might offer the other. More »
President Obama and Women’s Rights Activists: Celebration and Bumps in the Road
The White House ceremony and reception marking the President’s signature on his first major law honored feminists and the bill’s inspiration, Lilly Ledbetter. But the week was also marked by setbacks for legislation important to women workers and to women who depend on Medicaid. More »
Word to Activists, Don’t Stop Now
Even in the midst of the inaugural celebration, activists gathered in the capital to plan out their roles in the coming months. More »
Net Gain Probable for Women in Congress
Some of the new women candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives are Democrats challenging in red districts. Their victory could swell the Democratic majority. More »
McCain Ridicules Health Exemptions for Abortion
The final presidential debate touched on three important issues for women, while women’s groups continue to press the campaigns for an elusive commitment to a Lifetime TV forum that would allow more extensive discussion and questioning. More »
Pundits and Viewers Give Palin a Pass
Governor Sarah Palin’s strategy of avoiding tough questions and talking into the camera will strengthen her connection with the GOP base. Independent voters are another matter. More »
Speaker Pelosi: Leadership Tested By Fire
The financial meltdown is testing the leadership abilities of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and then some. More »
Pollsters Grapple With a Sarah Surge
Tracking the women’s vote in this historic presidential election is proving to be tricky. More »
Accepting the Nomination, Obama Takes On McCain
After a month of incoming fire, Barack Obama used his acceptance speech to hit back at Republican John McCain, saying he was out of touch with the suffering of ordinary Americans today. More »
Both Clintons Deliver for Obama, With an Assist from Joe Biden
It was a one-two punch from the Clintons. Pundits praised their speeches on behalf of Barack Obama with every sports metaphor that exists: a knockout blow; a 10-strike, out-of-the-ballpark coup. More »
Michelle Obama Wows the Critics
Michelle Obama talked about parents who struggle to make sure their children can get a share of the American dream. She talked about every-day principles of life, taught by parents and grandparents and passed on to the next generation. More »
Women Welcome Obama’s Choice of Biden
Leaders of key women’s rights groups breathed a sigh of relief at Barack Obama’s selection of Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his running mate. More »
Obama and Women Leaders Get Down to Business
Barack Obama got a lot of advice from more than 30 leaders of national women’s groups when he met with them in late July. Some columnists have written caustically about the need for Obama to pacify angry feminists who had backed Hillary Clinton. More »
Making Strides in Politics and Online
Jehmu Greene, a legendary grass roots organizer, plans next to “look laser-like at organizing young women. More »
A Reflective NOW Looks to the Future
Jehmu Greene, a legendary grass roots organizer, plans next to “look laser-like at organizing young women. More »
Ready to Govern
As the future administration takes shape in Washington, D.C., women come to the table with impressive credentials and the backing of national women’s organizations. More »
