Jill Stein Believes the Green Party Is Better for Women Than a Hillary Clinton Presidency

The Green Party’s Jill Stein: “We don’t support bombing other people’s kids, unlike the other woman in the race.”(via Gage Skidmore / Flickr)

“Another Clinton in the White House is just going to fan the flames of the right-wing revolt,” the very progressive Jill Stein, the Green Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, said recently. She wants women voters to know that Clinton’s platform is not as “feminist” as it seems.

A piece by Tessa Stuart published last week by Rolling Stone explains how the Green Party’s platform is better for women in many (perhaps unexpected) ways.

Stuart writes:

Stein stresses that reproductive rights and equal pay — both of which the progressive Greens support, of course — aren’t the only “women’s issues.” The Greens want more, like “Medicare for All” single-payer public health insurance that includes reproductive health care. They want equal pay, but they also want a $15 minimum wage for all people.

“Everybody is entitled to solid living wages, which we don’t hear from Hillary Clinton. She’s quick to talk about parity, but parity at poverty, and that’s not adequate,” Stein says.

Women, generally, Stein says, “get hit hard. When there’s economic injustice, when there’s racial injustice, when there’s sexual violence, when there’s health injustice, women are very vulnerable. We’re vulnerable in part because we’re busy taking care of young people, and we take care of our parents and our families and our communities. … When there is injustice out there, it tends to flow in our direction.” …

“We don’t support bombing other people’s kids, unlike the other woman in the race,” Stein says, referring to Clinton’s support for airstrikes in Syria. “The U.S. should not be in the business of buoying up oppressive dictators like Saudi Arabia that is sponsoring jihadi terrorism world-over, as Hillary Clinton herself said in a State Department memo put out by WikiLeaks.”

Stein also notes how certain measures undertaken by the Obama administration are anti-women as well, such as recently announced plans to deport women and children. “We create refugees, and then our Democratic Party together with the Republicans, who are also a party to this, are criminalizing them and sending them back, inhumanely,” Stein says.

READ: No, I Won’t Vote for Hillary Clinton. And Yes, I Am a Feminist Millennial

Stuart does briefly mention the fears of many voters: that Stein would not be able to beat GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump, due to “deeply ingrained” two-party politics in the United States.

But Stein’s sound argument is a reminder why third-party candidates are so important. Clinton may have a certain appeal to many women, but these voters should be holding her accountable to all of her policies. The fact that she’s “not as bad” as Donald Trump simply isn’t enough.

Regardless of her strong numbers, this pressure on Clinton should serve as a reminder that not all feminists think she is the best choice — and if she wants to win them over, she needs to change her platform in areas that hit women the hardest.

—Posted by Emma Niles