Ninety-two years ago yesterday, U.S. women won the right to vote.

The Indiana State AFL-CIO mentioned in an e-mail yesterday, Rose Schneiderman, who headed the Women’s Trade Union League, explained in 1918:

We want to tell our Senators that the working women of our State demand the vote as an economic necessity. We need it because we are workers and because the workers are the ones that have to carry civilization on their backs. 

The anniversary is a good time to reflect on how women would fare under a Romney-Ryan administration.

How about equal pay and fair pay?

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which helps to ensure equal pay for equal work. When asked about the Ledbetter Act, Romney’s campaign initially was clueless. Later, the campaign said Romney “was not looking to change the law.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement of fair treatment for all at the workplace. Ryan also voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act in 2008 and 2009. The act would require employers to demonstrate that wage gaps between men and women doing the same work are truly a result of factors other than gender.

What about children’s health care?

Ryan voted against the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that provides health coverage for more than 6 million low-income children. As governor of Massachusetts, Romney declared his support for George W. Bush’s 2007 veto of a bill that would have expanded the children’s health insurance program. 

But rather than go on point by legislative point, let’s just say that the entire Romney-Ryan federal budget plan is anti-woman and, in fact, anti-working family. Their plan would slash Medicare benefits by massively reducing funding. So, someone who is currently 48 would have to save an additional $124,600 to cover health care costs during retirement under the Romney-Ryan plan.

If a Romney-Ryan budget looked like the one proposed by Ryan in the House this year, it would radically reduce Social Security, the
most effective anti-poverty program in the nation. It would slash education, training, employment and social services by 20 percent from fiscal year 2012. Funding for highways, bridges, commuter rail, bus systems, Amtrak and air traffic control—cutting safety for air passengers? Really?—would be cut $31.5 billion in fiscal year 2013 alone. 

But back to women’s rights. As the Republicans try to meet in Florida this week for a convention, they are doing something for women: Providing free “hair and makeup touch ups.”

Because nothing fixes a lack of affordable health coverage, retirement security, public transportation or fair wages better than a little glossy lipstick.