WASHINGTON - A coalition of 40 feminist, human rights, and development groups has launched a campaign to challenge elected officials and political candidates on their positions on a range of international issues of special interest to women and children.

The campaign, called the "Million Women Challenge," is designed to encourage women to take a stronger role in the political process "to make the U.S. a better member of the international community," according to the Women's Edge Coalition which includes Amnesty International, Save the Children, CARE, and the American Association of University Women (AAUW) among other groups.

"We know that American women care about what happens in the rest of the rest of the world," said Ritu Sharma, the Coalition's executive director. "Women voters in particular are more concerned than men about our safety and security, but they are also more critical about the current direction of U.S. foreign policy, according to recent polling."

"That is why today we are issuing the Million Women Challenge, a nationwide effort to motivate American women to tell their elected officials and ask their candidates what they are going to do to invest in women around the world," she told reporters at a press briefing at the National Press Club.

Indeed, recent polling has shown the emergence of a significant gender gap on foreign -policy-related issues and, in particular, about the Bush's conduct in his "war on terrorism."

Already in April, political analyst Dick Morris, a former adviser to Bill Clinton who has been supportive of Bush's foreign policy initiatives, found that that "Women disagree with the entire Bush strategy of fighting terrorism. Offered a choice between 'letting terrorists know we will fight back aggressively' and 'working with other nations,' men opt for fighting aggressively by 53 to 41 percent while women want us to work with other nations instead by 54 to 36 percent - a gender gap of 30 points."

The centerpiece of the Challenge is a booklet entitled 'It Begins With You,' which lays out a series of positions on 12 pressing global and foreign-policy issues and suggested questions to ask candidates and elected officials on each one.

The first, on rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan, notes the importance of full participation by women in decision-making in post-conflict situations, as well as special security and other needs that women may require under those circumstances in order to ensure their participation. It suggests that women ask their elected officials how they plan to involve local women in Afghanistan and Iraq in the rebuilding of their country.

On international cooperation, the guide is more directly critical of the Bush administration, noting that its "current security strategy envisions permanent U.S. military domination of every region of the globe and represents a radical departure from accepted national and international norms." Calling for greater support to international institutions, such as the UN and UN peacekeeping operations, the guide suggests asking candidates and lawmakers what specific steps s/he would take to build greater cooperation in the face of such global threats as terrorism, disease, and environmental decline.

The guide calls for greater U.S. support to non-military initiatives in dealing with terror and other security threats, particularly by providing aid to women's peace-building work, providing greater support for international law enforcement and intelligence networks, and increasing international efforts to tackle those conditions, such as poverty, disease, and illiteracy, that can be exploited by terrorists.

It also calls for pressing lawmakers and candidates on doing more to ensure women's economic equality, notably by providing greater support for microcredit projects that benefit women entrepreneurs, programs to provide women with business skills and capital; and working to strengthen social safety nets for both working men and women.

The Guide also calls for greater sensitivity to the impact of free-trade agreements on the poor, particularly women and children, both here in the U.S. and in poor countries to ensure that women are given the tools to compete in a globalized economy and to open the U.S. market to more exports from the world's poorest countries.

Candidates and lawmakers should also be pressed on their support for greater representation by women in government positions. While women make up more than 50 percent of the global population, they currently constitute only about 12 percent of the members of national parliaments, including Congress. The answer, according to the Coalition, is to invest more in programs, such as training about legal systems, legislation, and advocacy, that women can use to succeed in the political process.

Similarly, lawmakers and candidates should be pressed on their positions on the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) which has been ratified by 177 countries, leaving the United States, along with such nations as Sudan, Iran, and Somalia, among the very few -- in fact, the only industrialized country -- who remain outside the treaty.

The Guide also calls for women to urge their political representatives to support more aid for overseas programs that promote the education of girls who are often made to stay at home in poor countries when families cannot afford to send all their children to school. According to the UN, economies in the developing world grow by three percent for every ten percent increase in the number of women that receive secondary schooling which, in turn, helps contribute to significant drops in infant and child mortality. Candidates should be asked what are their plans to increase girls' education around the world.

More should also be done to improve the health status of girls and women, according to the Coalition, which put special emphasis on support for such multilateral programs as the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which specializes in providing technical assistance and funding for reproductive-health programs in poor countries. The Bush administration has cut all U.S. funding to UNFPA, as well as to overseas non-governmental agencies that provide information about abortions or publicly support strict anti-abortion legislation, for the past three years.

Women are also urged to ask their lawmakers about their support for efforts to reduce violence against women around the world, as well as in the U.S., as well as the trafficking in women and children across international borders.

Finally, on nuclear and other deadly weapons, lawmakers and candidates should be pressed on adopting cooperative strategies in working with other governments and international agencies to expand and improve arms-control efforts and on reducing the role of nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal.

"Our male leaders have too easily, too readily, too often turned to military force to solve problems," said Susan Shaer, director of Women's Action for New Directions (WAND), a member of the Coalition. "As a result, the U.S. finds itself increasingly isolated, a military giant with few allies.

"Women offer another way. When women talk about building security, we refer not only to military tools but also non-military tools such as international relations, international aid, diplomacy, and efforts to stop the spread of deadly weapons. We believe that in the long run, the U.S. will be safer and stronger if it is respected, rather than feared," she said.

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