There is no question that the Augusta National controversy heightened awareness of the gender power equation when George W. Bush signed the first federal abortion ban since Roe v. Wade. In a front-page photo that ran in newspapers across the country, Bush was shown flanked by an admiring chorus of smiling white men as he signed the bill, an image emblematic of male control of women, one that prompted Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) to say this on the Senate floor:

"I rise to discuss something that struck me as downright chilling when I saw it yesterday. It was the signing of the so-called "Partial-Birth" Abortion Bill. Here is a photo of the signing of this bill, which represents the most sweeping attack on women's rights in thirty years. What do we see? A group of gleeful men watching President Bush sign away women's rights. Look at this image again. There are no women on stage. It's all men. It's downright frightening. It looks like a board meeting of Augusta National - not the signing of legislation to change the rights of women...These men are eager to snatch the rights away from women. The lack of women on this stage says: Make no mistake - we men are in charge. I have called it a "male-a-garchy." And this photo captures the essence of the male-a-garchy that women live under today."

From Cult of Power: Sex Discrimination in Corporate America and What Can Be Done About It, by Martha Burke, pp. 203-204.

Frank Lautenberg rocks! I can cope with living in NJ if this guy is representing me. Cult of Power is an awesome book, by the way. You won't believe what you're reading. You'll think the 2005 copyright date is a typo.