These days are filled with women from whom the TV can't turn away.
The one with the 14 kids, no job, plump lips and countless delusions.
The one who is spending time with the same guy accused of beating her black and blue.

Their choices, their lives, we mutter to ourselves, while we make the better, quieter choices and feel shoved aside.

That changed Thursday, when President Obama created the White House Council for Women and Girls.

Its mission: "To ensure that all ... Cabinet-level agencies consider how their policies and programs impact American women and families," according to a White House news release.

I assumed the agencies had been doing that all along, but ... better late than never, I guess.

And yet, there's a part of me that wanted to say "Thanks anyway."

I don't need any White House council to give me special treatment. I make my own choices, my own mistakes.

All I ask of government is that it stay clear of my body, and make sure that I earn the same as a man at my level.

"But you don't," chided Marja Brandon, head of Seattle Girls School. "And if you do, you have benefited from those who came before you, or been part of a system that allows you privileges. That's not something that most American women can say."

Obama proved Brandon's point when — before signing the executive order creating the council — he cited some facts:

Women still earn 78 cents for every dollar men make. One in four women experience domestic violence in their lifetimes. Women make up more than half our population, but just 17 percent of our Congress. Women make up 49 percent of the workforce, but only 3 percent of our Fortune 500 CEOs.

Creating a council for women and children isn't favoring women over men. It's righting a wrong that hits home, even at the White House.

Obama shared how his wife, Michelle, was often torn between work and their daughters, their daughters and work.

"It's a feeling that I share every day," he said.

Most decent American men do.

But the most devoted man's heart can't warm the cold, hard facts. The Seattle-based advocacy group, Women's Funding Alliance put statistics to women's stories in "A Closer Look," a study from 2008:

For starters, Washington state ranks 42nd out of 50 in the gender wage gap. A female governor and two female U.S. senators can't keep us from nearly touching bottom.

Single, female heads of households in King County are 3.5 times more likely to live in poverty than males in the same position. More women hold part-time jobs that don't have benefits, and they're often in lower-paying service jobs.

"The fact is, the majority of our poor are women," said LeAnne Moss, executive director of the Women's Funding Alliance. "And if men are losing their jobs, don't you want their women partners to have more stability?"

I can't argue with that. Nor should any family where the man senses job peril and the woman feels helpless to stop the fall.

With a simple signature, the White House showed women it was watching out for them.

Not just the ones who make the bad choices and lead the morning shows. But those of us who have tried to make the right ones, and still feel left in the dark.

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

Three cheers for Lilly Ledbetter.