A strong liberal and a feminist, Illinois Democrat Jan Schakowsky worked hard to win bipartisan backing for the International Women Against Violence Act. It was touch and go until Thursday morning, when just hours before she was scheduled to introduce the bill on the House floor, two upstate New York Republicans, Reps. Richard Hanna and Chris Gibson, agreed to sign on to the legislation known as I-VAWA, which Schakowsky says “would make ending violence against women a pillar in foreign policy… to be considered in all things that we do.”