From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (misc.activism.progressive co-moderator)
Subject: The Decline of America: The Way Out (1): National Women's Agenda '92
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 04:03:00 GMT

The Decline of America: The Way Out (1): National Women's Agenda '92


    "   Women's organizations are also notoriously short of cash, so 
    it's unusual that sixteen national women's organizations have put 
    up financing for a public radio showcase program. The pilot 
    effort, being released by satellite September 10, features an hour 
    with Marlene Sanders as moderator, leading a discussion titled 
    "National Women's Agenda 1992: What Women Want and How They Plan 
    to Win It." 


****************************************************************** 
See also:  "WOMEN RADIO LISTENER ALERT!" in misc.activism.progressive, 
        soc.women, or alt.activism, on encouraging your Public Radio 
        stations to carry the program. Email to the Women's 
        International News Gathering Service (WINGS) is "wings" on 
        PeaceNet (wings@igc.org). Email harelb@math.cornell.edu 
        for more info about PeaceNet and EcoNet. 
****************************************************************** 
See also bottom on how to get: Cassettes of the program; a copy of 
"Women Ask...! Questions for the Candidates"; and Congressional "Bad 
Guy List" 
--Harel 
Co-founder, Co-moderator, misc.activism.progressive 
 

[Via misc.activism.progressive from PeaceNet's media.issues] 
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Topic 201       NATIONAL WOMEN'S AGENDA 1992  
newsdesk        media.issues     9:39 am  Aug 27, 1992  
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From: News Desk <newsdesk@igc.org> 
Subject: NATIONAL WOMEN'S AGENDA 1992  
   
For immediate release           For more information: Frieda Werden  
                                        (816)361-7161  

                      NATIONAL WOMEN'S AGENDA 1992:  
                WHAT WOMEN WANT & HOW THEY PLAN TO WIN IT  
           National Women's Organizations Take Media Coverage  
                   of the Issues into Their Own Hands  

   Disunity in the women's movement has been legendary - and there's a 
tiny element of truth in the legend, too. Whether the fragmentation is 
(as we now know it was in the '70s) FBI-inspired, or the common garden 
variety  related to style,  philosophy and class,  or because creative 
genius leaders   need   lebensraum,  or from   the  sheer millions  of 
individualistic and   multi-cultural  women involved,   it's   a major 
enterprise to get a lot of women's  organizations all backing the same 
goals. 

   Women's organizations are also notoriously short of cash, so it's 
unusual that sixteen national women's organizations have put up 
financing for a public radio showcase program. The pilot effort, being 
released by satellite September 10, features an hour with Marlene 
Sanders as moderator, leading a discussion titled "National Women's 
Agenda 1992: What Women Want and How They Plan to Win It." The program 
will air on non-commercial radio stations across the country at 
locally-determined times before November 5. 

   Participants include  Connie Morella  (R-MD)  and Mary   Rose Oakar 
(D-OH),   who are leading   members of  the  Congressional  Caucus for 
Women's Issues, with other Congresswomen  and political activists from 
national women's organizations. 

   The National Women's Agenda is   itself a triumph of both  politics 
and   diplomacy.  Decided annually  by the   Council  of Presidents of 
Women's Organizations, it lists political priorities accepted in whole 
or  in   part by their   80 diverse,   non-partisan,  national women's 
organizations, representing 15,000 chapters and 10  million grassroots 
members based in every congressional district in the country. 

   The  diplomacy  around  this Agenda draws  on  one   of the women's 
movement's legendary strengths  -  it's not hierarchical  or dogmatic. 
You don't have to  subscribe to a particular plank,  just be moving in 
the same general direction most of the time. 

   Take for example  the question  of  the right  to have an abortion. 
Being  the "women's issue"  with  the  most conflict-laden visuals, it 
gets  tons  of  coverage  by major  media  and became  synonymous with 
feminism in   backlash circles. It's   also proved a  great  issue for 
women's organizations  to raise money around -  and  more   groups are 
getting involved in abortion politics  all the  time.  Yet some of the 
most active women's organizations like the League  of Women Voters and 
Women's Action for New Directions take no position on abortion. They'd 
rather spend their time on actions  where there's less controversy but 
as much need. 

   So  what's on  that smorgasbord of  political issues,  the National 
Women's Agenda, in the  watershed election  year  of 1992? And how are 
things going? 

     =========================================================== 
    * Civil rights, including the elimination of all institutional 
     forms of discrimination as well as strengthening, expansion, 
    and enforcement of civil rights laws to insure legal equality. 
     =========================================================== 

        There are two   women's rights  instruments pending  action in 
Congress.  The Equal Rights Amendment -  first introduced in 1923 - is 
still with us.    And the U.S.  Senate  has  yet to ratify the  United 
Nations Convention on All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which 
to our  shame  has already been ratified  by  115 other countries. The 
State Department has  not  chosen   to push for   ratification of this 
treaty yet, though the U.S. signed and helped shape it. 

        There's   also a Civil  Rights  Restoration Act  on the agenda 
because  the Supreme Court  changed its interpretation of civil rights 
laws  pertaining to women. Legislation  was  passed last session,  but 
with a cap on the amount of damages women  could recover in employment 
discrimination suits (an amendment proposed by Sen.  Nancy Kassebaum - 
R-KS).  Some women's  organizations  like  the NOW Legal   Defense and 
Education Fund would like to see that cap come off. 

        Other organizations  such  as the  national YWCA  are fighting 
discrimination mainly with grassroots attitude change. 

        ===================================================== 
        *   F a m i l y   a n d   m e d i c a l   l e a v e . 
        ===================================================== 

        A bill passed by  the Congress this  year was watered down  to 
almost nothing - most  businesses were  exempted,  and the  leave  was 
unpaid    (other developed      countries mostly   have   paid leave). 
Nevertheless, President  Bush vetoed this measure,  perhaps perceiving 
it as a threat to the family values that say parents must  bring forth 
and  rear children in pain and  suffering,  and that  women should get 
husbands  to  support them, stay  home  full  time, and   take care of 
children, the sick, and the aged at no cost to the state. 

     =========================================================== 
     * Universal health care, including prevention services, long 
      term care, and expanded research on women's health issues. 
     =========================================================== 

        This is a tall order,  but  some organizations like the  Older 
Women's League  and the American Nurses  Association have been working 
on  broad- spectrum legislation,   and Congresswomen  have drafted and 
introduced a collection of bills  known  as the  Women's Health Equity 
Act. Part or all  of seven of those  bills were passed by  Congress as 
part   of the National   Institutes  of  Health   Revitalization  Act. 
President Bush vetoed that act, allegedly  because  of a provision for 
fetal  tissue research -  but  he  also  chastised  the  Congress  for 
authorizing too much money for  research in  areas like breast cancer. 
(Breast  cancer  is the  second most  common cancer  killer of women - 
right behind lung cancer - and affects one in nine U.S. women.) 

        *  Reproductive  rights  without regard   to income, age,  and 
marital status. 
        Aside  from abortion, you   might  think this was  pretty non- 
controversial, but 45 Democrats and 105  Republicans voted against the 
Family Planning Reauthorization  Act last April. (The bill,  to  renew 
Title X funding for another 7 years, included  a provision to overturn 
the "gag rule" executive order that forbids people in federally funded 
clinics from saying the word "abortion" even if you ask.) 
        The  150 members of Congress who  voted  against this  measure 
also vote against a lot of other bills affecting women  - which is why 
it's been impossible to override the  Bush vetoes. You can  find their 
names on the "Bad  Guys List"  published  by   Women's Action for  New 
Directions. WAND and other  groups are  training and funding  women to 
run against these folks in current and future elections. 

     ============================================================ 
         * Employment opportunities, including job training, 
              pay equity, and an increased minimum wage. 
     ============================================================ 

        When  the  women's movement started this  campaign, women were 
making 59 cents for every dollar a man made. Now  supposedly women are 
making 73 cents   to a man's   dollar. But women  still face  economic 
barriers at every level of society. 
        According to the Coalition of Labor  Union Women, over  70% of 
minimum wage workers are women. The recent law increasing minimum wage 
to  $4.50 an hour  was a start, but  falls short  of   a living wage - 
especially since so many minimum wage jobs are also part-time to avoid 
paying benefits. 
        At the other  end of  the  scale,  women still  bump the Glass 
Ceiling keeping them out of upper management. The Labor Department has 
a new  initiative aimed at cracking the  Glass Ceiling  (at least Bush 
appointed a  woman to head  the  Department) -  but  the  EEOC stopped 
caring during  Clarence  Thomas's tenure,  and  legislation has   been 
mainly confined to another commission to study. 

     ============================================================ 
    * Economic equity in Social Security, pensions, and insurance. 
     ============================================================ 

        Since women are  clustered in the  below-$53,400 range,  we're 
bearing a disproportionate amount  of the Social Security-cum-Medicaid 
tax (which for the self-employed is 15.3%).  The surplus in the Social 
Security fund generated by this tax dealt  off the bottom is no longer 
in trust for  us - it's  being  used  for  the  S&L bailout.  Likewise 
corporations are   often  robbing private   pension  funds  blind; and 
pensions as a  benefit are disappearing faster than   women can become 
vested in them. 
        Much of the insurance fight   takes place at the state  level, 
and women got 40 states to pass laws requiring insurance  companies to 
cover   the  full cost   of screening mammograms.  However,  a Federal 
regulation coming  out of  the Executive Branch  forbids these laws to 
apply to Medigap insurance, which covers the age group most vulnerable 
to breast cancer. 

     ============================================================ 
              * Educational equity for women and girls. 
     ============================================================ 

        The  American Association of University  Women  has been  very 
successful in getting recognition  for their study showing  that girls 
are discriminated against in classrooms  from  an early age. A part of 
the study rarely cited says  that  African-American girls raise  their 
hands  in  class more than  any  other category of  students,  but get 
called on least of all. 

     ============================================================ 
               * Elimination of violence against women. 
     ============================================================ 

        Reported violence against women has increased  dramatically in 
the last decade - it's the main problem  causing women to seek medical 
treatment.  A bill in  Congress would address  this -  but three years 
after winning unanimous bi-partisan approval from the Senate Judiciary 
Committe,   the  Violence Against Women Act   somehow still can't  get 
passed.  It would provide federal  grants  for  shelters and treatment 
programs, lighting for transportation areas, even sensitivity training 
for judges.  One problem seems  to be that it was  drafted  so that it 
falls under the jurisdiction of too many House subcommittees; and like 
other  substantive  bills affecting women  it's   in  danger of  being 
amended into wet macaroni. 

        * Economic justice, recognizing the disproportionate impact of 
poverty, hunger, and homelessness on women and children. 

        * Tax fairness  and deficit reduction that encourages economic 
development without denying those in need. 

        * Expansion of business and entrepreneurial  opportunities for 
women. 

        *  Economic   recognition,   recompense,  and    respite   for 
caregivers. 
        These  areas are  some of the hardest  to address,  because in 
government dollars speak louder than words and  them  what has gets. A 
group of  bills  called the   Economic  Equity  Act, endorsed by   the 
Congressional Caucus  for Women's Issues  in  the late 1980s,  has had 
partial success. But every time  there's a cutback in public services, 
women  with families have to  try to come  up with more  of  their own 
energy to take up the slack. 
        An interesting plank of the U.N.'s "Forward Looking Strategies 
for Women to  the Year 2000," adopted   in  1985,  calls  for  women's 
unwaged  work to  be  counted   in the GNP   of every country. As with 
environmental accounting, quantification of the true  costs would be a 
good place to start. 
        Defending the poor also strays into hot-button territory. Both 
major parties are campaigning on welfare reform - though the system of 
Aid to Families with Dependent Children has  already been reformed and 
re- reformed. Contrary to public  perception,  the average AFDC family 
has only 1.9  children -  below  the national  average - and  receives 
assistance for less than two years. 

******************************************************************
        The Council of Presidents of Women's Organizations publishes a 
list of suggested questions to ask political candidates. Copies of the 
list will be offered through the radio program. 
******************************************************************

        "National Women's  Agenda 1992: What  Women Want  and How They 
Plan to  Win It" is   being funded  by  the  following  organizations: 

American  Association  of University   Women,  Black Women's   Agenda, 
Commission for Women's   Equality  of the  American  Jewish  Congress, 
General Federation of Women's Clubs, League of Women  Voters, National 
Women's Conference  Committee,  NOW Legal Defense  and Education Fund, 
Soroptimist   International  of   the Americas,  Women  for Meaningful 
Summits, YWCA of the USA National Board. Also Clearinghouse on Women's 
Issues,  the National Woman's   Party,   the National Women's  Studies 
Association, Churchwomen United, and The Woman Activist, Inc. 

     The producer of "National Women's Agenda  1992"  is Frieda Werden 
of WINGS: Women's  International News Gathering Service,  a syndicated 
radio service based in Kansas  City, Missouri. Associate producers are 
Mal Johnson of Medialinx International and Martha Burk, Center for the 
Advancement of Public Policy - both based in Washington DC. 

        For details on where  the  radio programs  will  air,  consult 
local stations. 


SIDEBAR:  

To order a cassette of NATIONAL WOMEN'S AGENDA 1992: WHAT WOMEN WANT AND   
HOW THEY PLAN TO WIN IT, write WINGS, PO Box 5307, Kansas City MO 64131.  
Enclose check or money order for $12.  

To order a copy of "Women Ask...! Questions for the Candidates," send a  
self-addressed, stamped envelope to Medialinx International,   
2020 Pennsylvania Ave NW, #267, Washington DC 20006.  

To order the Congressional "Bad Guys List," contact WAND, 691   
Massachusetts Ave., Arlington MA 02174.  


Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive