From: harelb@math.cornell.EDU (Harel Barzilai)
Subject: submission: NATIONAL WOMEN'S AGENDA 1992
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Date: 27 Aug 92 19:41:40 GMT

    "   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."

(p.s., I've been adding "@igc.org" by hand for email addresses; in
future that's how to contact PeaceNet/EconNet accounts listed--HB)

[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.

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