From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: NATIONAL WOMEN'S AGENDA 1992
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Distribution: na
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 02:13:18 GMT

/** media.issues: 201.0 **/
** Topic: NATIONAL WOMEN'S AGENDA 1992 **
** Written  9:39 am  Aug 27, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:media.issues **
From: News Desk <newsdesk>
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.

        * Family and medical leave.
        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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