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Letter from the President
On March 20, four members of NOW picketed the building where ultra-conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly was expounding her bilge. I would like to thank R. L., B. G., and C. H. for their presence, their signs, and their good fellowship in making our position known to the public. Many people told us they were glad to see us there.
Thirty minutes into the program Connie and Brandon unfurled a banner, walked up the aisle and across the front of the room. The banner said "Phyllis Schlafly is a female impersonator." Special thanks for their courage; they are now banned from the campus.
In all of the President's Lectures held at ODU, never has anyone blatantly lied and misrepresented the truth about feminists and the NOW organization as this woman did.
Some of her philosophy:
I had to leave before it was over for fear that I was drowning in verbal vomit. Happily many students and women of color walked out also, saying they couldn't stand any more.
This type of thinking is not just ignorant: it is dangerous. We will not go back to the dark ages for Phyllis or anyone else. More power to women!
L. J. B.
Woman Power Award
On Wednesday March 26, Tidewater Social Justice Award were presented in Hampton. NOW was privileged to present the Women Power Award to Pastor Carol Weir of the Metropolitan Community Church.
National NOW Initiates Women-Friendly Workplace Campaign
The proactive Women-Friendly Workplace Campaign is aimed at stopping sexual harassment and other workplace abuses. The Campaign puts a framework around all our efforts to end workplace discrimination and abuse and encourages employers to have family-friendly policies.
We know that harassment and abuse are ways to knock women and people of color out of the competition for higher-paying jobs. The Campaign addresses problems in workplaces across the nation --from factories to boardrooms to classrooms. This campaign gives consumers the organizing tool that they need to use their clout in the marketplace to demand women-friendly workplaces.
CAMPAIGN COMPONENTS
Legislative Update
Once again, Congress is trying to outlaw third trimester abortions.
E-mail, write, fax or call your Senators and your Representatives and demand that they vote against this bill. Let them know that these abortions are performed at the request of real women, and restricting abortion will only make these women's lives (and their families') more difficult and desperate. These pregnancies will not magically become healthy or wanted; the problems will not go away. These women's situations will become more tragic, not less.
Contact President Clinton at thank him for being one of the few voices to recognize the worth of women in this debate. Urge him to stand fast in his pledge to veto the legislation.
Continue to add your voice to the debate. Call in to talk shows, write letters to the editor, talk to your friends. Make women visible, and make your point forcefully.
Women's Herstory a Success
At the March chapter meeting, NOW activists extemporaneously read parts from a women's herstory script which was written by this NOW chapter for the 10th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. All parts dealt with women and reproduction. All would agree that the script is moving.
We heard from a woman from the "Age of Faith" speak about her witchcraft trial, which included torture and execution, for providing obstetrical services, including pain killers, to women during childbirth.
We heard a Victorian woman speak about the unreliable, often silly, and occasionally dangerous methods of birth control which were used in her day.
We heard from women who were kept in ignorance about their anatomy and how babies were created.
We heard from a woman who spent a lifetime in shame and poverty because they bore a child out of wedlock.
We heard from a woman who was regularly beaten by her husband, the man who was "forced to marry her" because he had impregnated her out of wedlock.
We heard from a woman who died from a botched, illegal abortion which she had because she could not face the shame of being an unwed mother.
And we heard from other women, too; women who overcame the shame they felt being in a woman's body, who learned about their bodies, and who then taught this information to other women.
We heard from the woman who desperately wanted the fetus she was carrying, but who would have died if she had carried it to term, so she had a safe legal abortion.
We heard from the woman who was joyful that she was pregnant, until doctors told her that the child would have no brain.
We heard from the modern, successful career woman who had a legal abortion during her school years - and who later became a wonderful mother, exercising her right to choose in both instances.
We heard from the mother of --- who chose to have a legal abortion rather than to ensure that she and her family would spend the rest of their lives in want and poverty because there was not enough money to feed another mouth.
It was really great. Perhaps someday we can once again present this script as a play.
The At-Home Activist
Twenty-six women have filed a class action suit in federal court claiming sexual harassment and sex discrimination at Smith Barney. Although the company claims that as many as 13% of the company's 11,000 brokers are women, attorneys for the women plaintiffs allege only 5% of the firm's brokers are women. Furthermore, of 390 Smith Barney branch managers, only 8 are women. Attorneys for the women say they have received complaints about Smith Barney from as many as 100 women.
Tell Smith Barney that sexual harassment and sex discrimination are bad for business! Write to:
Jamie Dimon, CEO Smith Barney
388 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10013
212-816-8800
From the Horse's Mouth
"They have kept us in submission because they have talked about separation of church and state. There is no such thing in the Constitution. It's a lie of the left, and we're not going to take it anymore."
Pat Robertson, The State, Columbia, South Carolina, Nov. 11, 1993
Third Trimester Abortions: The Facts
National NOW fact sheet
Violence Against Women: Manifestations of Men's Misogyny
Violence against women manifests itself in many ways. Both clergy and laity use Spiritual Violence Against Women by invoking the will of God or "Holy Scripture" to coerce a woman into do things that she feels are immoral. Spiritual Violence Against Women includes requiring women to engage in sex as a condition for absolution from sin, alleging that incest (or AIDS) is God's judgment for sin, preaching the sinfulness of sex while being sexually active (sexual hypocrisy of religious authorities), abusing children and women sexually and otherwise, and engaging in clergy concubinage (which was common in Europe during the middle ages and is the current practice in Latin America).
Myths, Facts, Stats on Domestic Violence
Myth: Domestic violence does not affect many people.
Facts:
Legal Rights and Legal Wrongs
In 1970 the Ohio Supreme Court held that a wife was "at most a superior servant to her husband. . . only chattel with no personality, no property, and no legally recognized feelings or rights." The 1974 Georgia legislature approved a statute that defined the husband as "head of the family" with the "wife . . . subject to him; her legal existence . . . merged in the husband, except as so far as the law recognizes her separately, either for her own protection, her own benefit, or for the preservation of the public order." Until the early 1980s, a Louisiana statute gave husbands exclusive control over the disposition of jointly owned community property.
Misogyny against women is not ancient history.
Law, Gender, and Injustice by Joan Hoff (p. 281)
Opposition Research
Tom Coburn (R-OK), head of the reactionary Congressional Family Caucus, condemned NBC for airing the film "Schlindler's List." Coburn said the Holocaust film took network television "to an all-time low, with full-frontal nudity, violence and profanity." In his statement, Coburn called for public outrage to stop the networks from "polluting the minds of our children."
"I cringe when I realize that there were children all across this nation watching this program. They were exposed to the violence of multiple gunshot head wounds, vile language, full frontal nudity and irresponsible sexual activity," he said.
The fact that "Schindler's List" was a realistic portrayal of actual events was lost on Coburn, but not on Alfonse "da Godfather" D'Amato (R-NY). In a speech on the Senate floor, D'Amato said, "To equate the nudity of Holocaust victims in the concentration camps with any sexual connotation is outrageous and offensive. . . I'm particularly embarrassed they were made by a member of my own party."
The GOP In-fighting Update Series (#150) by Douglas Giles
My Word: An editorial by your newsletter editor
Each spring when the daffodils begin to bloom, whatever doubts that I have harbored during the past year about the existence of God-ess are stilled. Many major religions, too, celebrate a rite of rebirth and renewal in the spring.
NOW has always been an inclusive organization. From the beginning we have prided ourselves on being fighters for all women, regardless of class, color, national origin, or ethnic tradition. We have prided ourselves on being willing to fight the stereotypes that have been placed upon us and others. Yet there is one group of people who are often stereotyped and discriminated against by some of our members, indeed, by many on the secular left. That group of people is the peoples of faith.
Often, I print articles that bash the radical right, not because they are people of faith, but because their thoughts and ideas are outrageous. Yet, not all people of faith, Christian, Jewish, Moslem, or whatever, subscribe to the tenants of intolerant, bigoted, fundamentalism, be it Christian, Jewish, Moslem or any other religion's fundamentalism.
We on the left have for a generation alienated what could be a powerful and numerous addition to our ranks, people of faith. More than 90% of Americans claim a faith in God and most Americans claim some sort of religious affiliation. I do not advocate supporting any specific faith; I do ask that you make people of all faiths who share our vision feel welcome in our ranks.
Call the NOW phone line or drop us a letter to let us know what you think of this idea.
Feminist Forefathers
Matthew Vassar, American brewer and philanthropist, founded Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1861. The school was among the first schools in the US to offer women a liberal arts education equal to that offered by the best men's colleges. Men were admitted to Vassar beginning in 1969.
"Vassar College," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation.
The Many Varieties of Feminism: Radical Feminism
While liberal feminists are the "doers" of the women's movement, i.e., are those active in creating and modifying existing organizations, radical feminists are the theoreticians of the movement. Many see radical feminists are the "undesirable" element of feminism, as in "I'm not one of those types of feminist." During the early 1970s, radical feminism was the breeding ground for many of the ideas arising from feminism; ideas which get shaped and pounded out in various ways by other (but not all) branches of feminism. It has since been supplanted by the more moderate "cultural" feminists. Radical feminists should not be confused with Marxist or socialist feminists. The label "radical" springs from the 1967-1968 civil rights and peace movements and comes not from an economic analysis of patriarchy. Rather radical feminists hold the view that women's oppression cuts across boundaries of race, culture, and economic class. Radical feminists seek revolutionary social change, not modifications of the existing system. Because they do not want to become pat of the system, they don't really have a permenant place in the woman's movement, which is both a source of weakness and strength. Always dynamic, always faction ridden, and always full of ideas, its influence has been felt in all the other varieties of feminism, as well as in society at large.
Feminist Foremothers: Lucretia Coffin Mott (1793-1880)
Born and raised in fishing village of Nantucket, where women where often survived for long periods without the presence of a man because their husbands, sons, fathers were away to sea, Lucretia Mott became one of the most important leaders in the 19th century woman's movement.
As a young adult, Coffin taught school at half the salary of a man, an experience which heightened her awareness of the world's opinion of women's worth. She married fellow-teacher James Mott in 1811, eventually mothering 6 children. James was unusually supportive of his wife's work; they lived an unusually egalitarian lifestyle. Early in their marriage they moved to Philadelphia where they spent most of their lives.
Like many other Quaker women, Lucretia Mott engaged in public speaking and preaching in her church; by 1821 she was an official minister in the Society of Friends.
In the 1820's she became aware of the evils of slavery and boycotted southern goods, including such staples as cotton, sugar, and rice - a real inconvenience in the early 19th century. As early as 1829, well before William Lloyd Garrison, Mott spoke in "colored" churches about abolition. Both Motts helped to found the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833, when abolitionism was still controversial even among Quakers.
Along with newly married Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mott attended the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London as a delegate. Both were denied seats on the convention floor because they were women. During the convention, Mott and Stanton discussed women's need to acquire more civil rights so that women could more effectively fight slavery. Stanton was on her honeymoon, so she had only begun to experience the disabilities of married women. Stanton returned home, bore a couple of children, then moved from the intellectual stimulation of Boston to the bucolic backwater, Seneca Falls, NY. By 1848, the highly educated and intellectually deprived Stanton was eager to change woman's situation.
In 1848 Mott and Stanton co-sponsored the first woman's rights convention at Seneca Falls. Later Mott would often chosen as president of woman's rights conventions. Mott remained a committed spokeswoman of women's rights.
Mott's plain garb characteristic of Quakers and gentle manner only emphasized the boldness and radicalness of her ideas. Yet she persuasively argued her position.
When the Civil War broke out over the issue of slavery, Mott rededicated herself to peaceful solutions to problems by serving as the vice-president of the Pennsylvania Peace Society.
Both Motts were influential in founding (and raising money for) the co-educational Swarthmore College, founded in 1864 by Quakers
After the war, she became first president of the American Equal Rights Association, an organizations that sought to secure civil rights for ex-slaves, and as some believed, for women.
Mott had broad vision of what the women's rights movement should be and never viewed the women's movement as the single issue movement for the vote. In addition to abolition and suffrage, Mott was active in the era's women against violence against women program, the temperance movement. However, since her marriage was uncommonly happy, she remained deeply religious and was slow to accept the need for divorce reform
After the 1869 split in the American Woman suffrage Association, Mott attempted to work with both factions. She saw herself as a missionary who "carr[ied] the glad tidings of justice, liberty, and equality."
Doris Weatherford, American Women's History: An A to Z of People, Organizations, Issues, and Events, Prentise Hall, 1994
"Mott, Lucretia Coffin," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation.
Herstory: Women and Religion
Many of us know and discuss the horrors that have been perpetrated on women by organized religion; yet religions and organized churches have also positive influences for women.
All religious traditions early in their formation have encouraged women to be leaders; only after a religion becomes well established were women driven out of leadership positions. Let me mention just a few early female religious leaders: Miriam, sister of Moses; Prisca, early founder of a Christian church to whom Paul addressed one of his pastoral letters; Khadija, wife of and financier for Mohammed; Susanna Wesley, mother of and theological inspiration for the founders of Methodism, John and Charles Wesley.
During the Middle Ages, convents were centers of learning for women just as monasteries were centers of learning for men. Many nuns were literate and accomplished musicians, a rarity in that time.
Religious orders provided women with an "alternate career option" to being a wife and mother, but to follow this path women had to forgo bearing children or to put off adopting this vocation until their children were raised
Many women have written on theology, women who according to the standards of their own time would have been considered feminist theologians. A few examples: Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), the most powerful abbess of her time and advisor to popes; Juliana of Norwich (late 13th and early 14th centuries), mystic who wrote about the female face of God; Margaret Askew Fell Fox, 17th century co-founder of the Quaker religion; Sarah Grimke (b. 1792 - d.1873, fl 1838), abolitionist and early woman's rights advocate; Anna Julia Cooper (ca. 1858 - 1964), African-American educator and theologian .
Many early champions of women's rights wrote about, were inspired by, and drew strength from a vision of Christianity that feed the Hungary, clothed the naked, had compassion for the poor, liberated the downtrodden from oppression, fought for justice for all, imaged God at least in part as a mother or a woman, and viewed all human beings as equal in the sight of God
For these women, their religion was a positive source of emotional support
Today, all religious traditions have, at least, some active, feminist theologians. Many mainstream religious organizations support religious theologies, church policies, and government programs which most feminists would consider positive.
Our own chapter has lately co-operated with one such church, the Christian Metropolitan Community Church to perform a same-sex marriage. Like many other churches, this church could become a source of NOW activists if only we would encourage persons of faith to join our organization.
Network News: Americans United
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State is a mainstream organization operated by peoples of all faiths (including no faith at all) devoted to keeping the government out of religion --- and to keeping religion out of government.
According to AU, the "American Community Renewal Act" which is currently before Congress may have some provisions which may be of concern to our readers.
This bill could require fundamentalist Christians to attend Wicca ceremonies, Moslems to attend the local Jewish synagogue, Jews to be proselytized by fundamentalist Christians. Feminist could be at everyone's mercy. Perhaps, if this bill passes, we should incorporate as a "religious institution" so that we, too, can receive government funds for social service programs tailored to our liking.
This issue is a bit different from our chapter's normal concerns. Call the NOW phone line or drop us a letter to let us know if you support (or oppose) our efforts to stop this bill. Also, if you don't want to see this bill passed, call your Senators and Representative and register your opinion.
For move information, write Americans United, 1816 Jefferson Place, NW Washington, DC 20036, phone (202) 466-3234, or fax (202) 466-2587, or visit their website at http://www.au.org/
sunshine@pinn.net
Sunshine for Women encourages you to support our feminist sisters by purchasing their books, reading them, disseminating the ideas they contain, but most especially, by making their book available to our sisters, our daughters, and the community at large by requesting your school library, your public library, and area bookstores to carry their books. Remember it is not enough to write literature, history, and theology, we must pass these works on to future generations. Help us to preserve these works for a new generation by putting them on library bookshelves.
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