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The past year has been a very busy & productive year for Tidewater NOW. Here's a brief summary of the year's events.
The results of Tidewater NOW's elections are in. The new executive board will have some old-timers as well as some new blood. This year, to make the tasks more manageable, we will have 2 co-presidents and 2 co-vice-presidents. Our new officers are Co - Presidents M. J. and M. R.; Co-Vice-Presidents M. S. and A. S.; Treasurer S. B.; Records Manager P. P.; Members-at-Large M. F. and B. B.. A. M., who has some wonderful fund-raising ideas, was appointed to head the Fund-Raising Task Force. Your old newsletter editor retained her job. Several task force assignments remained the same: Stop Racism NOW M. F.; Lesbian Rights R. L.; and Violence Against Women J. B..
We would like to thank last year's board members for a job well-done. Our special thanks go to past President L. B., friend as well as co-activist, for guiding us through this exciting year.
We would like to make a Tidewater NOW website. As one of the features, we would like to have a history of Tidewater NOW. If you were active in the past and have knowledge of the chapter's early years or an amusing anecdote to share, please send it to the newsletter editor care of the NOW PO box. We are also interested in posting stories about why our members joined NOW. If you aren't a great writer, it's ok. I'll rewrite stories on request.
M. F. along with young women from the Third Wave organization exhibited the Clothesline Project at ODU last month. Our thanks to Mary and Third Wave for helping to make the problem of domestic violence more visible.
Check out Hieros Gamos II: Civil Rights at http://www.hg.org/civilrgt.html
Violence against women manifests itself in many ways: Medical Violence Against Women uses unnecessary medical treatments on women to subjugate women Examples include clitorodectomy as a "cure" for masturbation; denial of pain killers during child birth, common until the middle of the 20th century; allowing men to commit their wives to insane asylums for any reason they choose (such as disobedience to his commands) ; and performing unnecessary hysterectomies.
Five Tidewater NOW members attended the 1997 Annual State VA NOW meeting in Ashland, VA on 6/14. Two Tidewater NOW members were elected to the State Council: C. H. (State Coordinator) and E. B. (Chapter Development Coordinator).
E. McC. presented a legislative update focusing on Spousal Support, Teen Endangerment and other issues which were passed by the VA State Legislators during the most recent session.
The keynote speaker was AFL's Doris Crouse who presented disturbing evidence that the plight of women is not improving. She is conducting a nationwide survey, "Ask a Working Woman," which is attached to this newsletter. Please fill it in then mail it A national panel will implement recommendations based on the results of this survey.
Even though the state meeting was sparsely attended, the PAC auction raised over $600. Emily Baker volunteered to again represent the Northern Region as PAC Representative. There is only one chapter in the Southern Region (Tidewater NOW). We do not have a PAC Rep as yet. This is your official invitation to volunteer! You can expect a lot of action from the PAC Committee this year. The council has some new blood as well as experienced old-timers and we expect a great year from VA State Council.
Tidewater NOW also is must either elect or appoint representative to the Council. Again, you are invited to volunteer to fill this position. The State Council met immediately following the Annual Meeting for the purpose of scheduling the turnover meeting. The turnover meeting will be 6/28 at 10:00 am in Richmond. As with all State Council meetings, this is an open meeting. Your attendance is welcome.
The annual meeting ended with Action Resolutions dealing with a number of topics including teen endangerment and Presumptive Joint Custody.
We were honored to represent Tidewater NOW at another annual meeting. We hope the work we did there and the plans made will bring changes which will improve the lives of women and children in Virginia.
- Connie Hannah, State Coordinator
Much of the legislation discussed in the last newsletter is still under consideration. If you did not write, call, phone, fax, or e-mail your elected officials last month, it is not too late to contact them now. Several new items are of concern.
Last year, a disastrous product liability reform package was vetoed by the President. Congress seems primed to pass the same piece of junk this year and there are signs that Clinton's opposition is wavering. Contact the White House and your Congresspeople to oppose this measure.
Clinton is expected to support a trial Texas program privatizing social services. If social services are turned over to for-profit business, either the program costs must go up by 10% or benefits must go down by 10% - otherwise investors will not invest their money in the money making program. (oppose)
Senate bill S4, the "Family Friendly Work Place" Act is a back door attempt by business to eliminate overtime pay and to replace it with comp time with the company setting the hours when comp time will be used. (oppose)
On a happier note: WIC funds were restored thanks to the loud and effective outcry of advocates for projects for women and children. Also, Congressional supporters of domestic violence prevention programs succeeded in adding a clarification for concerning temporary waivers for battered women to the budget resolution. Further, the U.S. Postal Service introduced a new stamp in late May which will carry a message about the National Domestic Violence Hotline which has received over 100,000 call to date. Thanks for the help.
National NOW Legislative Alert
On the very same day that the AMA's Board of Trustees delivered its message of support for the Santorum bill criminalizing D&X abortions, the conservative medical association also submitted an eight-page letter detailing its agenda for the 105th Congress. Chief among the points listed was an objection to a proposed cut of $115 billion over five years for Medicare reimbursement. The timing may have been only coincidental, but abortion rights advocates interpreted this as a cynical quid pro quo -- trading women's lives and health for safeguarding physicians' incomes.
National NOW Legislative Alert
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 reversed the Supreme Court decisions in Gilbert v GE (1976), which denied "pregnant people" disability benefits, and Satty v Nashville Gas (1977), which denied women the use of sick leave during child birth.
The Feminist Chronicles, 1953 - 1993, Toni Carabillo, Judith Meuli, and June Bundy Csida, Women's Graphics, 1993
Myth: Domestic violence only occurs in poor, urban areas.
Facts:
from "Domestic Violence: The Facts" - A Handbook to STOP violence (courtesy of Peace At Home (formerly Battered Women Fighting Back), Boston), posted at the Cybergrrl Webstation website
Newly made billionaire Pat Robertson has competition for the title of biggest hypocrite of the religious wrong . According to The Nation, Bill McCartney, founder of Promise Keepers and former college football coach, staunchly supported his daughter when she choose to have an abortion after being impregnated by his star quarterback. Seems like a lot of "pro-life" activists assert their legal right to abortion when they have a "problem" pregnancy. Statistics are hard to come by due to the confidentiality of medical records. But the scuttle-butt among abortion providers is that clinic demonstrators do not hesitate to use their services.
The Nation October 7, 1996, page 11
More spiritual than political or theoretical in nature, eco-feminism's basic tenet is that a patriarchal society will exploit its resources without regard to the long term con-sequences as a direct result of the attitudes fostered in a patriarchal/ hierarchical society. Parallels are often drawn between society's treatment of the environment, animals, or resources and its treatment of women. In resisting patriarchal culture, eco-feminists feel that they also resist plundering and destroying the Earth. And vice-versa. It is sometimes wrapped up with Goddess worship and vegetarianism.
Some see this version of feminism as little more than a warmed over version of previously existing -isms. They believe that eco-feminism is actually a socially-conscious environmentalism with a tiny smattering of the radical and cultural feminist observation that exploitation of women and exploitation of the earth have some astonishing parallels with the rest of "eco-feminism" a variation on socialism. The Green movements of Europe have done a good job of formulating (if not implementing) an environmentally aware feminism; and while Green movements were not originally considered a part of eco-feminism, they are now recognized as a vital component.
So are eco-feminists true feminists or socially - conscious environmentalists? Who knows. I'll take their support either way.
With federal and state governments cutting budgets, many organizations devoted to helping women are experiencing budget shortfalls. These institutions span a range of interests from reproductive services for poor women or food and shelter for unemployed women and their children to financing talented women artists, feminist historians uncovering women's history, or feminist lawyers providing legal services for the poor.
Further, most foundations do not provide much support, if any at all, for programs targeted to women. In short, if women do not support programs designed to help women, the programs will not be supported at all. The next United Way drive will begin in a few months. All payroll deduction plans for contributing to the United Way allow you to target your contribution to a particular agency. Perhaps those of us who are fortunate enough to be employed, and especially those of us who are financially comfortable, should target our charitable giving to (feminist) organizations that benefit primarily (feminist) women.
Whether you want to contribute to medical research, the arts and humanities, religion, anti-poverty programs, anti-violence programs, civil rights, reproductive services, the labor movement, or the environment, organizations exist that target women as their primary beneficiaries. Use your financial resources to help other women. If men will not use their resources to help women, then we should let men take care of other men without our help.
"Perhaps no American woman writer until Margaret Fuller equaled Murray in intellectual powers, in the breadth of genres in which she wrote, or in public recognition1." Born the oldest of 8 children into an elite merchant family, Murray became a poet, essayist, playwright, and novelist and, eventually, she would edit her husband's autobiography.
Her second husband was John Murray, the minister responsible for transporting the Universalist religion from England to America. Together the Murray's traveled the east coast and worked to establish the new religion here. Although John Murray advocated education for women and encouraged Judith to continue writing after their marriage, many of Universalism's feminist tenets spring from the mind of Judith Sargent Murray.
In her own lifetime Murray was best known for the regular column which she wrote for the Massachusetts Magazine. Her essays considered all the topics of the day: politics, religion, the French Revolution, manners, the role of women in society, "domestic finances," etc.. Today she is best known for her short essay "On the Equality of the Sexes" where she strongly advocated equal educational opportunities for women. Some attribute the nineteenth-century "Republican Motherhood2" movement to her but this confines her vision. Her ideas are strikingly similar to Betty Friedan's in The Feminine Mystique. To her, women had an intellect and "the needle and the kitchen" did not provide enough stimulation to occupy a woman's intellect. And when women did not have positive outlets for their intellect they used their intellect to bad ends. Women's apparent intellectual inferiority to men's arose from their different up-brings: boys were encouraged to learn and grow while women were intellectually confined. If girls were educated like boys, the apparent difference in their intellectual capacities would disappear. Women needed education to develop their intellect and encouragement to use their intellect and knowledge throughout life. Still, the major theme of Murray's work would always be: knowledge of history is important to all people but women's knowledge of earlier women's abilities and accomplishments is the most important tool for empowering young women in the new republic.
1 Sharon H. Harris (ed.), Selected Writings of Judith Sargent Murray, [Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995] p. xv
2 The "Republican motherhood" movement stressed that men had to be educated and virtuous to be good citizens of a democracy and to take their social obligations seriously. The movement stressed education for women so that women in turn could educate their sons and raise them to be model citizens.
from Alice Rossi, The Feminist Papers: From Adams to de Beauvoir, [Boston, Northeastern University Press, 1988] p. 16-25
In Women Patriots of the American Revolution [Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ, 1991], Charles E. Claghorn documents over 5000 heroines of our Revolutionary War.
Our patriot foremothers aided the United States aborning in a variety of ways. Even before the war, women led the way in boycotting English goods: not a simple task when the burden for replacing manufactured cloth and imported foodstuff, such as sugar and tea, fell upon them. These determined women raised lambs, carded wool, spun fibers, and wove homespun fabrics to replace English cotton cloth. They experimented with herbs and other plant materials to replace tea and sugar.
During the war, women often ran the family farm alone because the "man of the house," a husband, brother, father, or son, was off to war. Women made clothes for the soldiers, collected money for the troops, and nursed the sick and wounded.
The British often quartered soldiers in private homes where the women were expected to wash their "guest's" clothes and cook for them. These women would eavesdrop on the soldiers' conservations - then rush to General Washington with the information. Women spied in other ways, too, and carried messages from one general to another, while other women served at the front.
Although camp followers are generally considered to be "women of ill-repute," often they were wives, daughters, or sweet-hearts of the soldiers. They cooked, cleaned, and washed clothes for their men, nursed the injured and sick, and basically made live bearable for the men. And in a pinch, they fired the muskets, loaded the cannons, carried supplies, and performed other duties of a common soldier.
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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