NOW NEWS

Another Black Women Rises to the Top

An historic event occurred during Black History Month – a black woman was appointed to lead the California National Guard. Brig. Gen. Mary Kight is the first black woman to head the National Guard in any state, and is the first woman to lead the 21,000 members of California's Army and Air National Guard.

Kight was sworn in by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at a former Air Force base outside Sacramento. Speaking during a change-of-command ceremony at the California National Guard Mather Flight Facility, the Republican governor called Kight a pioneer for breaking gender and racial barriers during her long career. She is the state's 45th adjutant general, assuming command from Gen. William Wade, who is leaving to help command a North Atlantic Treaty Organization force in Italy. She is a brigadier general and was the second in command, before being promoted. The position is subject to confirmation by the state Senate and pays $180,201 a year. Kight is a Republican.

"I'm extremely proud," she said after the ceremony. "I also feel responsible, however, to those that look to me because I happen to be of female gender or African-American." Kight, 59, said she is part Filipino and Spanish on her mother's side. "There's a little bit of everything in me. And whatever I represent to people, if it makes them proud, I'm proud," she said.

Kight was born in Monterey in 1950, the daughter of a cook and a hotel housekeeper. She earned a degree at Monterey Peninsula College in 1970, then continued her education at Chico State University. Kight married her college sweetheart, Brad Kight, then joined the Air Force and then the National Guard, where she has spent nearly 25 years.

State Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, who was the first black woman to head a state legislative body, praised Kight for providing inspiration to those who will follow. "Today is a very exciting day in history," said Bass, a Democrat from Los Angeles.

Coordinator’s Corner by Angie King

For those of you who missed our annual Roe v Wade event, you should’a been there! I know the weather was predicted foul (although it was merely cold, not rainy). I hope it was not complacency with how well protected you feel our rights are that let you stay home. I have to tell you, our rights are in just as much danger now as under Bush. Hilda Zacarias led a lively discussion of the current (as of then) health care reform bill, especially as those reforms affect women’s access to reproductive health care. Since it appears the bill has stalled, there may now be time to undo those pernicious amendments preventing women from access to abortions – even using their own money. The more people who tell their Congressmember how private insurance company greed and negligence has impacted their own family’s life and health, perhaps the better they will heed our call to curb insurers. The evening closed with a tribute to those women who died from not having access to appropriate medical care and the workers who have been killed in the line of service to women in health clinics. It was a well attended, moving evening. Thank you to Health Care for All and Hilda Zacarias for contributing to its success.

Events coming up include a display at the SLO public library this month to commemorate Women’s History Month, and participation with SARP in their “Walk a Mile in their Shoes” event in April to raise awareness about sexual assaults, and a special event in June on Title IX.

You may have heard that the Cuesta College women’s tennis team got eliminated this year, as part of the budget cuts. That action ran afoul of the requirement of federal law that opportunities for participation in sports must be proportionate to the enrollment at the school. Eliminating one women’s team wholesale cuts that proportion below what is allowed. As a result, a Title IX federal complaint has been filed against Cuesta. The local chapter of NOW thinks this is an important issue that merits more coverage than just one article in the paper, and a comment by the acting Cuesta College president that they will not be having a public meeting about it. Well, if they won’t, NOW will! We plan to hold a public discussion on this topic, probably in June. Stay tuned.

Another year another war: Yes, it’s March again and the beginning of year 8 of the Afghan/Iraq wars. Women soldiers are in a double bind: not only are they under fire from insurgent forces; they are under attack from their own “buddies.” Women report sexual assaults inside the front line bases, sexual harassment by superior officers, blatant discrimination in work assignments, and higher levels of PTSD on their return, with fewer medical options even than the men. When will it stop? When we all get out in the streets and demand it. Do you not remember Vietnam?

Early political riff: Bill O’Reilly had a column at end of last year commenting on the access to the Obama White House compared to the Bush years, and of course, he was disparaging about the types and frequencies of visitors to Obama. It’s almost a badge of honor, at least according to Keith Olberman, to be dissed by Bill O’Reilly, so I take it as a matter of pride that the president of NOW, Kim Gandy, was one of the most frequent visitors mentioned.

And on another note, Mother Jones had a piece on how the GOP is trying to court younger voters, using social networking. Despite their use of new communication channels, it doesn’t change the GOP positions on social issues. The article mentioned “social justice, tolerance and peace in society,” but specifically ruled out abortion access or gay marriage. The number that grabbed me, though, was that in 2020 there will be 90 million new just-turned-18 years old first time voters for a presidential election, and they will comprise 39% of the potential electorate. That’s a formidable voting bloc – if young people can be said to be of one mind, which I don’t think they are. However, I do think younger voters are more likely to be more tolerant and support social justice. Aren’t those universal values? The question is for whom and to whom and that’s where I think new voters will part ways with the GOP. But they are an important demographic that we need to make sure understand our “herstory” and the consequences of forgetting the past.

You can tell it’s spring; the “action” sap is beginning to rise in my blood. Won’t you join me in taking action?

Here’s an Easy Action! - Take Your Daughters to Work Day

April 22, 2010

Traditionally, the fourth Thursday in April (coincidentally, around the same date as Equal Pay Day) has been marked as a special opportunity for parents (aimed initially at women when the event premiered in the 1970’s and now expanded to include fathers) to take their daughters to work with them for the day (now expanded to include sons). Whatever your job might be, let your child shadow you for the day and see what you do, help them see how many career options are available to them in your interactions at work. If your job does not permit “visitors,” arrange with someone to show your child the “ropes” at their work.

This is not just touchy feely stuff about putting a human face on how our society’s wheels turn each day. The importance in exposing girls, and boys, to different sorts of people and tasks at an early age sparks creativity and enthusiasm and gives them the confidence to know they can try new things, maybe even a career they may not have otherwise been aware of. More girls interested in how things work means more future engineers, which means more people working out ways to live together. As a nation, we cannot afford to waste the talents of over half the population.

And, more importantly, it shows fathers what their girls are capable of, and may even make them think twice about their beliefs about women and girls.

A Yale University study analyzed legislators’ votes on key issues, tallied against the number of girls each had, and found a positive correlation between the number of girls and the legislator’s position on issues affecting women. This correlation held true on both sides of the political aisle. The so-called “daughter gap” was strongest when the male legislators voted on issues specifically related to abortion and contraception.

It’s interesting that the campaign to nurture and develop the talents of girls is set in late April, as that is also the day on which, usually, the earnings of women for the prior year catch up to those of men, called Equal Pay Day, because it takes us an extra four months or so to earn as much as men do in twelve. Hopefully, “Take your Daughter to Work Day” will eventually eliminate the need for an “Equal Pay Day,” as the inequities of income discrimination based on gender diminish, because more and more young women moved into highly paid career areas as a result of watching their mothers and fathers at work as a child.

NOW History Lesson

By Angie King

National NOW encourages each chapter to review the history and workings of the organization with their membership every year. We have usually used the March issue of the Women’s Press to outline how NOW works because that’s Women’s History Month. Briefly, there is a national membership organization that takes action in the political arena to bring women into the mainstream of American society, as our mission statement declares. These local grass root chapters decide national policy at an annual convention, and the executive board carries out those policy directives. NOW also has a political arm, the NOWPAC, which endorses candidates at the national level, and a Foundation, that engages in educational tax-exempt activities, such as Take Your Daughter to Work Day (see article this issue) and Love Your Body Day (in October), among others.

In California the local chapters are also members of a state wide organization with a parallel structure: there is a membership association, which takes action at the state level based on policy directives agreed upon at a state convention; a PAC which endorses candidates at the state level; and a Foundation, which carries out tax-exempt activities.

Membership is open to women and men who agree with the mission: to bring women into the mainstream of American society NOW, with equal privileges and responsibilities as men.

NOW is a relatively new organization. The first meetings were in Washington DC in 1966 as a result of President John Kennedy’s call for a Commission on the status of women. That Commission (still in existence despite the best efforts of Republicans to kill it) remains an advisory body to the President on issues important to women. However, it does not take any action, which led some of the initial Commission members to break away and form NOW as a more overtly political action organization.

Women’s issues have been around, however, far longer than the 1960’s. In 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony convened a women’s rights convention to demand some of the most basic equality tenets we now possess: the right of women to work, and to keep our earnings, and the right to be educated. While there were some calls for the vote, it was considered too radical at the time.

By the turn of the 20^th century, however, that time had come, and Suffragists took political action to secure the vote for women, including hunger strikes, chaining themselves to the White House fence, and marching with placards denouncing the President for failing to take action on their demands.

When the 19^th Amendment finally passed in 1920, women took to public life in great numbers. They ran for and won political office, they voted in legislators who vowed to curb child labor and reform oppressive factory working conditions, among other social justice reforms.

And they became a political force with the creation of the League of Women Voters. As we were reminded just last month, February 1920 marked the 90th birthday of the founding of the LWV. Cribbing liberally from Julie Lynem’s Tribune article on the League, we learn that the League was the driving force behind the passage of the social justice reforms mentioned above. The League studies issues and comes to a consensus on a position, which they then advocate before legislative bodies. That makes them “equally opportunity disliked,” quoting a local SLO League member, because they do not always say what a politician wants to hear. The LWV does not endorse candidates for office, but it does grill them on their positions on League issues.

In the article, members of the local League chapter, formed in the 1960’s, were asked for advice for the younger generation. Uniformly, they urged people to vote and be informed about their vote, to make that vote count. She says become a better citizen by listening to both sides of an argument and think about your own response. “It’s easy to turn on the TV or computer and make a decision based on a 30-second sound bite or blog posting.”

Sage advice. I would add only, once you have developed a position, join NOW and do something about it!