Have you ever come home from an intense conference, exhausted but exhilarated, reeling under a load of paper handouts, your head full of new ideas and possibilities? Well, this is how it felt returning from the National Women's Conference held at the Georgetown University Conference Center in Washington, DC, Nov. 20--23. Over the next several Updates, I'd like to share what I learned and some of the new resources I found. Below are five paragraphs of commentary, a notice about a corrected date for the Mills College Women's Leadership Conference, and a summary of new web sites.
It was very exciting to be there and hear from past, present, and future feminists (the theme was "Looking Back...Moving Forward"). Pres. Clinton and Sec. Albright sent important representatives. Bella Abzug was a constant presence--rising from her wheelchair to stand at the podium, speaking as strong as ever--and we heard other women from our history and our present--Betty Friedan, Ellie Smeal, Charlotte Bunch, Gloria Randall Scott, Faye Wattleton, Amb. Linda Tarr-Whelan, and our own San Franciscan, Aileen Hernandez. One of the best lines came from Houston participant Irene Natividad. Commenting on how some male elected officials forget their women supporters when they get into office, she said, "We are tired of getting whisker burn from men who give us only lip service." It brought down the house.
I learned a lot of women's history at the event. This conference marked the 20th anniversary of the only federally-organized conference on women, which was held in Houston in 1977. With funding approved by Congress at the initiative of then-Congresswoman Bella Abzug, states sent delegations, and despite sabotage from anti-feminist members and the sometimes intimidating environment, they hammered out a national action agenda. Unfortunately, the agenda was eclipsed by other events in the Carter Administration, with Bella fired from her place of leadership. Then the follow-up effort was dissolved by incoming Pres. Reagan. The agenda remains, as produced under the authority of Public Law 94-167, and has been updated for the realities of 1997. The revised National Plan of Action is available from the National Women's Conference.
Based on that plan and the Beijing Platform for Action, the National Women's Conference has a working group seeking to create a national entity to serve as an umbrella organization around the advocacy of the entire agenda from the Houston Conference and the UN Conference on Women. The President's Interagency Council on Women has served some of that role, but any government body is very dependent on the politics of the day. When I learn of more specifics or ways to participate, I'll pass them along.
Speaking of history, at one of the workshops I "met" Amelia Bloomer (the suffragist and creator of "bloomers"). Perhaps most of you know of the National Women's History Project (NWHP), based in Windsor, California. It holds an annual training conference for teachers and publishes a wonderful catalog of materials--I bought and donated a poster and book on women in math and science after a back-to-school night when my son's high school math teacher trotted out that ancient book, "Men of Mathematics."
This next year NWHP is coordinating "Living the Legacy," a campaign to honor the 150th anniversary of the very first women's rights conference, held in Seneca Falls, New York, in July 1848. Buttons, posters, curricula, suggestions for activities, a sample resolution, and all kinds of creative resources are available. Whatever elected body or institution you have access to, there is a way to bring visibility to women's human rights. At the beginning of the workshop, we were asked to list some of the rights American women have won. Among others, I thought of the right to vote, the right to credit in our own name, Title IX of the Ed. Code, the listing of help wanted ads without gender, the mainstreaming of the title Ms., and Roe Vs. Wade. The anniversary year 1998 is an opportunity to look at how far we've come and what still needs to be achieved. Check out the web sites http://www.nwhp.org and http://www.Legacy98.org.
The Mills College Women's Leadership Institute will hold its 3rd annual conference on April 18 -- not April 11 -- a typo -- All else remains as in the first announcement. The theme is Women's Leadership: Social Justice/Social Change with special sessions for female student leaders -- high school and college. Contact: Edna Mitchell
This online update, published weekly in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, covers events, resources, and information related to follow-up to the UN Fourth World Conference on Women and the issues covered in the Platform for Action document. You are encouraged to send in information and news to Judy Kramer at jahkramer@aol.com. Past updates are available on the web at http://womenswork.org/beijing-sf/