Women Matters, August 4th, 2009

Jane: Sadly, on July 25 Gerald H.F.Gardner, 83 died of leukemia. He was the scientist and feminist whosestatistical research and expert testimony led to the U.S. Supreme Court decision eliminating sex bias in newspaper want ads in the late 1960s. At that time, many newspapers had separate, explicit categories for jobs openings for men or women. Dr. Gardner, a founding member of the Pittsburgh chapter of the National Organization for Women calculated the amount of money a woman would lose over a lifetime because she was barred from applying for the jobs advertised as open only to men.

Because of his research NOW filed a complaint against the Pittsburgh Press,then the area's dominant newspaper. The Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations upheld the complaint, and the Pittsburgh Press -- backed by many other newspapers -- took the ruling to court, arguing it violated their First Amendment rights of the freedom of the press. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in 1973 that the newspaper's practice was illegal. The decision changed employment advertisements throughout the nation

Eleanor Smeal, former president of NOW and current president of the Feminist Majority Foundation said "He was the trailblazer for women in employment and education in the seventies and eighties. He was indispensable. He could present mathematically the impact of discrimination and what it did for women in opportunity, but also financially with salaries. He quantified it." That from a report in the Washington Post.

Joan: In some political power playing on Thursday, woman’s right to control her own body narrowly escaped yet another trashing in the House of Representatives. Initially the House Energy and Commerce Committee had passed an amendment to the health care reform bill that would have excluded abortion services from the "essential"health benefits package as defined by the government. Under this amendment,government subsidies used to help pay insurance premiums for low-income people could not be used for abortion services. The New York Times reports that would mean that "insurers must use money from private sources to pay for any abortions."

To me that is pure nonsense because I don’t think insurance companies actually pay anything directly out of premiums. Premiums are laundered, so to speak,through investments and such, before they come out in a pool of money used to pay executives and to pay claims. Anyway, NOW President Terry O'Neill reacted by saying, "Reproductive health care is a fundamental right. Any health care plan that does not cover the full range of reproductive services,including abortion, discriminates against women. Once again, our representatives are giving in to the right wing by trading away women's rights.Well, I have a message for them, our reproductive rights are not theirs to giveaway."

Fortunately, thanks to a smart procedural play by Representative Henry Waxman,who chairs the committee, there was a re-vote. A couple of blue dog Democrats changed their votes the second time around resulting in a narrow 30-29 defeat of the amendment. We came just “that” close to being excluded from all this battling over health care reform. The whole idea is very upsetting.

Actually, this matter of women’s rights is an ongoing issue in the fight forhuman rights.

Jane: What I find disgraceful is the quantity of misinformation and actual lies that fundamentalist conservatives are putting out. For example, listen to this ad (30 seconds) by theinappropriately named "Family Research Council" ludicrously spewing the rational that the health care reform bill will result in public funding of abortions thus preventing seniors from having surgery.factcheck.org/2009/07/surgery-for-seniors-vs-abortions/

Joan: Add your comments

Jane: Last Thursday, President Obama awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor the president can bestow, to retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and15 other luminaries from around the world. Among them were Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the late New York congressman Jack Kemp, actor Sidney Poitier andl ate gay rights advocate Harvey Milk. Also included are tennis legend Billie Jean King, Senator Ted Kennedy, Nancy Brinker who founded the Susan G. Komenfor the Cure, a leading breast cancer grass-roots organization.  Susan G. Komen, of course,  was her sister who had died of breast cancer.Also named is  Joe Medicine Crow, the last living Plains Indian war chief for fought in World War II wearing warpaint beneath his uniform. The  medals,representing the nation's highest honor for a civilian, are the first to be awarded by Obama. He will present them at a White House ceremony on Aug. 12.

Joan: Lubna Hussein, a Sudanese woman faces 40lashes for wearing trousers in public. Hussein, a former journalist who worksin the media department of the UN Mission in Khartoum, was arrested along with12 the women earlier this month for wearing trousers at a party in a local restaurant popular with journalists and foreigners. Ten of the arrested women accepted 40 lashes each at the police station and paid fines of $120. But three women took their case to court.

Last Thursday, Hussein disrupted the court when she appeared for her hearingwearing the same green trousers she was wearing when she was arrested.The trousers signified that Hussein is ready to fight to remove clothing regulations from Sudan’s legal code. “This is not a case about me wearing pants,” she told the Associated Press. “This is a case about annulling the article that addresses women’s dress code."

As a UN employee, Hussein would ordinarily be immune from prosecution. But Hussein has insisted upon resigning from the UN so that her case can go totrial. On July 30, the judge adjourned her trial until August 4 to give her time to quit her job.

We will have to wait until her trial next month to see if she is successful in changing the decency laws.

  Jane:I am always amazed by the courage of activists.

For the first time, California has two top prospective Republican female candidates. They are Meg Whitman (the former eBay CEO) for governor and Carly Fiorina (the former Hewlett-Packard CEO) for US Senate. This should be exciting to the Republicans since California already has Democratic women currently holding the state’s two Senate seats and another California Democratic woman isspeaker of the U.S. House. Unfortunately there is considerable bloc of California’s female GOP voters and some Republican women activists who say they’re still waiting for proof of the candidates’ conservative bona fides.

Joan: Women in Sports.

Thursday Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins won the women's skateboard vertby successfully executing a kickflip indy and attempting two McTwists which are inverted-540s. Karen Jonz and Gaby Ponce also pulled off the kickflip indy,making it the first time in history that three women performed it in one event. Jonz and Ponce won the silver and bronze medals, respectively.

Wednesday, US swimmer Mary Descenza broke the women's 200m butterfly world record in the heats at the world swimming in Rome. Descenza clocked 2 min 04.14sec to lower the previous record of 2:04.18 set by China's Liu Zige in winning Olympic gold on August 14 last year in Beijing. Defending world champion and Beijing Olympic bronze medallist Jessicah Schipper of Australia posted the second-quickest time of the morning with a 2:05.50. Jiao Liuyang,who took silver behind compatriot Liu in Beijing, was eighth-fastest overall with a time of 2:07.01.

Thank you Joan, see you next week.

 

Joining us now is Judy Helgager, Women Matters film critic.

 

Thank you Judy. And that concludes Women News on Tuesday August 4th.