Author: Feminist Majority Foundation Blog

Duke University officials announced the university’s adoption of a code of conduct guaranteeing that sports clothing and any products bearing Duke’s name would not be made in sweatshops. The code will require companies with licenses to produce the gear to allow monitoring of factories and publication of the results. The code also includes health and safety codes, pro-union codes, and protections against child labor.

The code of conduct will be enforced by Duke University, its domestic licensing agent, Collegiate Licensing Co., its international agent, Crossland Enterprises and the student group Students Against Sweatshops.

Jim Wilkerson, director of trademark licensing and stores operations, said, “Duke University is opposed to licensed Duke products being manufactured in sweatshop conditions, by forced labor, or under unsafe or abusive conditions.”

Feminists Stop Sweatshops

University of California’s Berkeley law school, also known as Boalt Hall, held a reunion of 200 of its female graduates to celebrate its history of promoting women and law. Herma Hill Kay, Boalt’s current dean, listed several of the law schools “firsts,” including: the first woman professor at a major American law school, Nachtrieb Armstrong, 1919; the first woman to edit a law journal at an American University, Esher Phillips, 1917; and the first legal organization devoted to rights of lesbians, founded by Donna Hitchens in 1978.

Boalt Hall was one of the first law schools to admit women in 1894.

In recognition of International Women’s Day, the Modern Women’s Foundation released a survey reflecting the growing fear by Taiwanese women for their own public safety. The Foundation surveyed 1,097 women and found that 78.2 percent of the women were afraid for their safety when taking a taxi, and 60.7 percent of the women did not feel safe on public buses.

Taiwanese police have yet to solve the rape, murder, and disappearance of a female politician in 1996 who was last seen entering a taxi.

Maryland state officials are proposing a bill that would allow victims of domestic violence to bypass a law requiring couples to wait a year before they can file for divorce. Present legislation already allows a spouse that can prove adultery to obtain a quick divorce. The bill would include proof of “cruelty of treatment” and “excessively vicious conduct” as justification for a speedy divorce process.

Testifying during a hearing for the bill, a Easton, MD nurse stated, “My husband repeatedly kicked me with his foot, punched me with his closed fist, slapped me with an open hand …. This man took 23 years of my life and has gotten over 1 1/2 years because of the process involved in getting a divorce.” Supporters include Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (D) and Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. (D). According to Townsend, a victim of domestic violence is three times more likely to be beaten during a separation than after the divorce.

The legislation is part of five recommendations made by the Family Violence Council, created by Townsend and Curran to investigate domestic violence issues in Maryland.

Critics of the bill worry that allowing for speedy divorce could turn Maryland into a “divorce mill,” and that victims may falsely charge their spouse to end the marriage. Sen. Larry E. Haines (R) commented, “Let’s say if it’s a woman who wants out of the marriage. She could beat her head against a wall. It would be difficult to prove.”

State officials in New Jersey have proposed a law that would make it more difficult for all couples to get a divorce. The Parents Education Act would charge a couple $25 and require the couple to take a course on divorce issues, separation and custody of the children.

Domestic Violence Information Center

Victims of domestic violence and abuse receive little protection from law officials or the justice system in Russia, according to a study released by Human Rights Watch. The report, “Too Little, Too Late,” exposes the problems Russian women are facing during the transition from communism to a free-market economy.

The report states, “From the moment that victims of violence first seek out the legal system until the close of their cases these women consistently confront hostility, reluctance, and bias against their cases.”

Dorothy Thomas, director of the Women’s Rights Project at Human Rights Watch said, “Instead of fighting the problem, the Russian government suggests by word and deed that it accepts that women can be assaulted in the street or in their homes with no recourse for the victims and few consequences for the attackers.”

Humans Rights Watch published a similar report in 1995. “Neither Jobs Nor Justice” documented widespread unemployment and discrimination in the workplace and economic sector.

In 1996 Russian President Boris Yeltsin pledged to investigate rising statistics of violence against women and to collaborate with women’s aid centers; however, the report claims that little progress has been made.

Domestic Violence Information Center

The Seoul Metropolitan Subway Corp. began broadcasting messages to passengers waiting for a train, warning against committing “unpleasant acts repulsive to other riders.” The warning is directed towards men who routinely grope and/or assault women while on the subway.

Results of a recent survey indicate that 75 percent of 1,000 women had been groped on the subway and approximately 98 percent desired anti-groping warnings.

A law criminalizing groping on subways was passed in 1994, but most women do not report the incidents out of shame and few convictions have been made.

Researchers blame South Korea’s tradition of Confucianism, male domination and women’s low social status for the continued assaults.

Jang Pil-Hwa, a women’s study professor at Ewha Women’s University, said, “Sexual harassment is about power and control …. Where there is discrimination against women, there is sexual harassment. Despite the nation’s fast advances in economy and democracy, women’s social status is still very low here.”

A law passed by the House would reduce penalties to states who have not computerized their child support systems. The legislation, co-sponsored by Rep. Clay Shaw (R-FL), would decrease the penalty to 4 percent of their child support funding this year, 8 percent next year, 16 percent in 2000 and 20 percent each following year.

Currently, states without a working computer system for child support tracking will lose all federal child support funding. Without a child support program, states could lose their block grants for welfare funding.

States without working computer systems include: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, as well as the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands.

The International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) officially opened the African Women’s Media Center (AWMC). The IWMF was created to aid women journalists in Africa by providing training and networking possibilities.

An IWMF spokesperson said, “African women face enormous challenges in being accepted as serious professionals in a field traditionally dominated by men.” The Center will “work with existing women’s media organization to provide women journalists the support necessary to compete equally with their male colleagues.”

For more information, contact: Erin Uritus, Program Coordinator at the AWMC, B.P. 21186, Dakar-Ponty, Dakar, Senegal,. awmc@metissacana.sn, iwmfafrica@aol.com.

Eileen Collins will become the first woman to command a space shuttle mission in U.S. history. White House spokesman Mike McCurry said the announcement is, “good news for all of those who are supportive of our efforts in space and who believe it should be a gender-neutral zone.”

Collins, a 41-year-old Air Force lieutenant colonel, was the second Air Force female test pilot and the first woman to be chosen by NASA as a shuttle pilot.

Susan Still is the only other woman to ever fly the space shuttle. Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, is the only other woman to pilot a spaceship, when she flew solo in 1963 for three days.

According to a report published in the journal Medical Care, women, Hispanics and Asians wait longer than white men for organ transplants. The study was conducted by Ann Klassen and associates at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore.

Researchers reviewed 7,422 patient records from the United Network for Organ Sharing/Organ Procurement Transplant Network liver waiting lists. Results of the study indicated that women had to wait an average of 110 days for a transplant, 19 days longer than men. Asian-Americans waited an average of 138 days and Hispanic-Americans waited 107, while blacks and whites waited approximately the same number of days on average.

Klassen commented, “Although it is difficult from these data to tell why some groups wait longer than others, these patterns show a trend of possible disadvantage among several minority groups, and this is a cause for concern.”

Of the 55,000 people on national organ waiting lists, approximately 11 die each day waiting for an organ.

In celebration of Women’s History Month the Feminist Majority Foundation’s award-winning web site is featuring a special section on Women’s History Month. The Women’s History feature includes: a daily fact about a special event or person in women’s history, a women’s history quiz, research information, event listings, a list of notable 20th century women, women’s history links and more.

The National Women’s Hall of Fame launched its new website earlier this week. The site, http://www.greatwomen.org, features the 136 women inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame and information on the women who are scheduled for induction this July.

The site includes “The Women of The Hall,” which presents biographical information on inducted women, The Learning Center, which contains interactive games and learning tools, a space for nominating an American woman into the Hall, a calendar of events and more.

Kanwar Ahson was shot and critically injured while entering a courthouse in Karachi, Pakistan. Ahson was to answer charges that he and his wife, Riffat Afridi, had sex outside of marriage. Afridi’s father, brother and intended fiancee were arrested for the shooting.

Afridi, a member of the Pathan ethic group, was sentenced to death by a panel of Pathan elders for dishonoring her family by marrying Ahson, a member of the Mohajir ethnic group.

Afridi turned herself in to police officials last week. Women’s rights groups said that as many as 500 women are in jail throughout Pakistan for having sex outside of marriage.

The Florida House of Representatives voted to override a veto on a ban of late term abortions. Governor Lawton Chiles had vetoed the ban, stating that although he himself was pro-life, the bill did not protect women’s rights. Chiles believes that abortion decisions should be left up to women and their doctors.

Legislatures in 19 states have passed laws banning late-term abortions. Five of the bans have been overturned.

Feminist News Stories on Abortion

Circuit Judge Buford M. Parsons Jr. ruled that Sharon Bottoms will not be allowed to visit her son while her partner, April Wade, is present. The Judge offered no explanation for his ruling.

Parsons affirmed a 1993 decision by a juvenile court to transfer custody of the child, Tyler Dustou, from Sharon to her mother on the grounds that Sharon was an unfit mother because she had oral sex, a felony in Virginia, with her partner. Although a state appeals court reversed the decision in 1994, a Virginia Supreme Court reaffirmed the ruling, claiming that living in a gay household could subject Tyler to “social condemnation.”

The Supreme Court ruled by common consent that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects against sexual harassment in the workplace, includes harassment by members of the same sex. The court ruled in favor of Joseph Oncale in Oncale vs. Sundowner Offshore Services. Oncale had charged the company with ignoring complaints that he was sexually harassed and assaulted by male co-workers while on the job.

Steven Shapiro, national legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union, said, “It clearly states that no one should have to suffer sexual harassment when going to work in the morning … and it shouldn’t matter if you are a man or a woman, gay or straight.”

Elizabeth Birth, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, commented, “Civil rights will no longer unfairly exclude same-sex sexual harassment, and this fact will benefit all American workers.”

Members of Connecticut’s state legislature are proposing a bill that would require all insurance companies to cover the cost of prescription birth control. Currently, half of all insurance companies in the United States deny payment for contraception. The proposal would require major plans to pay for birth control pills, intrauterine devices, diaphragms, Norplant and Depo Provera.

State Sen. Adela Eads, the Republican minority leader in the Senate, said “It is time to treat the medical needs of women and men equally.”

Supporters of the bill said that the measure would save money in the long-term, since many poor women cannot afford to buy birth control. The American Journal of Public Health reported that the annual cost for birth control under insurance companies would be $422, one-tenth the cost for prenatal care and delivery.

Violence against gays, lesbians and bisexuals is increasing, according to a survey published by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. The survey reported 2,445 documented anti-gay attacks, a 2 percent increase over 1996, and 18 murders in 1997. The survey documented 14 areas across the United States, including New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Researchers worry that the increase in attacks is the result of increased publicity of homosexuals through coverage of the Atlanta bombing of a gay nightclub and the popular TV show “Ellen.” Gay Men and Lesbians Opposing Violence, a D.C. group, issued their own report documenting 86 hate crimes in 1997, a 25 percent increase over 69 attacks in 1996. GLOV officials claim that the figures probably represent only a portion of actual attacks.

Rick Rosendall, president of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance, commented “The very people who are targeted are often least likely to report it …. People who are closeted are very unlikely to report anti-gay harassment or violence.”

The Bureau of Prisons has agreed to increase its sexual harassment training and provide psychiatric and medical services to inmates who have been assaulted. Prison authorities will also institute a confidential system that will allow inmates to report attacks within the next six months and will stop housing women in the men’s Secure Housing Unit.

The agreement is part of a settlement from a lawsuit filed in August 1996 by three female inmates who charged that they were raped, attacked and sold by guards to male inmates for sex. The women, Robin Lucas, Valerie Mercadel and Raquel Douthit, sued prison authorities in Dublin, California, claiming that the officials knew about the sex-ring and did nothing, even after the women contacted them with their stories.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Geri Lynn Green said, “These women were being sold like sex slaves …. The guards took money from inmates in return for access to the women.”

The women will be paid a total of $500,000 in damages. The prison officials charged with committing the crimes quit or lost their jobs, but did not receive additional punishment.

Abortion rights activists argued against a Virginia law requiring parental consent before a minor can obtain an abortion, before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday. Simon Heller of the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, argued that the law is unconstitutional because it denies mature girls the right to decide what is best for them and does not guarantee a speedy judicial decision or confidentiality of court records.

Heller argued, “If men had to travel to another state to buy condoms or to have surgery, people would be outraged …. This really is an attempt by the Virginia General Assembly to interfere with young women’s ability to get abortions.”

Chief Judge of the 4th Circuit Court, J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a noted conservative, disagreed with Heller. Wilkinson commented on the law, “The statute seemed to me to present a very mild and moderate form of regulation.”

A ruling by the appeals court is expected as early as next week.

Feminist News Stories on Abortion

Women’s rights activists met at the U.N. headquarters in New York to address the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women. The group issued a signed statement, declaring “Heads of state must go on record to all the world about how they will take leadership in making violence against women in daily life unacceptable.”

Activists testified that governments do not enforce laws that prohibit violence against women, and that judges often dismiss the cases and blame the victim. Sheila Dauer of Amnesty International said that in some countries police have looked on while women were being attacked, and sometimes assaulted the women themselves.

Members of the panel discussed crimes against women during the wars in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, and the current violations of women’s human rights by the Taliban militia group in Afghanistan.

Participants included members from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Federation of Women Lawyers, Rutgers University’s Center for Women’s Global Leadership and a group that is lobbying for an International Criminal Court.