The UCLA Center for the Study of Women held a forum Wednesday
with four nonpartisan female speakers who discussed why they
believe women’s issues are an important part of the upcoming
presidential election.
The forum also highlighted the role played by women in the
political process, which many in attendance believe is
significant.
Elena Ong, a member of the California Commission for Women,
spoke about the power in numbers women possess.
Women make up 51 percent of the population and 53 percent of the
vote, and Ong believes women can “determine the outcome of
the election.”
But she also believes women can be their own worst enemy if they
polarize the issues of gay marriage and abortion rights. She added
that women have to make sure they bring the right issues to the
table.
Many of the speakers agreed that the same conflicts have been
talked about for the past 30 years.
“Abortion and gay marriage sandwich social issues. … The
women’s movement backed itself into a corner with no
reasonable platform,” said Ellen DuBois, a UCLA professor of
history.
“Choice is strikingly absent from this election; it is so
narrow, so specialized, (especially) when the planet is at
stake,” DuBois added.
To solve these problems, women must do more than just vote, said
Joyce Appleby, a UCLA professor of history.
“The most important thing women can do today is think,
express and act as national leaders, not part of a group,”
Appleby said.
Having more women representatives in elected positions was a
topic all the speakers agreed upon.
“Women must run for offices of power, whether as a CEO or
elected official. … If we don’t have power, we don’t
have power to vote,” Ong said.
The speakers kept in mind that there are still elected women
officials who do not agree with the majority on issues concerning
women.
“There are implications when the wrong women get into
power,” Appleby said. “Do we want them to have power if
they don’t think the way we do?”
Much of the discussion revolved around determining why political
power is found in the hands of officials who do not properly
exercise it.
In the 2000 election, there were 38 million women eligible to
vote who did not.
“It was a striking thing that happened in Florida,”
said Carole Pateman, a UCLA professor of political science,
referring to the problems Florida encountered in the 2000
election.
She added that countries outside the United States had the story
all over their papers, but there was “not a word” in
the U.S. news.
Many of the important issues at stake in this election deal with
countries outside the United States.
An example offered was the Mexico City Policy, which is known as
the “Global Gag Rule” by its opposers.
The policy, which passed in 2001, puts restrictions on programs
that give foreign countries the chance to apply for federal money
to go toward family planning assistance.
“These federal dollars cannot be used to promote a family
planning agenda … or to deal with AIDS; (there is) no talk of
birth control or condom use,” said Regina Lark, assistant
director for the CSW and moderator of the event.
“Do you know what this is going to do to women’s
lives? It’s a genocide,” she added.
The women’s movement has been fighting for equality for
over a century, and it plans to continue beyond the presidential
election next week.
“We left a legacy as feminists. Women fought 72 years
before they got the right to vote; they ran for president before
they got the right to vote,” Ong said. “That is how
they got the right to vote.”