Women face discrimination because of disabilities, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and age as well as sex. How can we confront our own internalized -isms to work together as a powerful coalition of women fighting for change? Take part in a workshop exploring issues of diversity. Take steps to make your chapter inclusive and accessible to all women.
Presenters: Renee Berry-Huffman, Tobi Hale, MSW, Tia Plympton, Ph.D.
In this workshop, participants will discuss the history of women's struggle for the right to abortion, and plan strategies for fighting the latest tactics to chisel away at this basic right, such as the recent trend in Catholic hospital mergers that threatens to limit access to reproductive health care and new legislation designed to increase lawsuits against doctors.
Presenters: Carolyn Moncrief, Terry O'Neill, Dr. Fleur Sack, Destry Taylor
Social security has become a central point of contention in the 2000 elections. How will proposed changes help or hurt women? Older women are twice as likely as men to be poor. Still, Social Security has kept many older women and people with disabilities out of dire poverty. Participants will talk about ways to preserve and strengthen social security for women.
Presenters: Alexa Hendley, Catherine Hill, Latifa Lyles, Heidi Sternheim
You've got a great feminist candidate. Now, how can you find potentially supportive voters and decide which ones will actually vote to elect your candidate? Ask them, of course! Get lists of registered voters. Then by phone and on foot, talk to them, rate them, persuade the persuadable–and plan your victory party.
Presenters: Julia Dawson, Michelle Devine
Room: Imperial II, Level IV
Susie's a NOW activist, a great candidate, and your chapter wants to elect her. Where do you start? What are the main jobs and what skills are needed to do them? Take part in a simulated campaign team meeting–or a real one if you've identified a real candidate you want to elect–and develop the outlines of a plan.
Presenters: Wanda Alston, Kathy Austin, Judy Murphy
Domestic partnership and same-sex marriage legislation and litigation may provide a vehicle for challenging some of our most oppressive social structures as they connect the profoundly personal with the political. What has been left out in recent domestic partnership and civil unions efforts? How can they serve to challenge the patriarchal foundations of our society?
Presenters: Kim Gandy, Judy Murphy, Nadine Smith
With the enactment of Title IX, we took great strides toward gender equity in sports and education. However, although an estimated 80% of schools are not in compliance with the law, a conservative backlash threatens continued progress. NOW has resolved to lash back at these attacks. Participants will review recent efforts to keep Title IX in place and outline means to safeguard it.
Presenters: Andrea Lee, Hannah Riddering, Elizabeth Toledo
Dressed as measures to help poor men become better fathers, bills in Congress like the Fathers Count Act are really measures that would endanger battered women while funding our opponents. This workshop will engage participants in a discussion of the so-called "fathers' rights movement" and how feminists can unmask its agenda and work to protect mothers under attack.
Presenters: Gloria Woods, Carolyn Moncrief, Jan Erickson
More women are homeless and poor in the U.S. than ever before. Corporate downsizing, the globalization of capital, welfare reform, and poverty wages exacerbate the problem both in our country and abroad. In this workshop, participants will discuss economic justice for women, especially as it impacts us across lines of diversity, and brainstorm strategies for action.
Presenters: Sherry Leiwant, Cheri Honkala, Candy Kern, Karen Johnson
With the recent Brzonkala decision, the Supreme Court reconfirmed that women are denied fundamental rights under the constitution. Feminists have fought for generations to achieve constitutional equality–and the fight goes on into this new century. This workshop will present various perspectives on strategies to obtain this basic guarantee.
Presenters: Jennifer MacLeod, Ellie Smeal, Debra Northart
The younger the people, the more likely they are to support feminist issues and the less likely to register and vote. And with today's busy lifestyles, who has time to vote anyway? Share strategies with organizers who've made them work, whether it's registering and turning out students or working on an absentee ballot drive.
Presenters: Angela Arboleda, Candi Churchil, Sarah Martin
Room: Imperial II, Level IV
Some candidates' hearts are in the right place, but they're listening to the same old party consultants or they're afraid of hot-button wedge issues and don't know what to say about them. Learn how to interview and move candidates our direction on issues, how to overcome objections and sell NOW's issues
Presenters: Linda Berg, Hannah Olanoff
Where can you find the 50% plus one votes needed to win a race? Using a hypothetical district and candidate, participants in this hands-on, two session workshop will be coached through their own analysis of past voting patterns, demographics, party registration and the like to identify precincts to prioritize.
Presenter: Janet Canterbury
The threat of gender-based violence—often at the hands of people who supposedly love us—lurks in the shadows of women's and girls' awareness across cultures. This workshop will address violence against women within and across our many differences of race, physical ability, age, sexuality, and nationality, as we seek autonomy and safety.
Presenters: Chris Myers, Pat Reuss, Martina Pickett
Our Watch Out! Listen Up! campaign found that women have reason to be dissatisfied with our portrayal on prime time TV. Magazines, newspapers and the worldwide web also contribute to a culture that prescribes a very narrow standard for women. In this workshop participants can strategize for further media activism to change the face and body of the media.
Presenters: Helen Grieco, Donna Hazley, Galen Sherwin, Ellie Klimas
Women are the poorest of the world's poor. The majority of the 1.5 million people living on less than $1 a day are women. And an estimated 1 of every 3 women around the globe suffers physical violence. This workshop provides the opportunity to discuss and mobilize action around issues at the heart of the World March of Women 2000.
Presenters: JC Chayer, Cheri Honkala, Karen Johnson
Court decisions and ballot measures striking down affirmative action have galvanized the fight for equal opportunity. But the myth that we have achieved economic parity thrives in spite of the wage and wealth gap across lines of sex, race and ethnicity. In this workshop activists will discuss what to do about affirmative action in this era of conservatism and complacency.
Presenters: Mandy Carter, Thelma Jones, Linda Berg
Our private insurance system works against women, who are disproportionately temporary and part-time workers, single custodial parents, the elderly and the poor. Research on women's unique health issues, and on the ways diseases and drugs affect women differently from men has been slow. Join a discussion on ways to achieve quality health care for all women.
Presenters: Jenny Brown, Diane Galienda, Leslie Gomberg, Nancy Klimas
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Okay, you've got your feminist candidate, you've identified those likely
to vote for her, and made sure they're registered. Now
it's election day, and you've got to actually get them to the polls.
Brainstorm election day get-out-the-vote ideas and put together a plan
with experienced political organizers.
Presenters: Robin Davis, Jean Hardin, Carolyn Moncrief
Room: Imperial II, Level IV
You can do everything else right in an election campaign and still not win if you don't have an effective voter ID and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) plan. Participants will work in a simulated campaign team (or a real one if your chapter's working on a real race) to create a GOTV plan for a hypothetical or real candidate and district.
Presenters: Anne Gannon, Elizabeth Toledo
Where can you find the 50% plus one votes needed to win a race? Using a hypothetical district and candidate, participants in this hands-on, two session workshop will be coached through their own analysis of past voting patterns, demographics, party registration and the like to identify precincts to prioritize.
Presenter: Janet Canterbury
Want to make waves and grab the attention of elected officials? Make change happen by staging actions to raise awareness of feminist issues in your community. This workshop will help participants develop a step-by-step process to plan successful actions, from figuring out how to get started and setting measurable goals to post-action debriefings.
Presenters: Amy Meedel, Candy Kern, Toni Van Pelt, Bear Atwood
How do you grow the feminist movement? You can use actions to build your chapter better and faster than any other means. Explore as a group how to attract new activists, increase your visibility and build your bank account through attention-getting actions around key issues. Discuss what has worked and develop new strategies.
Presenters: Loretta Kane, Kim Gandy, Susannah Northart
Women's equality doesn't mean much if it doesn't include all women. Coalition-building across differences is necessary to win change. Workshop participants will explore strategies for building diversity at all levels in our organization. Find out how to reach out to communities not represented, or under-represented, in your chapter or state.
Presenters: Helen Jiminez, Rhoda Bradshaw, Angela Arboleda
Make the media work for you! Participants will discuss approaches to reaching the public through print and broadcast media, as well as new media such as the World Wide Web. Workshop facilitators will share their experiences in activism that will shape the media and get our events and message on the air and over the Internet.
Presenters: Colleen Dermody, Vanessa Salinas
You may be surprised to find that you are not the only activist in the conservative or rural area where you live. Learn how others have tackled the isolation of being a feminist in a difficult environment. Participants will describe ways to identify and organize movements of resistance–even in stomping grounds such as George Bush's Texas!
Presenters: Linda Sievers, Debra Northart, Kim Villanueva
Organizing on high school and college campuses can be extremely rewarding and energizing. Young feminists bring new perspectives and priorities into the movement. The next wave of activists may require different approaches. Discover how to tap into campuses to develop new chapter activists or create new chapters.
Presenters: Jeanne Cashen, Nicki Murray, Maxine Tuchman, Martha Fugate
Room: Imperial I, Level IV
Raising money doesn't have to be a grind. Get creative! Take part in a session of conceptual blockbusting. Workshop facilitators bring a wide range of experience in political and organizational fund raising. Bring your questions, ideas, and examples of fund raising methods you've used to share with the group.
Presenters: Jan Allen, Liz Gilchrist, Latifa Lyles, Elizabeth Volz
Local organizing is the key to NOW's grassroots success. Your chapter probably has community connections you haven't tapped yet. Who has the power to shape policy in your community? Who knows whom in your local or state government and other activist groups? Expand your power and influence.
Presenters: Terry O'Neill, Billie Woodard
You don't have to burn yourselves out trying to do it all with the same small group of chapter activists. Attracting new members is one of the most important actions local organizers can take. Building and maintaining our grassroots reinforces our foundation. Learn some old and new techniques to help with membership recruitment and retention.
Presenters: Connie Hannah, Barbara Hays, Marian Watkins
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