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3-1-1984

Women's Center Newsletter (March 1984)

Women's Center, University of Maine Staff Women's Center, University of Maine

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Repository Citation Staff, Women's Center, University of Maine, "Women's Center Newsletter (March 1984)" (1984). Maine Women's Publications - All. 768. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/maine_women_pubs_all/768

This Newsletter is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maine Women's Publications - All by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE Gtet-r

The UMO Women’s Center exi.ts as a forum for the exchange of ideas and energy pertaining to feminism. We meet to share our experiences and knowledge on topics of feminism and through this exchange we expand our concepts of ourselves and our political consciousness. Sexism is ever present on campus. We’ve all dealt with this by tuning it out, but in this manner we are partly and passively responsible for its perpetuation. The avenue we’ve chosen to follow is to support each other in our roles as feminists and offer that viewpoint to ! the UMO community through films, £ speeches, discussions and publications.

The Umo Women’s Center and therefore this newspaper are funded by the Student Government of UMO. The opinions expressed in the newsletter of those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Women’s Center or the General Student Senate.

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> nother President Johnson_l WOMENS HEALTH: Sonia Johnson is a feminist, an * • author, a mother of four, and she is also running for President of The Personal and the Political the United States as the Citizens Party candidate. Because of her feminism, she was expelled from the Mormon Church in 1979 and divorced by her husband. . Since that time, she says "the basic change has been learning to A Statewide Symposium respect and value myself as a woman'. I am enough for myself. focusing on They tell us we shrivel and die Racism, Sexism and Classism in Health Care if we go against the system. I vf/ -—-- have thrived. The big lie was that I had to have a man to survive. " March 30th and 31st REGISTRATION: Saturday Morning Her activism has included at 9:00 in the MEMORIAL UNION chaining herself to the White Reaistration fee: $2.00 House fence after the ERA was Friday Evening, MARCH• • 30 % defeated, and many non-violent First Second "Relaxation “La Operacidn” Workshop Workshop Period" direct actions in Washington ' by Ana Maria Garcia 1:00 - 2:15 2:30 - 3:45 4:00 - 5:30 protesting both the military 101 English/Nath Building buildup and budget cuts adversely at 7:30 PM affecting women and children. A powerful documentary about Reaganomics Racism Massage Last year she fasted for 37 days sterilization abuse, particularly and and Workshoo among Puerto Rican women. Film and panel discussion. Healthcare Healthcare exism Racism, and Classism • Midwifery Women in Trust Saturday Morning, MARCH 31 | Very recently Angela Davis and a Hungry Games spoke at Colby College on "Women, r. Helen Rodriguez Childbirth World Race, and Class." This coming Memorial Union week, a South African journa­ • at 10:15 AM list and economist, Jennifer Keeping. Herbs Davis (no relation), will be Nationally known reproductive Healthy and and Films right’s activist will give a Well on a Healing addressing "Race, Sex, and Class lecture. Limited Income in South Africa" during her vis­ • it to UMO. Chemical - - • - Substance Birth .Coffee Saturday Evening, MARCH 31 Abuse Control House In the past, Racism, Sexism, and Women of and Classism (poverty, economic Karin Sp it fire Color exploitation, etc.) were treated "Incest: It's All Relative" I as separate issues, requiring ror more information: iseparate analyses and strate­ Damn Yankee CMC Yemen’s Center at 7:30 P-v University of Maine - Orono gies for change. However, these Orono, ME 04469 women and others have begun to A forty minute dance/narration, or call 581-1288 531-3365 demand the need for women and followed d • discussion. men to develop a more far-reach­ Sn Center cne ^o*nen in rtrrrul“ ing, integrated, and realistic worldview in order to bring Childcare. Provided - WVP about effective change. More specifically, they are confront­ ing the U.S. "women’s movement" at the Capital in Illinois in and are forcing us to recog­ ( support of ERA ratification. nize our own white, middle ' Her presidential campaign, has class , heterosexual biases in lincluded travel to Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras to "talk our conception of what consti­ to the people" before formulating tutes "women’s oppression." In Central American foreign policy. the process, they are also for­ She will be in Geneva March 8, cing us to realize our own ra­ International Women's Day, to cist, sexist, and ciassist at­ meet with European women and titudes . hopes to form an antinuclear alliance for world peace. With all this in mind, the Several issues that concern her UMO Women’s Center will be hold­ are related to violence: rape, ing a Statewide Health Symposium militarism, and environmental on Friday and Saturday, March 30th abuse. She views them all as and 31rst on the UMO campus. women's issues. This is Ms. Johnson's second By planning and presenting "presidential" campaign. She this symposium, we will be work­ ran for president of N.O.W. in ing with Native American, Franco- 1982, a group to which she has American and International Women belonged since 1977. She thinks in order to explore women’s N.O.W. should have withheld health care in a larger perspective; endorsement of a presidential focusing on racism, sexism and candidate in order to get more classism in the current health leverage. In general, she fears care system, making these con­ nections, and developing alterna­ the women's movement has been tive methods in health care co-opted and mainstreamed. The delivery. early endorsement of Mondale by the National Organization of Women is just one symptom. Cent, pa.4/ Angela Davis Speaks at Colby, Ms. Davis also reflected on early struggles against the oppression of black people. ANGELA DAVIS SPEAKS AT COLBY She posed the question: Who COLLEGE ON WOMEN, RACE AND benefits from the liberation CLASS :« 5 • X Ms. Davis cited as an example Who is Angela Davis? This of how freedom has been increased was a question Angela Davis the early struggles— for educa-* fl • * • herself thought needed to be answered in her recent talk She claimed that the; to a standing-room-only crowd nineteenth century women's j at Colby College given as rights movement was rooted ; part of Colby's commemoration in white women's involv^meht-'-ln ■ of Black History Month. Ange­ 1 the abolitionist movment where la Davis is a black woman, a Marxist, an ex-political pris they learned now to struggle oner, a philosophy professor, and to organize and also learn-; a founder of the National ed more about their own oppres-; sion. Eventually, these same ; a currently, the vice-presi- sisters and initiated a women' s dential candidate on the movement which ignored the ex­ 8 Communist Party's president periences and needs of the ver a ial ticket. That many col­ people for whom they had fough lege students have not heard in the abolitionist movement. of Angela Davis is simply one example of how easily history is forgotten. Indeed, much of the women's rights movement of her talk centered on the that Sojourner Truth, a former "forgotten" ‘ history of the slave and a women's rights links between the struggles activist herself, travelled to against racism and sexism women's meetings to speak on in the nineteenth and twen­ behalf of Sojour tieth centuries. She also ner Truth exposed ways m launched an attack against or people or color, or or women? which white middle class Women the Reagan Administration Those opposed to affirmative were oppressed of which they were unaware. (At these early I for its commitment to ero­ action would have us believe that ding the victories against affirmative action takes away meetings men oft$f) chaired the ; racism, sexism and economic from whites and men in order meetings!) As a former slave -J to give more of the "pie" to and as a black woman Sojourner [ those who are oppressed. Ms. Tfuth had had a different ; of these struggles. She Davis suggested that when experience of male supremacy, j called the defeat of Reagan blacks, other people of color, Many of her women's issues in the upcoming election and women achieve victories were different issues. Ms. the "most urgent immediate in the struggle for civil rights Davis said that Sojourner Truth "injected a spirit of J goal" and called for a mass the whole ^'pie" gets bigger. movement like the one which In other words, victories militancy into the women's | against human oppression bring movement". Sherefuted the | acquittal in the early 70s. more freedom to everyone. ridiculous assertions of the antifeminist men. To the men's argument that the fact that Christ was a man proved Who is Angela Davis ? that a hierarchical relation­ ship between men and women was [God's will, she responded that Who is Angela Davis? She guards, Jonathan Jackson (a Christ came from God and a was a newly hired philosophy younger brother of one of the woman, "man had nothing to do professor at UCLA in 1969 imprisoned Soledad Brothers) who was fired even before she took several of these weapons charge that it was a woman started teaching because she who brought evil intQ the was a member of the Communist entered a courtroom, pulled ou world, she retorted:"If the Partv. In 1969 and 1970 she a gun and forced the jurors, [first woman was strong enough fought prisoners, judge and District ito turn the whole world upside During this struggle she came Attorney into a van. He was to see connections between her shot down (along with two of f these women can certainly repression and that of other the prisoners) by San Quentin urn it right side up again". fclack people such as the Sole­ guards. As a result of this dad Brothers (black prisoners incident, Angela Davis was who were fraudulently charged charged with murder, conspi­ with murdering a guard in Sole- racy and kidnapping. She was hite sisters , so many con- placed on the "Ten Most Wanted emporary women's liberationisms ther Party (a black liberation- Criminals" list. She was being ave forgotten their origins in ist party which suffered mur­ scapegoated as a symbol of the derous oppression by the FBI movement for Black Liberation during the late 60s and early which was gaining momentum in the South. The struggle 70s). This was a violent at this time. She went under- against sexism wastaken up Iby blackwomen as well as Davis. She herself received Eventually she was caught and imprisoned. There- ensued their experience of sexism 5 an internationj/ "Free Angela in these 60s movements. S to teach. Security measures Davis" campaign which did Nevertheless, once the women’s were taken by UCLA and Dr. liberation movement got under­ Davis. At this time she in 1972. Once acquitted, Ms way, the rights and special purchased weapons for her own Davis helped establish the experiences of women of color began to be overlooked. Wo> n 1 NAARPR(National Alliance Agains .Racial and Political Repression), men's liberation became a / white middle class movement.^.

I As an example of this pheno­ mena Ms. Davis cited the history of the abortion rights movement * Survey* (a primarily white movement)i Ms. Davis pointed out that this is disturbing in light of the fact that those who suffered most from the criminalization of abortion were blacks, Puerto Ricans , Chicanos, and poor white women. These were the women doomed to back alley, "quack” abortionists. 90% of the women who died from botched up abortions during this period were black and Puerto Rican. Again, the particular experi- • ences and needs of women of A report, The Jlossroom Climate: A Chilly One For Women?, found thfit color and poor women were over­ faculty- both men and women- treat women students‘differently than men. looked. Moreover., many white It doesn’t happen all the time, but’when it does, women may find that their self- confidence and ambitions have been thwarted, .while men’s are women did not see the connec­ fueled. Do faculty members at UMO, through overt and inadvertent behavior tions between sterilization create a negative learning atmosphere for women? The purpose of’this survey is to see whet your experiences have. been. abuse practiced against women How often have your professors demonstrated the following behaviors of color (welfare agencies during your career at UMO? (Rate on a scale of 1 to 5- 1 being very often 5 being not at all.) could hold back payments to ®______uavp more eye contact with males than females after asking questions L° women who refused to be steri­ or during class discussion o lized after having so many o Call on males more frequently than females o o o children) and their own fight ° ______Ignore points made by women, then respond enthusiastically when o o for reproductive rights. In o b male makes the same point. o o Use sexist humor to "spice up" a dull topic* c 1977 when the Hyde Amendment o c o Divert intellectual conversations with women by making comments was passed, thereby cutting off o o about their appearance federal funds for abortions, it o Make disparaging remarks about women in general o * was again women of color and o Respond with surprise or lack of encouragement when women are o poor women who suffered. Ms. o interested in non-traditionel areas o Call men by their last names, women by their first Davis noted that sterilization o funds were not cut off at this o Address their classes as if no women were pre^ntf "Suppose your.wife") o or refers to examples of professionals as "he* only. time. o o Interrupt women more then men Finally, Ms. Davis turned to o Make helpful comments or assign lab partners in a way that implies her attack on Ronald Reagan. o o women lack .certain skilled know you girls have trouble with She referred to him as "just o equipment, so I’ll pair you up with a man) about the most sexist president Refer to women as girls o in the whole history of this o Remember that your answers should range from 1 (very often) to o 5 (not at all) country". He is the only o President who has opposed the Please fill out this very important information also ERA. He has suggested that Age Year Major College Sex if women would get out of the Other comments end experiences work force the unemployment problem would be improved. (This at a time when more than half of the women who work work because they have to.) Ms. Davis pointed out that there are predictions that by the year 2000, if present trends continue, women and their dependents will comprise nearly 100% of the poor in this country. Currently, I send to one out of three woman-head­ ed households are below the UMO Women's Center i poverty level. o o< Ms. Davis also attacked • Senior Skulls Room | Reagan’s 1985 budget. She pointed out that the priority i Third Floor IhemoricxL Union | item in the budget is clearly reflected in the $305 billion Pentagon budget. At the same Another ftesidertt Johnson ? Con<; time the Reagan administration Sonia is running as the is proposing the following cutbacks: $900 million in women are making less than 60C "the intent of Rural Housing for the Poor, dollar men make, $166 million in Housing for the Reagan is launching a vigorous Jt’the system. That is what I do. Elderly, $652 million in Aid attack on comparable pay for J^-The Democratic and Republican For Dependent Children, $600 women. I short, she claimed, million in Aid for Low .Income the Reagan administration have no motivation Students, $5.7 billion over poses a serious threat to womenji-to change the system; look at

the next five years in Medi­ vs x-s. X-A vs "1 x^. x-s. -C x^ x-s. I x-s. -sx. -S. m. xs. — x— xs. _ A r tV-S -A 4- 4— ^A^ T ’ T TZ"A ZT ✓"S 4- ” PVa ZA T 4“‘1 *7 caid. She criticized the this country. She urged that Reagan administration for making those concerned make Reagan's 23,000 members.(Summarized weapons and profits the pri­ from The Boston Globe, March 1, orities over human beings. She coming months 5 1984) also pointed out that while