From the President
Sue Straus
07/29/2009
Welcome to the latest newsletter from Working Women’s History Project (WWHP).
I invite all of you to join WWHP at our upcoming “Women and the Law” event. To get more details check out the article and flyer in the pages of this newsletter.
I’d like to point out some important issues facing women today and actions that you can take.
While attending the National Organization for Women’s (NOW) annual conference which this year was held in June in Indianapolis, Indiana NOW joined in a coalition in front of a local CVS on June 18th. The protest mentioned that CVS was aware of the problems yet continued the practice of selling out – of – date items, including formula, medicine and food. Also, at the protest I participated in there was also a call for the CVS to unlock condoms. (protests were held around the country).
It is a good policy to check out the expiration date of anything you purchase from any store you shop at. For more information and what actions you can take go to Coalition Protest CVS drugstore practices which showed protests held in several cities.
At the end of the NOW conference one of the resolutions passed was to rededicate the organization to work on passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) with support for the three state strategy and the “do over” strategy. The three states method would be the continuation to ratify the ERA under the prior bill which fell three states short of ratification after a time – limit for ratification was passed on the bill. The point here is to declare that a time limit is unconstitutional, which only the court can decide.
Representative Carolyn Mahoney (D – NY) reintroduced the ERA to start the process over in July of 2009. Maloney stated, “Women have made incredible progress in the past few decades, but laws can change, government regulations can be weakened, …The only way for women to achieve equality in the United States is to write it into the constitution.”
For further information you can go to Alice Paul Institute which gives an excellent history on the ERA.
Health care reform. This issue really gets me heated when I hear politicians against single – payer and wanting the government out of the lives of its citizens. I do not want the insurance company to dictate who I see, or anything else. To see what you can do, go to Women Employed website, Call, Visit or write your congress person that you are watching and that you do not want a water-down bill.
There are other issues of importance as well. What I would like to see is people opening their homes for discussion of topics ranging from Housing to text books, Do stay up – to – date in your local area for any steps to erode or enrich the rights of workers and women as well as what is in the news on the national level.