by Jeanne Clark, Jan 20, 1999

President Clinton's State of Union (SOTU) speech reminded us of the good old days of the 1992 campaign, when Clinton was reaching out to women voters, promising "a cabinet that looked like America." Once again, Clinton was speaking to us, using our language and our issues.

Just as in 1992, his speech wasn't perfect, particularly his praise for welfare reform and accelerating the military buildup -- but is was far better than we expected. He talked about how important it was to save Social Security for elderly women. He spoke strongly for making equal pay for women a reality through fair pay legislation -- and got his only vociferous bipartisan standing ovation. He called for guaranteed access to family planning. He spoke of the need for increasing the minimum wage. He called for expanding Family and Medical Leave. He called for ratification of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. He urged an end to child labor, worldwide. He praised Rosa Parks, and highlighted Hillary's work to restore and protect Harriet Tubman's home. And most astonishing of all, he called for -- to rousing applause, at least from the Democrats -- passage of the Employment Non- Discrimination Act and Anti-Hate Crimes Legislation, specifically calling for protection against bias due to sexual orientation.

Yes, it seemed like old times, and not just on Clinton's part. The Republicans responses -- both on the floor and in the official response -- were churlish, to say the least. At least a dozen Republican House members refused to attend this Constitutionally mandated message, and others walked out as the President began his speech. So much for their commitment to civility and bipartisanship. While Jennifer Dunn, the first half of the official Republican response team, played nice, Christian Coalition 100 percenter Steve Largent gave his supporters reason to cheer. He attacked women's right to abortion specifically and towed Pat Robertson's line generally, including maintaining that our nation's principle of freedom comes from God (we must have missed that part in Con Law class). And we couldn't help but wonder how Steve Largent's mother feels when he thanks her for having raised him alone by referring to his home as "broken." (What happened, an earthquake, mine subsidence, a giant housebreaking machine?)

ACTION:
President Clinton responded to our requests, and made sure that the State of the Union included women. Thank him by emailing your comments to him at president@whitehouse.gov.

Women's Equality Summit -- and
Women Leaders Online / Women Organizing for Change national meeting

The purpose of the Summit is to bring together leaders and members of the National Council of Women's Organizations (NCWO), made up of over 100 groups representing millions of women nationwide.

This will be the first time in many years that so many women leaders will be gathered in Washington. And we hope to make a big impression!

Participants in the Summit will educate themselves -- and their Senators and Representatives -- on the NCWO Agenda:

1. Protecting Social Security and ending disadvantages to women in Social Security
2. Securing affordable, quality child care as a national priority for all who need it
3. Improving access to health care by increasing funding for family planning, requiring contraception insurance coverage, enacting patient bills of rights, removing gender bias from Medicare and Medicaid, ending restrictions to abortion access, and increasing funding for the protection of and enforcement of measures to counter anti-abortion clinic terrorism
4. Supporting the ratification of the United Nations Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) by the Senate, and measures to oppose gender apartheid in Afghanistan
5. Supporting Fair Pay legislation
6. Ending hate violence against all citizens and supporting the Hate Crimes Prevention Act

Women Leaders Online, which is a member of NCWO, has played a key role in organizing this Summit, and we want it to be a huge success. So we hope you will come!

If you would like to attend the Summit as a representative of WLO, please complete the following form and e-mail it to wlo@wlo.org with the subject "Summit."

You must be a contributing member of WLO, so if you have not made a contribution recently, please follow the instructions at the bottom of this message. We will check our records and let you know whether your application has been approved. There is no fee to attend the Summit, but you must arrange your own transportation and lodging.

In addition to the Summit, we will also hold the first Women Leaders Online/Women Organizing for Change national meeting. If you would like to meet your WLO/WOC sisters and brothers, this is your chance.

For more information, visit http://wlo.org/summit.

Women's Equality Summit Application
Name:
E-mail:
Address:
City:
State:
Zip:
Employment:
Involvement with Women's Organizations:

You may email your registration form to wlo@wlo.org or fax to 202-364-3018.

AND NOW, A NOTE FROM OUR SPONSOR:

If you have not yet become a member of Women Leaders Online, we really need your support. Your contribution of $100, $50, $25, $10 -- or whatever you can spare -- will help keep our financially-challenged but dedicated staff paid and our alerts flying across the Net.

In addition, contributing members are entitled to participate in our interactive e-mail discussion lists, including WLO-News, WLO-Media, and many state lists -- visit http://wlo.org/ and press "Discuss" for details.

So please send your contribution today to: Women Leaders Online, PO Box 11019, Washington DC 20008, with your e-mail address on your check. You can also contribute securely by credit card by visiting our web site and clicking on the credit card icon.

Jeanne Clark, Executive Director
Rhonda Lees, Deputy Director
Lisa Castagnozzi, Project Director