- Good evening. Welcome to "Feminist Perspective". The purpose of these programs is not only to provide a forum for women to speak publicly on issues of concern to them. But to help inform other women and men of the movement, which is remaking the shape and substance of women's and men's lives throughout the world. Our format consists first of discussion by our guest panelists on a topic of interest to women. And second, an opportunity during the last 15 minutes for listeners to participate, by calling with comments or questions. Our number is 864-4530. This program is sponsored by the Women's Resource and Career Planning Center located in the Dean of Women's Office. We invite you to call our office at any time, for information or to inform us of your concerns. Better yet, come in person to talk or to use our expanding Women's Library in 220 Strong Hall. Our topic tonight are the resolutions of the Intercollegiate Association of Women Students made last week at their national convention. And our panelists are Casey Ikee, a senior in the college of liberal arts and sciences, and the recent past president of the Intercollegiate Association of Women Students. Mary Ward, a senior in the school of journalism. And Karen Sweeny, Assistant Dean of Women. All the three of these women attended the National Convention of the Intercollegiate Association of Women Students. Casey, in way of review, because we mentioned this last week, would you tell us once again briefly what is the composition of the Intercollegiate Association of Women Students? - Yes, the Inter- IAWS, as we usually call it, is the only national women's student association in the United States. It offers membership to any women's group or organization which supports the purposes of IAWS, as a bonafide student organization. So, we represent membership all across the country, and in numbers, I suppose, we usually say that we represent over 200,000 college-age women. - Do the rest of you have any comments on this organization? As such, they have an annual convention, you know. And it was at this convention that various commitments were made in the name of women and women students. Are these just idle resolutions passing? How do you view the passing of resolutions at a convention? - I guess I can speak best about that Dean, being the president last year. The commitments of the organization, which were adopted last year at the convention, were the only kind of guidelines that I had to go on, to carry out the programs and the beliefs and philosophies and in order to represent the association. So they're essential for at least the president and the people who are trying to, you know, go about social and political change. - How about the local organizations like ours? Mary do they make any use of these commitments? - Well, I think they can. I'm most familiar, for instance, with residence halls. And it seems to me that wherever they're having resolutions passed that urge the various organizations, encourage their administrations and schools to treatment of women equally. Now, as I said, my biggest concern has been residence halls. They could say, well, how come, if men and women are being treated differently, for instance, how come women have curfew hours? Whereas men do not. Or how come women have to live within residence halls, whereas men do not. They could say, we have this nationalization of regional stature that has lasted, what, almost 50 years now, is that right? - Yes. - Who says, this is, you know, this is nonsense. You know, there is a national group that agrees with this. And this could be one way that I could see- - There were, there have been a great many women students groups who have done just that. As a way of getting rid of differential regulations. - I think they can be used, really, as a way of encouragement and kind of a support for different areas of concern for any college-age group, which is associated with IAWS. Whether we're urging the President of the United States to sign kind of legislation, which we did this year when they were talking about child care. Whether we're talking about individual campus, academic, social concerns. Any of these things can be supported in some way by these resolutions. - How about our local member group here. Have they made any use of it in their programming, for example? - Well, I think that, for instance last, you know, I think that they use them as directions for instance. They, you know, become the, the group here has become somewhat more program-oriented. Which I believe is one of the resolutions that was passed last year. That just because a group gets rid of their curfew hours doesn't mean that it disbands. - Yeah, to develop a collegiate commission on the status of it instead of after you're through with differential regulations and things like that, to go ahead and organize it, a program-oriented association. The one that they, the example that I can think of, that comes to mind the quickest, because it's been most successful I suppose, is the Equal Right Amendment. And the support that the KU Commission, also many commissions and IAWSs and women's self-governing associations all over the country worked very, very hard on. And I think that's one thing that we can at least see, you know, has done some good. - I have a copy of last year's, this is the 1971 resolution on this subject, saying that, "the IAWS endorses with full knowledge that it increases the rights and responsibilities of women, the Equal Rights Amendment, which states equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." And then they went further in another resolution and said, "given whatever selective service system prevails IAWS supports the involvement of women equally with men and the responsibilities, requirements and rights inherent in that system." Casey, has anybody else, besides you and the IAWS, made use of that? - You mean other organizations? - Um-hm. - Women's organizations? - Made use of your resolution? - Well, yes. For example, in the house judiciary hearings last summer, I received a copy, we submitted our testimony, which included those two resolutions you just read, to the house judiciary hearings. And also when I was sent the book that included the hearings I noted that in seven different testimonies IAWS was mentioned, which pleased us very much, so. - Then the new book put out by the Citizen's Advisory Council called "Women 1971", I'd note again that IAWS is mentioned in relationship to this item and listed among the supporting organizations. And you're certainly right, it has been successful as far as the passage where the Congress is concerned. Was there a resolution this year then, concerning it? Or is that battle all won? - Well, I think it was interesting to note that not only one of our case speakers was speaking about this, Martha Griffiths, as we mentioned last week, talks about the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. And also, in the resolutions, this was again mentioned. And the resolutions read this year, "the IAWS pledges its support to all efforts to ensure rapid ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and adopts the following action plans." And I think this is a good example of seeing results of a resolution. And then picking up that resolution and trying to carry it out and further plans for action. - What are some of the action plans- - I was just going to say, I'd like to go ahead and talk about some of the action plans. We continue in this resolution, "every member school organizations shall one, coordinate with the Coalition of Women's Organizations which are formed for the purpose of expediting state ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Two-" - Wait just a minute now, what does that mean? That they're urging them to do, to form coalitions? Are those, are coalitions being formed, that you know of? - Well, there are many state women's political caucuses, which I'm sure will be working on this. And there are many different women's groups such as the Business and Professional Women's local organizations, and the American Association of University Women's group's local organizations. And there are many groups like this, that will have much more political clout if they would band together and promote a certain issue. - I think some of us who were in to Topeka the day that it was passed in Kansas, noted that this is a very, very important issue. And I was particularly pleased to see that this was included in the resolution because there were a few of us from KU and then there was one women's group from Wichita that appeared and those were the only women's organizations that were able to rally in time to get there. And I think it's very important for this kind of thing to occur. - So if you have a coalition you can operate much faster. - That's right. - These things come up. You certainly don't know exactly when they are going to come up. And is it possible to help you influence when things do, when things do occur? - I think it certainly is. I think it's vital for people to become aware and then to inform other people outside the coalition. - I think it was interesting at the convention, this ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment wasn't enough of an interest to students that a special meeting was held. And a good deal of discussion, just casual discussion, was about it. And the thing I like about this resolution is that it gives some definite ways to do this. And it just doesn't say support all efforts, but it says, incidentally, these are good ways to work it. Which I think, one thing that we have come to be aware of, and I was aware of when I went to Topeka, was that we are somewhat politically naive. And this particular resolution does give a little bit of aid to those who don't know. - What else did they suggest as action plans? - Another one is, "to correspond with state legislators to urge immediate ratification and contact other campus groups to take similar actions." Now that, which, extends it to any other group that would possibly be interested or could do something in this area. Another action is to, "encourage all women of the campus community to contact legislators in writing and in person to urge immediate attention to the ratification." And also another one is, "to encourage students, faculty and staff to establish campus task forces for developing plans and policies for compliance with the Equal Rights Amendment." - So that's going beyond the passage- - Yeah that's after. - That's after the passage, isn't it? - And to go ahead and make plans to operate under. What about, what else has to be done after the ratification of the amendment itself? - I think that the state laws are going to have to be looked at. And see where they do not correspond within the spirit of the amendment itself. And I think that it's not only in terms of where they slight women, but where they slight men. Men are to gain a great deal out of this and I think, in some cases, there was more argument about how much men would gain at the Kansas legislature than about how much women would gain, which I suppose is understandable. Since the legislature was so heavily populated- - I think for many states, this means that this is just the beginning of lots and lots of work. And in talking with the women at the convention we noted that some of the states represented, they have a great deal of discrepancy in rights for men and women. And I think it's going to be a time-consuming thing for many states to get their laws in order. - Somewhat, I understand that they're already engaged in that third process. Because there were states that got ahead of others in terms of passing resolutions concerning it, and went right ahead. In fact, Pennsylvania, you know, passed an Equal Rights Amendment, to its own constitution. So, although in Kansas, so then we're at the third stage. The stage of studying the laws. Since we've already had the amendment ratified. - When was that ratified, do you remember? - Tuesday before the convention. - I believe it was, what, March 28th. Something like that. - Would have been March 28th. Just a week after, after the- - Right. - Congress passed it. - So Kansas was about the 5th state to- - We were the 7th. - 7th. - We were the 7th state. The- We will be hearing of course a great deal more. In fact, there was an article that you may have read in the newspaper a week or so ago by a graduate student, pointing out the horrors of it all. And a wonderful answer in the paper today, that I'd call everybody's attention to, by Karen Keesley. Pointing out what Kansas has done in the past and how it was most certainly not irresponsible, as the young man said, that the legislature passed or ratified the amendment without the hearings. - Casey, I'd just kind of like to interject a question here that some of our listeners may be wondering about. How much time during the convention was really spent in drawing up the resolution? I think there are about 24 or 25 resolutions here. Which can be a time-consuming thing. How many hours did we spend? - Well, it's kind of hard to tell. Because in the first place we asked member organizations to submit resolutions to us all during the year, so that we could print them before hand and send them out and get feedback about them and have the different groups study them. And then we printed up those, and they were in the program. So they were kind of reworked by the Resolutions Committee. And then there were many resolutions that the people brought with them there. And I'm sure they were reworked. So I don't even know how long the committee spent on them. But usually they have all-night sessions. I don't know Mary, did you get to any of those meetings? - No. - But within the, just in adopting them and going over them on the floor I guess we spent about 10-12 hours I think. - I think so yeah. - Yeah. - And that's of course one of the most educational parts of the program. Because all points of you get expressed. And people become committed to whatever point of view that they have. There were more resolution, I know, this year than there were last. But in general they indicate an increasing interest in the search for equality. - I thought that they also indicated that the group is a lot more sophisticated as to what was going on nationally than, say, last year. Because there are many resolutions on legislation and what could change in the EEOC bill and the Higher Education Act and Affirmative Action programs and all kinds of things that are really kind of, you know, deep subjects. - That's right, and that's esoteric knowledge to a great many people. Although the college women were most impressive in the knowledge that they showed of what was going on in the country. The- It is time to receive the calls of anyone who cares to call us with comments or questions. Our telephone number is 864-4530. And while we're waiting, let's go on with the nature of some of the other commitments that these college women made. What other ones do you feel are particularly important? - I think a very important one is, I believe it was the first one that we passed, which reads, "The IAWS urges the President of the United States to sign the legislation, which will strengthen the powers of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and extend the coverage of the EEOC bill to state and local governments and to teachers, and to empower the EEOC to take the cases of individuals to court." The conference report on which this resolution was based, was past by the U.S. Senate on March the 6th and then passed in the U.S. House on March the 8th. And this report authorizes the EEOC or the Attorney General to seek preliminary injunctive relief for discrimination in court. And expands the coverage of Title 7 to include employees of state and local governments, educational institutions and businesses and unions with 15 or more employees or members. And at the time the Washington Report by the Women's Equity Action League was published on March the 8th, of course this was still awaiting presidential signature, but I assume by now he has passed it. Since he had only 10 days to do otherwise. - So it's really quite an extension of, of this bill or the powers of the, the Equal Opportunity Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And that coverage of educational institutions of course including our own and local governments including all public institutions that are part of the government. And the right of EEOC to take cases directly to court themselves. Now in the past they were limited to requesting the Attorney General to do it. He still can of course, but they don't have to wait for him. - Did we have time to urge the president to do this? To sign it? Did IAWS have and opportunity to send any kind of document to the president? - We have to check with the Executive Director and see if she did that and got it there before he signed it at least. But at least it expresses that it would be done. This would be normal procedure, wouldn't it, to carry that out. If the commitment says to urge the president or to urge the legislature to do something, well then this is done. Through telegrams and letters. - Will this extension then take the burden off the individual to go to court? Will it help the individual in that? - Oh yes, because they can file class action cases that would refer to everybody in that class. Like all elementary school teachers or all household workers. Any one person they can do it, or they can do it for one person. In the name of one person, but it's still, I'd say, a class action. What other ones are particularly interesting to you that show the direction of the young people's thinking? - I was interested, there were a few that, what they were urging was that women get involved not only in the organizations but in the decision making parts of the organization. For instance, one says, "IAWS urges that each major department in the federal government actively recruit and hire qualified women on all policy making levels." Another urges women students to, "become fully involved as participating members in the decision making processes on hiring, dismissal, promotion and tenure at their colleges and universities." And still another urges that, "their member organizations become actively involved in the formation and implementation of Affirmative Action programs." And so it's not, what it becomes is that they're saying that, yes it's very fine that we were in the organizations but now we're going to get into the offices of these organizations and become something more than the people filling the chairs. Which I think is an important difference. It's fine to have a large population in there, but- - And some of these that you cited, these examples, are also evidence that they are saying, not only for ourselves, but for other women. - Yes. - We're going to, we're going to do these things. And become involved in the decision making processes. - I think- - What other ones? - Well, just in following with that idea of the women's organizations becoming involved with not only themselves but with others was another resolution, which encouraged its member schools to recognize the need for communication and action with community organizations. And that they may cooperatively initiate improving projects. So, I think that the organization was recognizing women have interests other than just women's rights. You know, which is important. And it welcomes all other facets of what interests women. - The one, for example, endorsed the AAUW standards for women in higher education. That's American Association of University Women, and says, and urges or endorses, "the continuation of work on a joint statement with the AAUW and other educational organizations to strengthen the standards for women." Has the IAWS been involved with this Casey? - Yes, about late last year we began a group which included the National Association of Women Deans and Counselors, National Student Association, - The AAUP? - Yes. - The American Association of University Professors? - Yes, with many groups to come out with a joint statement on Affirmative Action programs. So that's another example of kind of coalitions that we were talking about before. - What does the AAUW standards include? - Well, mainly it includes the processes and procedures for establishing an Affirmative Action program, and what different areas an Affirmative Action program must have in order to qualify as a- - And there are concerns with students, with women faculty, with women employees - Employees. Civil Service. - Civil Service. It's a really- - It's a very good document. - It'll probably turn out to be the best document as an example that we'll have. Right now, you know, there aren't any model programs. So every school, every institution is trying to think of each thing for itself. And this is an extremely difficult thing to do. And Casey touched on this. Did you attend a previous convention, Mary? Did you attend the meeting last year? - Yes, the convention, yeah. - Did you hear of any observations on any changes in the organization? - Well I was completely astounded. I think the women were different. There was just a really remarkable change. I had, I write editorials for the UDK, and I had noted that last year everybody was still talking about curfew hours and open visitation in residence halls, and I'm not saying that everybody has gotten that problem solved, but this year, people were talking about birth control clinics they had started, the child care centers they had just recently opened, and they were very seriously considering the work they were doing in their states in terms of ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. I guess you could say just the level of awareness rose sky high in just one year. I think the necessity then for an organization of this is obvious, so that we can see where each other, where we're at. - I kind of wonder if maybe last year's convention didn't partially give some other schools a boost. Because there were a few of us who were beyond some of the other concerns that the schools were discussing last year. And I think some of them went away maybe with some new ideas about things that they could become interested in. - Of course now the convention commitments from last year were hardly very loud. - That's true. - On some of those things because they had, but I'm sure it was a great deal of education that took place at the convention. I'd make another observation Mary. I saw some of the same people there. - Um-hm. - I think the people themselves, the college women themselves, have changed. Not just as a new different kinds of women that are attending the convention, but that they've grown tremendously in the course of the year. - I think that, you know, when I'm saying that I agree, that the girls themselves, the individual women themselves, grew, what I was agreeing, I think the resolutions we made last year were good, the resolutions were very progressive resolutions, but- - Occurred quite an argument, didn't they? - Yeah. - That's right, they did not pass quite as easily. But the dinner time discussions which perhaps is where you find what really people are thinking about, well, they were much more interesting to me. - As I would say, they sure agreed to great progress. Were there any that were hotly debated this year? Or did you find some, they weren't all unanimous I take it. - No. - I think really there, well there were quite a few, I guess, that were pretty unanimous, but. - What about that one on Zero Population Growth. Strongly supporting the work of Zero Population Growth. Was that one that lead to- Do you recall that one? - As I recall, there was some discussion about it because they wanted to know what were the goals of ZPG. They wanted to make sure that they were not going to force some kind of birth control on all women. What they were saying, I think the concern was fine, some women should be just the mothers of two. Some women should be the mothers of no one. And some women would make very fine mothers of much larger families. And I think that ZPG's idea of two children, I don't think that this is the intent of that group, but it does seem like they're saying everyone has to have two children. The women at the convention were thinking, well, is this taking a little bit of the individual women's- - Is this really freedom of choice? - Yeah, yeah. - I think one thing that's always hotly debated on issues like this is exactly how the wording of the resolution is going to be. And I think it's interesting that they say that, "member organizations should strongly support the work of Zero Population Growth and its efforts towards stopping the population explosion." And I think this is one way of trying to incorporate some of the different ideas that people had about ZPG and how we should go about supporting. - Um-hm. - Some others that were hotly debated were I remember, was, "IAWS strongly opposes the practices of forced sterilization and/or misrepresented experimentation on women and men for research purposes." And also, "IAWS supports freedom of sexual expression between consenting adults and urges the abolition of those laws limiting that freedom." - But that one on the opposing, for sterilization, kind of follows, very carefully, the supporting the work of Zero Population Growth. Lest anyone think that they were saying we think that every woman should have two and only two children. There was a lot of thinking that took place there. Well, I note that our time is up. I'm sorry that we've not received calls tonight, but we hope that if there are any of these that you would like to hear more about, or that you'd like to debate with anyone, we hope that you'll call our office. It's in the telephone book. And we'd be very happy to discuss these matters further with you. Thank you for listening. - This has been a "Feminist Perspective". Tune in again next week for another in this series of live programs. It's 71 degrees on Mount Oread at 7:30. This is KANU, Lawrence.