Tuesday, March 5th at 12:30pm, UMass Amherst Student Union Ballroom
Post your question for Terry O’Neill about present and future challenges for NOW or feminism below. Use the links above for information about Alice Rossi and directions to the event.
From your experiences, do you believe that women’s organizations, such as NOW, have more political sway in the reproductive rights debate than heterogeneous interest groups?
One popular misconception about feminism seems to be that it exists to promote female supremacy at the expense of men. (AKA: the feminism vs. “humanism” or “egalitarianism” debate.) What can we, as feminists, do to reframe this argument and more adequately demonstrate the ways in which everyone benefits from feminism–– not just women?
What do you think about the recent blast of publicity surrounding the 50th anniversary of Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique,” much of which had headlines like “The Failure of Feminism.” What are the demographics of NOW’s current membership? Is NOW attracting young people of diverse racial, class, sexual and gender identities–is it seen as relevant?
Racial divisions among women have always been a challenge for feminism and is often a fault line along which access to healthcare, abortion rights, birth control, sex discrimination, and economic justice fall. What is NOW doing to move promoting diversity and ending racism from a catch phrase to an action item?
I am often conflicted with the phrase “women-friendly workplace” as I believe that workplace should ideally be friendly to all employees. I am very much interested in work-reconciliation policies and narrowing of gender wage gap, but I sometimes wonder if focusing on women’s rights overlook men’s positions in society. For example, instead of campaigning for women-friendly workplace, why don’t we strive for mother/father friendly workplace, benefits to part-time workers, and onsite career trainings, etc. If time allows, could you discuss how we as a society may accomplish feminist agenda by not over-focusing on women per se?
What is NOW doing–or what are its plans–to reach out to younger women and to working class women, and be relevant to their lives and issues? How are you–or are you planning to–get them interested and motivated in feminist issues? How do you plan to help them see that feminism is still a relevant political perspective? NOW has a old history of being accused of being elitist in its priorities; how are you bridging the social class divide in reaching working class–and poor–women?
How important are universal, affordable child care services to NOW’s current agenda?
Could you talk about your thoughts concerning NOW’s position on sexuality as a feminist issue—both its troubled history concerning the recognition of women’s relationships with women as an important part of feminism and its current position on these issues as a part of feminism?
The 2010 Affordable Care Act allows states to set up health insurance marketplaces (called exchanges) through which people who don’t have health insurance can buy it. Currently 21 states have legislation banning insurers whose policies cover the costs of abortion from participating in these exchanges, effectively denying reproductive health care coverage for millions of women. What is NOW doing to protect coverage of women’s health care issues in the wake of the 2010 Affordable Care Act?
Who do you see as NOW’s most effective allies right now? Who do you wish would get on board? What organizations or groups do you see as your opposition, blocking progress?
In this “post-feminist” and “post-racial” era, how do we as feminists get enough of a critical mass engaged in our concerns, and help create real change in the world?