Rewriting the California Democratic Party’s Platform on Women

Claremont Democratic Club, August 28, 2006

Laurie Shrage

Professor, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

ljshrage@csupomona.edu

http://www.csupomona.edu/~ljshrage/

The California Democratic Party’s 2006 platform section on “Women,” reads as follows: (http://www.cadem.org/site/c.jrLZK2PyHmF/b.1194151/k.C676/Women.htm )

“California is the proud home of pioneering women who have blazed new trails in business, entrepreneurship, culture and politics.  Democrats respect women as full partners in family and society. We proudly and vigorously support a woman's right to choose how to use her mind, her body and her time. 

As part of our commitment to empowering California women, Democrats will advocate:

• Promote equal access to training, jobs, promotion, capital, equity and contracts; 
• Support affirmative action, Equal Pay for Equal Work, Title IX, and the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); 
• Preserve confidential, unrestricted access to affordable, quality and culturally appropriate health and reproductive services, including contraception and emergency contraception, without requiring guardian, judicial, parental or spousal consent or notification;  
• Support the many lifesaving programs of the Violence against Women Act (VAWA), including the educational and preventative programs, especially for those who are at higher risk for sexual and domestic violence; 
• Increase early breast cancer detection, treatment and supportive services; 
• Enhance education and support services to women with dependent children in order to increase parenting and job skills; 
• Expand workplace rights associated with pregnancy and emergency family leave.”

This statement needs updating. The first part of the statement broadcasts the Party’s basic position on women’s rights (its values), and the second part enumerates the Party’s policies or political agenda. The DP needs to do a better job both articulating its values and providing broad policy directions that follow from them. The list above reflects a variety of historically important political battles, some less critical now than others. The over-generality of some objectives (“promote equal access to training, jobs, promotion, capital…” yes, but how?), and the over-specificity of others (“increase early breast cancer detection…” yes and also diabetes risk, pre-natal care, etc.?), render the list somewhat arbitrary and disjointed. Moreover, although mentioning Title IX, CEDAW, VAWA, and so on, will resonate with feminist activists who fought for these legislative acts, I doubt they will register with or draw allegiance from a broader spectrum of voters. If we want to reach all voters who are potentially supportive of women’s equality, then there is no need at this platform level to endorse controversial means rather than shared ends. In this regard, the mention of “affirmative action” seems unnecessarily divisive, unless the California DP really plans to take up this battle again (i.e., repeal or replace prop 209) rather than develop new strategies for opening opportunities to women—strategies not associated with “quotas” or “reverse discrimination.” In short, this page should provide a coherent statement of positions, priorities, and immediate goals, not a laundry list of demands, or references to past battles won and lost.

Also, there are few, if any, issues that are only or primarily “women’s issues.” Many issues, such as abortion, shape men’s voting patterns as much as women’s. Women voters are concerned about broad issues, such as health care, marriage rights, and education, and some voters (both male and female) are sensitive to how policies in these areas can differentially impact or socially disadvantage women. The DP needs to think less about how to appeal to women as a constituency with a presumed common interest (unlike seniors), and more about how to promote policies that appeal broadly to those who see women as deserving of the rights of full citizenship. In this regard, having a separate page titled “Women” needs rethinking (perhaps the issues on this page should be included under the “equality of opportunity” section). The Republicans are quite adept at using issues, such as abortion, same-sex marriage, and affirmative action, to draw support from moderate voters for policies that undermine women’s equality. When progressive groups react to conservative attacks by waving the flag for unpopular or seemingly radical policies, we’ve allowed the Republicans to pick and stage the battles. We need to elaborate our positions and values first, and then propose broad policy directions and priorities, in order to take control of the debate.

So, let’s stopping taking the bait conservatives offer to get us to defend policies that are highly unpopular (Roe, same-sex marriage as opposed to civil union, affirmative action) and instead let’s rearticulate our core political values, which are popular and have broad support. The real challenge is to get from these rearticulated and widely held values to policies and priorities capable of receiving broad public support.

Below I’ve taken a stab at doing this by recasting some of the issues that have been segregated onto the “women’s page” of the California Democratic Party’s platform.

Proposed Revisions/Additions:

Abortion and Birth Control

Position: it’s not about “choice vs. life,” but about balancing the two (most of the disagreement over abortion is over second trimester abortions, so let’s separate the issues of access to first trimester abortion and contraception for adult women, from that of abortion in more advanced stages of pregnancy, and from abortion for minors)

Immediate Goals:

• unrestricted access to reproductive health care that includes affordable and safe contraception and early abortion, and high quality prenatal care
• for mid-pregnancy abortions, courts should defer to legislatures about how to balance society’s interests in upholding the special value of human life and respecting individual privacy and autonomy
• for minors, create judicial bypass requirements that are feasible and practical

Marriage

Position: economic equity for women in traditional marriages and economic equity for non-traditional couples and families (women who contribute to their husband’s earning capacities and pensions, and provide unpaid labor in the home, need to have a legal right to an equitable share of those earnings and pensions after a divorce or death; benefits and privileges of marriage should be extended to non-traditional couples and families)

Immediate Goals:

• reform of state and federal marriage laws to insure economic fairness to women and fairness to non-traditional couples and families

Religion and Education

Position: respect parental authority and autonomy, while at the same time recognize that not all children have nurturing and supportive parents (although parents should have substantial rights to make decision that affect the well-being of their children, children have the right to be protected from abuse, and a right to economic support and the education they need to protect their health and function as full citizens in our society)

Immediate Goals:

• promote expanded sex and health education that is scientifically accurate
• encourage the academic study of world religions in the humanities and social science curriculum, but not in biology, physics, or medicine
• universal access to nursery school
• promote education about sexual and gender based-violence and expand services to survivors

Employment

Position: social barriers, often invisible, to women’s entry and success in public and private work places still exist (gender segregation in the work place and salary gaps provide prima facie but not conclusive evidence of sex discrimination, and need to be investigated and remedied)

Immediate Goals:

• develop and promote policies that enable parents to juggle successfully family and work responsibilities, such as flexible scheduling and dependent care leaves
• encourage employers to investigate and remedy potential gender bias in hiring, promotion, and salary levels
• encourage respect and better compensation for traditional women’s work (child care, early childhood education, housekeeping, nursing, library work, secretarial work, etc.)

Health Care

Position: health insurance should be available and affordable for all, independent of employment, marital, or dependency status (women are overrepresented among the elderly poor, and among the “temporary” or casual labor force who lack benefits such as health insurance; moreover women shoulder a disproportionate burden caring for the sick)

Immediate Goals:

• approval and implementation of state health insurance schemes that cover all citizens and residents, and that make such things as prescription drugs, mental health care, and fertility treatments affordable to low income patients

Protecting our Democracy

Position: full citizenship in a democracy means that all citizens have opportunities for political participation and leadership (women are still significantly underrepresented in the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government)

Immediate Goals:

• actively recruit women for membership and leadership in political organizations at all levels of government
• promote and support leadership and electoral campaign training institutes for girls and women

National Security

Position: today’s wars and environmental catastrophes affect millions of civilians, including women and children; we need to address and contain major threats to peace and to the global ecosystem; in doing this, we should tolerate heretical and extreme beliefs, but not acts or threats of violence, or conspiracies to commit violence or to undermine our rights and liberties

Immediate Goals:

• demonstrate our commitment to the peaceful resolution of conflict and to international cooperation
• debate and refine plans to prevent nuclear proliferation, and to promote multilateral disarmament and effective international inspections
• recognize the threat of climate change and take immediate steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to hasten the development of clean energy sources, and to reduce dependency on oil and coal
• support the International Criminal Court and its work in prosecuting war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide
• pursue and punish those who target civilians for political purposes through international police work and criminal justice systems, not by waging aggressive wars, or by imposing regime change and our political system on others
• recognize and remedy the social causes of disasters, from hurricanes to famines, and organize more adequate systems of humanitarian aid

Cultural Diversity

Position: respect diverse religious, national, gender, and ethnic customs and forms of expression, and do not tolerate bigotry or attempts to coerce obedience to any particular group’s customs, beliefs, and practices

Immediate Goals:

• tolerate veiling, private religious instruction, male circumcision (to the extent that the health risks are extremely low), arranged (but not forced) marriage, and so on, as long as they do not infringe the rights and privileges of citizens in our society
• critically evaluate and reform practices and policies that unnecessarily limit non-harmful religious, ethnic, national, and gender diversity, such as the display of religious, national, ethnic, or gender symbols or clothing (e.g., wearing headscarves or yarmulkes in public schools), restrictions on access to public accommodations and facilities (e.g., use of women’s restrooms, dormitories, or prisons by transsexual women), and the control and processing of government identity papers and records that enforce racial and sex stereotypes (especially with regard to race and sex)