LAF News

1.  AAUW Board of Directors voted to contribute funds to seven ongoing LAF cases:

2.  The Lawsuit, Dukes v. Wal-Mart has been give the OK to proceed with their gender discrimination class-action suit against the retailer Wal-Mart.

3.  Kathleen Cha, former CA President, spoke on behalf of AAUW in the military sexual assault cases Cioca v. Rumsfeld and Klay v. Panetta filed Shaw v. Panetta on behalf of 19 service members who were sexually assaulted or raped by other service members while serving their country.

Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Why didn’t she just leave?

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt — AAUW member

Picture a sere summer night in Phoenix, Arizona, circa 1982.1

I lay on a crinkly table in a cluttered ER, joking with the doc, bribing him with a promise of homemade shortbread if he could fix my face without leaving scars, looking anywhere but in his eyes, and I noticed a police officer nearby.

When I was all stitched and tidied up, I went to the cop and heard a quavering voice tell him that I wanted to press charges against my husband for assault.

The cop looked across the waiting room at him, sitting with his face buried behind his bloodied hands, his tiny mother, herself a victim, standing next to his chair, her arm around him while she stroked his head and kissed his fevered brow.

The cop looked back at me and said, “You don’t want to do that. You’ll just make him angry all over again, and it’ll be worse the next time.”

I did eventually leave my husband, taking my battered self and VW bus and just enough money for gas from Phoenix back to LA, where I lived in a friend’s basement until I recovered.

Flash forward a decade or so, to a visit to the east coast.

On the graceful terrace of a lovely home, a cocktail party was reaching into the night with storytelling. I was puttering in the kitchen, fixing myself a drink, when someone’s words wafted through the window, and they sounded something like this:

“Yeah, he beat the hell out of her. We couldn’t figure out why she didn’t just leave him.”

Forsaking my Southern social graces, I stormed outside and lambasted the speaker — in front of everyone — for telling a story that was not hers to tell, for telling it with such a damnably ignorant conclusion. Unseemly of me, I know, and she responded with her own tantrum, stormed off, and didn’t speak to me for some time.

But the question lingered in the summer breeze, flirting with the fireflies — why didn’t I just leave him? It took me years to be able to answer it, and now I know why.

Because I did, because I did leave him. And I stood at the payphone at the corner of our block in the winter night, shivering in the t-shirt I had on when he picked me up from the bed and threw me to the sidewalk outside our front door, and I discovered that the police wouldn’t do anything because I wasn’t injured (that time) and I could always stay at a motel or with friends.

But I had no money and I had no friends — because he didn’t want me to have them.

Why didn’t I leave him?

Because I did. And I was wooed back into the relationship with the promise that he had been in counseling for six months and was no longer a batterer and would live only for my forgiveness.

Why didn’t I leave him?

Because I did. And, with battered psyche in tow, I was shamed back to him with the blame for making him beat me, for ruining his life, for getting blood on his mother’s car upholstery.

Why didn’t I leave him?

Because I did, I finally did. I left him when a skinny, exhausted mama in the ER, with a passel of runny-nosed kids, that woman who just wouldn’t stop staring at me as I talked to the cop, when she came over and said, “I know what’s going on. You don’t deserve it. Come home with me. You can sleep on the sofa. …”

Instead of telling a woman in possession of nothing but a t-shirt to spend the night in a motel and call back when she’s really in trouble; instead of joking with a patient about injuries consistent with assault; instead of telling the complainant to be silent or she’ll make it worse the next time; instead of looking the other way; instead of blaming the victim; instead of accepting women’s excuses for black eyes and split lips, their lies about walking into doorways or tripping on coffee tables, their pleas that they must stay for the children; instead of all that, do this —

Say: Did somebody hurt you? You don’t deserve to be hit or kicked or strangled or thrown or belittled or terrorized. It is not your fault. It’s a crime. If somebody hurt you, let me help you. There are safe places to go and people who understand. Please let me help you.

Love,
K-B

• More than one in three women and one in four men in the United States have experienced, rape, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
• On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends every day.
• One in five female high school students reports being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner.
• IPV is the leading cause of female homicides and injury-related deaths during pregnancy?

 1 In 1982, there were few shelters for victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) and little training for police. Today, there are significantly more resources, but still many police officers — and family and friends of victims and abusers — fail to treat IPV as the crime it is, and still it is excruciatingly difficult to leave an abusive relationship.

So far this year, Congress has failed to pass an inclusive Violence against Women Act (VAWA). That means more victims are left vulnerable and unprotected. That means there are no provisions in place to help lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender victims. There are no protections for immigrant and Native American women. College campuses may not be putting in place the protections that they need to protect students. It is unacceptable. Domestic Violence Awareness Month is a time to remember, but it’s also a time to fight. Learn more about VAWA, and contact your elected officials to tell them why it’s important to you.

Good News This Week

 

                                                                                                                 HAVE   YOU   HEARD —-

Unemployment Drops to Lowest Level Since January 2009

The September jobs report, released this morning, showed that employers added 114,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate dropped from 8.1 percent to 7.8 percent, the lowest unemployment rate since January 2009. The report also revised the data from July and August to show that more jobs were added in those months than original reported.

 

U.S. Teen Birth Rate Declines

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that teenagers between 15 and 19 years of age gave birth to 329,797 children last year, the lowest number of teen births since 1946. The report also found that the teen birth rate and the teen abortion rate have decreased as well. The report attributes the decline in teen birth and abortion rates to more effective contraception use. U.S. overall birth rates have also dropped, down for the fourth year now.

 

White House Announces New Commitments to Advance Women Worldwide

On Monday, the White House announced the launch of Equal Futures, a partnership between the United States and 12 countries to help empower and advance women and girls. Each country has made its own commitments to achieve this goal. The United States has pledged to expand opportunities for women in business, leadership, and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields and to promote economic security for domestic violence survivors. Partners will share updates and progress at the World Bank Spring Meetings in April 2013.

 

 

 

Propositions 30 and 36

California schools, colleges and universities have suffered drastic cuts in funding over the last few years.  A June, 2012 study of the state school funding that claims to be the most comprehensive is ranking California in 31st place, with an adjusted per pupil  spending of $9,030 ­– $1,102 below the adjusted U.S. average of $10,132 and nearly $7,000 below top-ranked Wyoming.

With AAUW’s interest in Education it behooves us to pay attention to the two propositions on the California ballot that directly affect the funding of Education in California — proposition 30 and 36.

Proposition 30 is Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to raise the sales tax by a quarter-cent for four years and raise income taxes on high earners for seven. That will provide about $6 billion a year almost entirely for schools, community colleges and the Cal State and UC systems. The money is included in this year’s budget, so if 30 fails, it will trigger deep cuts in the school year, higher college tuition and fewer seats in community colleges.

Propositon 38, Molly Munger’s proposal, would increase taxes on earnings using a sliding scale, for twelve years. Revenues go to K–12 schools and early childhood programs, and for four years to repaying state debt. The revenue for Education would go directly to the schools on a per pupil basis, and not to the Districts which can more appropriately allocate the money according to the needs of the individual schools.  The money cannot be used for teachers’ salaries which is often the biggest need.   No money is provided for colleges and universities.

If both measures should pass, the proposition which received the most Yes votes will win and the other proposition would be dropped.  If neither pass, then Education will see deeper cuts in K-12 schools and colleges and universities.

If Proposition 38 should get the most votes the spending reductins (know as the “trigger cuts” would take effect as a result of Proposition tax increases not going into effect.  The trigger cuts would mean $6 billion in automatic cuts to schools and universities which could mean a shortened school year, teacher layoffs and steep tuition increases in higher education.

AAUW CA recommends a YES vote on Proposition 30.

 

 

Half the Sky Reminder

If you did not see the movie when it played at the AMC Theaters two or three years ago, it’s a must see now.  It’s in two parts which will play on PBS SoCal on;

KOCE,
Monday, October 1st and
Tuesday, October 2nd
at  9:00 PM

This inspiring documentary was filmed in 10 countries and tells the stories of inspiring, courageous individuals. Across the globe oppression is being confronted, and real meaningful solutions are being fashioned through health care, education, and economic empowerment for women and girls. The linked problems of sex trafficking and forced prostitution, gender-based violence, and maternal mortality — which needlessly claim one woman every 90 seconds — present to us the single most vital opportunity of our time: the opportunity to make a change. All over the world women are seizing this opportunity.