Tag Archives: AAUW_Mission

Presidents’ Message, AAUW Priorities and Public Policy

President’s Message By Nancy McCabe

By now we are hoping that a cool fall has arrived. It is time for moving on with holiday preparations and fall activities. I am also hoping that it brings a renewed interest in our branch’s event schedule. The upcoming plans are spoken to in other articles, which will give you reasons to join in.

An important reason that AAUW is able to continue to provide superior programming is the continuing contributions of a group of ladies who have served as president, often several times. The program vice-presidents are both former presidents, as are six in appointed positions. The list of all former branch presidents is in the back of your directory. The following ladies are all former presidents. Those with a * have served in terms separated by years, and those with a # served more than one term consecutively. Terms go back as far as 1974-75. Please acknowledge these ladies when you see them and offer a friendly hello and thank you: *Marilyn Orrick, Susan Whetstone, Linda Whitney, *#Gloria Yost, Linda Sparks, *#Hedda Smithson, Pat Morgan, Mary Williams, Jean Bonar, Jane Cooley, *Marty McKnew, #Molly Dugan, Cherril Peabody, *# Nancy McCabe, #Donna Holmes, #Elizabeth Jordan, *Charmen Goehring and #Angela Scarlett. Also, note that Charmen has been a president in five branches and state president once. Many other past presidents remained members until their death.

Our branch depends on our members doing what they can, so if you are able, please volunteer to be on a committee, be a greeter, bring refreshments to a monthly meeting, or help clean up after a meeting as we must use someone else’s space for our events. Volunteering is a great way to meet other members, which is a benefit to joining in.

See you soon! — Nancy

AAUW Priorities By Kathy Papst

Hello Members,

I am proud to be the new director of the AAUW Sacramento branch AAUW Priorities. AAUW advocates for “equality, individual rights, and social justice for a diverse society”.

PRIORITIES include four areas of concentration: Public Policy, Civil Rights Advocacy, Title IX and AAUW Funds. Charmen Goehring is continuing as chairperson of Funds, and I am chairperson of Civil Rights Advocacy, Title IX is currently vacant, and we have a new, young member as chairperson of Public Policy, Marissa Floyd. Welcome Marissa!

We will report to our branch on what is happening with national, state and local legislation and policy updates. The reports will be uploaded to the Sacramento branch website. I hope that our members will read these reports, and keep abreast of important information about equity and rights.

I now want to make a plea for someone to take on the chair of Title IX. I feel that this issue is very much misunderstood, yet very important. If you want to get involved on the board, this would be a great place to start. Chairpersons do not have to attend the monthly board meetings. I look forward to working with such talented and involved members.

CA Public Policy

From Amy Hom and Melissa Maceyko, Co-chairs, AAUW California Public Policy Committee

Please click <here> for the latest issue of Public Policy News. This issue contains an article on the outcome of the Legislative Session , and other important updates and resources.

Reproductive Healthcare

Reproductive Healthcare Part I By Liz Jordan

AAUW Position on Reproductive Healthcare: AAUW supports choice in determining one’s reproductive life and increased access to health care and family planning services.

On Saturday, Oct. 14, in a Joint Branch meeting, the Sacramento and CHAR branches presented a program about the current state of reproductive healthcare in the United States. The program presenters did a dramatic reading of several pre-Roe (1973) stories from The Abortion Chronicles, written by Lynn Wenzel of Nevada County. Integrated into the second half of the program, the facts/informational part, were more stories of women’s experiences since June 2022, when the Dobbs decision was handed down.

We learned many facts about what is happening all over our country. Some important points that were made are:

California is one of 4 only states labeled Very Protective for reproductive healthcare protections on the Guttmacher Institute interactive map. We are one of 14 states are considered Protective; on the other hand, 36 states are considered Restrictive to Most Restrictive because they limit or ban abortion. https://www.guttmacher.org
Healthcare records, nor providers of reproductive care, are safe from prosecutions, even in states where many women travel to get reproductive care. Nineteen states (19) have challenged a Health and Human Services Department order protecting healthcare records of people who travel to another state for healthcare services; they cite that these records might evidence of a crime in the patient’s home state.
Reproductive Healthcare providers are leaving many states to practice where their actions are not considered felonious until proven innocent. For example, according to the New York Times, 75% of Oklahoma’s OBGYNs are either leaving or considering leaving the state.
A growing number of U S counties are considered Maternity Deserts where there is limited or no access to birthing hospitals, birth centers offering obstetric care or obstetric providers. For example, in Texas 53% of counties are considered Maternity Deserts! Where You Live Matters: Maternity Care Deserts and the Crisis of Access and Equity | March of Dimes
Furthermore, nearly 60% of medical students are avoiding practice in states with abortion restrictions.
The Gender Equity Policy Institute reports that women, living in states with abortion bans, are three times more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth; their babies are 30% more likely to die in the first month of life.

This movement, to control reproductive care, does not plan to stop at the status quo.

So, what can we do, here in our Protective State with only a few Maternity Deserts? One idea expressed at the meeting is a clear gender protection in the U S Constitution. If we had a gender-equity protection, as a 28^th Amendment, the Supreme Court could be less-likely to make a decision like Dobbs.

Next month, we will answer what happened to the Equal Rights Amendment? And what can I do about it?

Click <here> to access Paola Mendez’s report on legislation that went through the legislature this year that deals with issues around healthcare.

Printable Newsletter Articles

Click here for Printable Newsletter Articles.

October Program Preview

Sacramento Branch of AAUW Presents (By Hedda Smithson)

Episode Two of “The Rights Stuff”:
The ERA and Reproductive Rights

>>> Lights, Camera, Action!! <<<

Saturday, October 14, 10 AM in the Sacramento Fine Arts Center,
5330 Gibbons Drive, Carmichael

**A joint meeting with *CHAR**

Coming Attraction!! Save the date!

Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Do you know in which century this was first proposed? Do you know its current status? Are you aware of the repercussions of the Dobbs vs Jackson decision? For all this and more, join us! For this episode, would you like to be an actress, facilitator, or greeter? Please contact Liz Jordan; her contact information is in the membership directory. This episode is still holding auditions and rehearsals. We envision a lively presentation of a play, some geographical data and lots of small group discussions. We will be looking for ways to ACT!!

*Citrus Heights/American River Branch of AAUW

AAUW, Equity and Inclusion

AAUW, Equity and Inclusion By Charmen Goehring

This past weekend, I attended the California Teacher’s Association’s Equity and Human Rights conference. I was both a presenter and participant.

I was heartened by the more than 500 attendees, all educators with social justice mindsets, eager to do their part to dismantle systemic racism and biases that are hurting our students and, more widely, our nation and world. It felt good to know that I was not alone in this fight and to be validated about the importance of equity and inclusion work.

How does this relate to AAUW? In education, most teachers (73.4 percent in California) are female, yet most administrators and those in spaces where decisions are made are male — like the halls of government. We know that women bring a more collaborative, inclusive manner to discussions, whether in a school, board room, the floor of Congress or on the Supreme Court bench. Therefore, having more women in those spaces is beneficial for all, especially women and girls. To this end, AAUW has programs like Tech Trek, Gov Trek, Start $mart and Work $mart, and the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders (NCCWSL), all geared toward helping young women gain the skills and confidence to enter male-dominated spaces and thrive.

But we need to do more. Women of color have largely been left out of the conversation, in

Charmen Goehring

general and in AAUW. The women’s rights movement did not include them and until the late 1950s, neither did AAUW.

One glance around any AAUW meeting anywhere will show the effects of that exclusion — after 142 years of storied existence, AAUW is still predominantly an older, white woman organization. We have missed out on the passion, creativity and ideas of all those women who have the same concerns and interests but look different than us. We continue today to work on similar goals separately, despite knowing that “stronger together” isn’t a theme for nothing!

Lest you think I am advocating that we run out and find women of color to join us, I am not. I strongly believe that we each, and as a branch, have work to do first. When others join us, we want them to feel welcome and like they belong. And, for that to happen, we must examine our own biases (we all have them) and learn about the ways that our financial, educational and cultural systems have marginalized those who do not look like us. It’s the only way we can make lasting change that will ensure “equity for all”, which is, after all, our AAUW mission.

Some suggested resources:
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/- online Implicit Association Test

Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald, explains the science behind implicit biases that we all have

“The Color of Law “by Richard Rothstein — our Equity book group is reading this now, about the blatant racism built into housing policies in the US from the turn of the 20^th century (some linger today)

https://www.ted.com/talks/ibram_x_kendi_the_difference_between_being_not_racist_and_antiracist?language=en – Ted Talk by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, who is amazing

Focus on Women’s Health

Focus on Women’s Health By Lisa Howard

With the Dobbs decision from the Supreme Court in May 2022, access to women’s health care was put at risk across the country. Many of us have granddaughters, daughters and friends of child-bearing age that live in states where pregnancy now holds greater risk than it has for previous generations. The choice of pushing the decision back to the states has left many women who live in jurisdictions with government leadership supportive of women’s health wringing our hands about how to help as the horror unfolds in other states. For the Sacramento AAUW women that gathered to discuss the threat to women’s health (the Reproductive Choice Committee), our first task was to gather resources.

While we haven’t yet figured out how to take action on this knowledge, we recognize that a first step we can each take is to share information with others so that more people understand what and where restrictions are being built into the law. Perhaps a small step each of us can take is to share the legal actions being taken and the resulting stories of impact on women’s individual lives with friends and families who are constituents of the leaders seeking to remove their rights.

Resources for you:

AAUW National Position on Women’s Health Protection
The Rally for Abortion Justice — and Beyond

Pass the Women’s Health Protection Act!

Contact your elected officials.
Write a Letter to your Editor
Build Community

AAUW members have been participating in Planned Parenthood events – https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/rightfully-ours/bans-off-our-bodies#events

Kaiser Family Foundation maintains a dashboard of state actions against women’s health – https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/dashboard/abortion-in-the-u-s-dashboard/

There are at least two women who have dedicated themselves to investigating and surfacing human stories that really provide personal context to the issues – https://substack.com/profile/535611-jessica-valenti
https://andreagrimes.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Living Our Mission of Equity

Living Our Mission of Equity By Charmen Goehring

We hope you will join us in a monthly equity conversation looking at our own biases and what actions we can take to attract diversity to our branch and become better people in the process. Each month, we read a section of our selected book then meet to discuss what we have learned, along with exploring other issues related to race and equity. We generally meet the first Wednesday of each month from 7 to 8 p.m. on Zoom. This book group is a joint AAUW Sacramento and CHAR event and open to all.

The Zoom meeting code is 737 420 3780 or you can join using this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7374203780

We will be discussing chapters 1-4 of our latest book, “The Color of Law” by Richard Rothstein, at 7 p.m. on March 1. If you have questions and to RSVP, please email Charmen at charminme@yahoo.com.

Equity Book List

The joint AAUW Sacramento/CHAR Equity book group has been reading and learning together for more than two years now. We have read thought provoking, frustrating and poignant research and stories around the topic of race, inclusion, equity and systems in America that continue to be problematic. We would like to share our list and encourage you to take yourself on an equity journey as well. Confronting our own biases and understanding how privilege affects our lives is a first step toward a more just and equitable branch as well as world.

Waking Up White – Debby Irving
How To Be An Anti-Racist – Ibram Kendi
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together – Heather McGee (one of our faves)
Caste– Isabel Wilkerson
Sister Outsider – Audre Lorde
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning – Cathy Park Hong
You Are Your Best Thing – edited by Tarana Burke and Brene Brown
So You Want To Talk About Race – Ijeoma Oluo
Feminism is For Everybody – belle hooks
The Color of Law – Richard Rothstein

Reproductive Choice Committee Update

Reproductive Choice Committee Update By Liz Jordan

The Reproductive Choice Committee is reading “Lady Justice: Women, the law, and the Battle to Save America”, by Dahlia Lithwick, in three steps over the next three months. This book tells the stories about 10 women who, since 2016, responded to issues of inequity with action, including Sally Yates, the acting U.S. Attorney General, who refused to sign off on the Muslim Travel ban; Becca Heller, the founder of a refugee assistance program who brought the fight to the airports; Roberta Kaplan, the litigator who sued the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville; and Stacy Abrams, who fought to protect voting rights of millions of Georgians.

This text includes substantial notes and references that may be of interest to one or all of us. Following is our assignment for all who wish to participate:

Read and/or listen to the book up to Chapter 4 or to page 67 by the next meeting, March 13 at 1 p.m.
Select a passage in any part of the assigned reading we wish to discuss with the group.
Look over the reference notes for the three assigned chapters and find a reference to investigate and share your findings with the group on March 13.
We will ask one of our attending members to write a brief paragraph about one passage discussed and one reference that could be of interest to others for the April issue of Capital Ideas.

If you would like to join us for our discussion, please contact Liz Jordan. Her contact information is available in the Directory.

AAUW CA And National Tidbits

AAUW CA And National Tidbits

National and state elections are around the corner. If your email address is correct in the Community Hub (National’s Members Only page) you will receive an online ballot.

National Election Details	California State Election Details
April 5 \|voting opens (online voting is encouraged) May 15 \| Online voting ends at 5:00 pm ET May 17 \| Vote results announced online	April 22 \|voting opens (online voting is encouraged) May 13 \| Online voting ends at midnight PT May 17 \| Vote results announced online

Annual State meeting features ACADEMY AAUWARDS!

SAVE THE DATE: April 22, 2023, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 over Zoom

AAUW California’s Annual State meeting, open to all members, is on April 22, 2023, from 9-4 on Zoom. This year’s theme is the Academy AAUWards! Join the re- carpet interviews, listen to inspiring keynote speakers, and watch the Speech Trek and Gov Trek finalists. Cheer on your fellow members and branches for all sorts of AAUW awards, get a public policy update, and meet the board candidates. And, every awards event worth its swag bag has after–parties! Join our Zoom-style parties to hang out with your friends! Look for more information soon!

Celebrating AAUW California, its branches, and its members will be the most fun event of the spring! Don’t miss out on the Academy AAUWards on April 22nd! Get ready to mingle!

VIRTUAL GOV TREK HAS BEGUN!

On January 28th we launched our inaugural virtual Gov Trek session with just over 60 future leaders and 40 volunteers in attendance from across California!

AAUW California 2023 Gov Trek’s inaugural session started with a video address from fellow Californian SPEAKER EMERITA NANCY PELOSI. We were privileged to have the first woman Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives greet us as we begin our journey together to explore careers in public office and elected positions. https://youtu.be/szcsrAj0Ir4

Five distinguished women leaders addressed Gov Trek participants in the Women in Leadership Panel. They discussed elective office and public service at different levels of government, including the skills and challenges involved with them, and other related career paths in leadership and political participation. The speakers were:

Kathleen Van Osten, AAUW California Advocate and Lobbyist
Ellen Montanari, Deputy Campaign Manager, Rep Mike Levin
Regina Luzincourt, Lobbyist and Former Press Secretary, State Senator Parker
Shana Hazan, VP San Diego Unified School Board
Griselda Ramirez, Senior Director of Community Engagement, Partnerships, and Strategic Initiatives, Office of San Diego County Board of Supervisor Chair, Nora Vargas.

Click HERE to watch Gov Trek Session 1. The speaker sessions will be recorded and available to AAUW California members on the website HERE in the Student Program Materials section.

Ratify the ERA!

On February 1, lawmakers introduced new legislation to remove the arbitrary ratification deadline preventing enactment of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. You can lend your voice by becoming a Two-Minute Activist. This link will take you to the national website where you can send an email directly to your representatives, urge congress to act, once and for all, to ensure women and men are guaranteed equality under the law.

Urge Congress

Also, you can sign up to be mobile activist! To be a Two-Minute Activist Mobile, text “AAUW” to 21333 to receive timely, targeted action opportunities straight to your cell phone via text message.

Spring Shopping with AAUW

Check out the cool new branded items in the online ShopAAUW store, including stainless steel tumblers, wireless charging pads, pens, journals and more!

Power Partnership: AAUW & Ms. (free one year subscription!)

As part of a special partnership, a free, one-year subscription to the legendary Ms. Magazine is available to all members. Sign up to get yours today.

· Special Panel Event: Closing the Digital Gender Gap

Join AAUW on Wednesday, March 15, at 2 p.m. ET. for an engaging online panel discussion about the “digital gender gap.” Learn from an expert panel how women are still being left behind from pursuing the most promising tech fields of the future—and how we can work to change that. The event is part of the 67th NGO Committee on the Status of Women and UN Commission on the Status of Women.

· Two Can’t-Miss Inclusion & Equity Webinars

AAUW’s national Inclusion & Equity Committee is pleased to offer two engaging and informative webinars this spring. On Thursday, April 6, from 2:00–3:00 p.m. ET, we’ll share information with local branches and states as they prepare to celebrate Diversity Month in April and the World Day for Cultural Diversity on May 21. Then, on Wednesday, May 10, from 7:30 pm–9:00 pm ET, we’ll provide a hands-on learning opportunity for AAUW members to explore aspects of diversity and intersectionality. Please join us!

The Reproductive Choice Committee Changes Course

The Reproductive Choice Committee Changes Course By Liz Jordan

The Reproductive Choice committee is changing course. We decided to try “doing what AAUW does best” – read and discuss what we read for our own enlightenment. In addition, we intend to share with the branch insights and information in which we hope fellow members would be interested.

Yes, we are still interested in the “post-Dobbs” environment, but the committee felt we had completed our research into the changes made around the U. S. in the many states that have banned or seriously restricted abortion. We have accumulated a significant library of articles, podcasts and videos on the topic and are happy to share with anyone who is interested.

For February meeting, Feb. 9, 1 p.m. over Zoom, we are independently listening to as many episodes as we can of the podcast Ordinary Equality by Kate Kelly and Jamia Wilson. This podcast is in its second year of production and covers a lot of the history of the women’s movement, the Roe v. Wade decision, the history of the Equal Rights Amendment, and the impact of the Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). It’s available where ever you get your podcasts.

Beginning in March, we plan to read by section the book “Lady Justice” by Dahlia Lithwick. At the February meeting, we will plan how much we want to read and discuss in March.

We are looking for more members who are interested in listening and reading on these topics. If you are interested in joining us for conversation, please email Liz Jordan (contact information can be found in the Membership Directory). We will send you the Zoom link and welcome all new members.