dmcowen674
No Lifer
1-9-2005 Feminists Face Tough Times After Election
NEW YORK - America's feminist leaders and their critics agree on at least one current political fact: These are daunting times for the women's movement as it braces for another term of an administration it desperately wanted to topple.
"The next four years are going to be tough, so we must be tougher," National Organization for Women president Kim Gandy recently told supporters. "Our health, our rights, and our democracy are teetering on the brink."
Many of the conservative activists and organizations that cheered the GOP triumph ? and now claim expanded influence in Washington ? are stridently anti-feminist. The Rev. Jerry Falwell, for example, recently referred to NOW as "The National Order of Witches"
"The issue isn't whether they're mean-spirited or anti-women," Greenberger said. "What I do see is an administration with policies that are fundamentally out of touch with what women really need. ... They have other priorities that consistently outweigh and trump the everyday concerns that women have."
Referring collectively to conservative Republican leaders, Gandy said: "They like women just fine ? as long as we know our place, which is preferably under a man's protection.
"Their primary allegiance is to corporations and the wealthy," she said. "Giving tax breaks to them means the economic burden falls more on women."
NEW YORK - America's feminist leaders and their critics agree on at least one current political fact: These are daunting times for the women's movement as it braces for another term of an administration it desperately wanted to topple.
"The next four years are going to be tough, so we must be tougher," National Organization for Women president Kim Gandy recently told supporters. "Our health, our rights, and our democracy are teetering on the brink."
Many of the conservative activists and organizations that cheered the GOP triumph ? and now claim expanded influence in Washington ? are stridently anti-feminist. The Rev. Jerry Falwell, for example, recently referred to NOW as "The National Order of Witches"
"The issue isn't whether they're mean-spirited or anti-women," Greenberger said. "What I do see is an administration with policies that are fundamentally out of touch with what women really need. ... They have other priorities that consistently outweigh and trump the everyday concerns that women have."
Referring collectively to conservative Republican leaders, Gandy said: "They like women just fine ? as long as we know our place, which is preferably under a man's protection.
"Their primary allegiance is to corporations and the wealthy," she said. "Giving tax breaks to them means the economic burden falls more on women."
