Western Community Forum Brings Together Legislators, Women Leaders

Women legislators and advocates met in Seattle in September at CPA’s “Women’s Leadership on Affirmative Action” roundtable to share strategies on how to include women in the affirmative action debate. The Roundtable was sponsored by CPA’s Western Community Policy and Leadership Forum. Ground zero for the future of affirmative action is Washington state, where the ballot initiative I-200, similar to the one California voters passed in 1996, will eliminate state affirmative action programs in public employment, public education and public contracting if passed in November.

In a poll conducted by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer seven weeks before the election, 53 percent of Washington state respondents said they would vote in favor of the initiative, while 34 percent opposed it. Fifty percent of respondents in the same poll said they favored affirmative action programs.

Such disparity illustrates considerable public confusion surrounding the finer points of ballot language under consideration, opponents of I-200 say. According to the Post-Intelligencer, the ballot asks “whether voters want to prohibit the state from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to anyone of the basis of race or gender in state contracting, hiring, or public education” but fails to mention affirmative action by name.

In fact, many disparate Washington programs will be threatened if I-200 is passed, reports Americans for a Fair Chance, a consortium of six civil rights organizations. Among those at risk are the Volunteer Tutor Coordinator Program, which provides grants to community and technical colleges for English language tutors; the Displaced Homemakers Program, which assists homemakers in moving into the work force; and the MESA program, which provides activities to encourage women and minorities in math and science, where they have traditionally been underrepresented. Women have made progress under such programs.

From 1972 to 1996, the percentage of women doctors rose from 10 percent to 26.4 percent, reports the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics. There have been similar increases in the number of women police officers and lawyers. The inroads women have made into these professions have had positive impacts on the professions themselves. As more women have become doctors, the health of women has become a higher national priority. As women have become more integral in law enforcement, the prevention of domestic violence has risen in importance.

Economically, communities and families have benefited from the breadth of job responsibilities that women now enjoy. Women-owned businesses provide employment for one of every four U.S. company workers and generate $2.3 trillion in sales annually. The U.S. Small Business Administration’s outreach to women entrepreneurs through federal affirmative action programs plays a critical role in promoting women’s enterprise by guaranteeing business loans.

Even with the progress made under affirmative action programs, there is still disparity of opportunity between men and women. In 1996, only 1.53% of $180 billion in federal contracts went to women-owned businesses; in the private sector, women-owned businesses received less than 5 percent of contracts. The story is much the same in education: for every dollar of financial aid a man receives, a female student receives 68 cents in work/study funds, 73 cents in grants or 84 cents in loans, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

• MESA (Math, Engineering and Science Achievement) Program: provides education and enrichment activities in math and science for women and minorities — fields in which they have been underrepresented.
• Criminal Justice Training Commission: trains Indian tribe officers and law enforcement employees.
• Displaced Homemakers Program: helps displaced homemakers move into the work force
• Health Care Authority: develops strategies to encourage the use of health care by persons of color.

Source: Americans for a Fair Chance