Organizing at the Intersections of Reproductive and Environmental Justice

Very proudly, the Ms. Foundation for Women supports an amazing cadre of organizations that are blazing new trails to advance environmental and reproductive justice every day. And if the news from one such grantee, Women's Voices for the Earth, is any predictor, 2011 is off to an incredible start.

Women's Voices for the Earth (WVE) is a national organization that works to eliminate toxic chemicals that impact the health of women and girls -- who, in fact, have largely been overlooked in research about the effects on humans of the more than 85,000 chemicals estimated to be use in the US environment today. Over the last month, WVE has taken bold and concrete action to protect the well-being of women and girls, raising awareness about how these chemicals compromise women's reproductive health, pushing for increased regulation of consumer products, and organizing to ban one particular toxic substance currently in widespread use.

Though little discussed in the national media, activists and everyday women alike know that women face environmental dangers unique to those faced by men: women, on average, use more personal care products, containing potentially dangerous chemicals, than men do; spend more time in the home and using cleaning products; and have higher fat reserves -- where toxins are stored -- than their male counterparts do. And women of color, low-income women, and immigrant women tend to be at even greater risk for exposure to environmental toxins than their middle class, white peers -- either because they live in areas that are rife with toxic and hazardous materials or work in industries with few protections against exposure to chemicals.

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NCRW Speaks Out on 'Macho' Oil Industry Culture

Linda Basch, President of the National Council for Research on Women, has a great article running on AlterNet that looks at how the "macho culture" of the oil industry -- and BP in particular -- contributed to creating the mess that is STILL unfolding in the Gulf.

Quoting oil industry veterans and insiders, Basch highlights how BP culture has been driven by "the macho myth of big iron, big rigs, wild wells, and wild men" and suggests that greater diversity in leadership -- in this case, bringing women to the decision-making tables -- might have mitigated some of the larger mistakes BP made in regard to its drilling practices. She writes,

We can begin to understand the tendency toward machismo in BP with simple numbers: all of BP's executives are white males, except for one female HR leader... [Yet] countless studies have demonstrated that diversity in leadership produces better results overall. Women also tend to be more tempered risk-takers, which, among other things, could have shifted BP's decision not to use a safeguard device on the Deepwater rig, a potentially disaster-averting move that could have cost as little as $500,000.

Basch goes on to note that though women were noticeably absent from executive suites prior to the disaster, the folks being tasked with cleaning up this ecological nightmare are largely women. And she points our attention to the special health and reproductive risks that women in the Gulf may now face to thanks to the presence of potentially volatile chemicals in both the spilled oil and the dispersants used by BP to clean it up.

To us, what Basch has to say about women's experiences leading up to and after the Gulf crisis makes perfect sense. But as we noticed when we published an article with a similar theme in AlterNet a few weeks ago, commenters can be especially hostile to the notion that women's input and solutions might make a difference in the Gulf (and, frankly, everywhere).

If you feel strongly that women do have a place at these decision making tables, and that including women's perspectives from the grasstops to the grassroots is important to the functioning of our democracy, then let your voice be heard. Take a little time to leave a comment when you read articles on mainstream sites that support the inclusion of women's solutions. If the "comments" universe is ever going to move away from promoting the same "macho" attitude that sunk BP, we'll only get there when women dare to add their voices to the media mix.

At Pill's 50th Anniversary, Sex Ed More Important Than Ever

Around the country this month, countless tributes, articles and campaigns have rightly celebrated the birth control pill on its 50th anniversary. But amid all the much-deserved hoopla, we would do well to remember that a pill alone can never be "the great liberator" of women's lives. Though its development was a revolutionary step in the right direction, research shows that education -- about sex, sexuality, and the choices we all make in relation to the two -- remains the key to securing the reproductive health of women and girls in this nation and around the world -- not least of all, on the national front, in the aftermath of Bush's federally mandated abstinence-only curricula.

With those facts in mind, the Ms. Foundation's Sexuality Education Advocacy Initiative (SEAI) has been fighting since 2005 to make comprehensive sexuality education available to students in every state in our nation. The initiative helps to build support for responsible sexuality education school-by-school, district-by-district and state-by-state, understanding that each community faces a unique combination of issues around local leadership, financial capacity and political climate. The goal of SEAI is to bring about positive policy changes to ensure that the majority of young people in the US are provided with the information and education they need to help them make truly informed decisions about their sexuality and sexual health, including: access to a full range of contraceptive options; an understanding of STI and HIV prevention and treatment; economic access to reproductive care; and the right to abortion.

Because of the efforts of thousands of women's health advocates, community leaders, doctors and responsible parents across this country, today, more women and girls have access to the knowledge that will help them make informed decisions about their reproductive health than ever before in our history. But too many of us are still denied this essential education – denied the ability to truly understand our bodies and take control of our own sexual health. That is why we at the Ms. Foundation continue to support organizations that possess the local knowledge and strategic relationships to ensure that responsible sexuality education is available to us all.

For example:

One grantee, the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund (TFNEF), recently succeeded in passing more stringent School Health Advisory Council accountability requirements and securing a hearing on comprehensive sexuality education legislation in the Texas House – for the first time in 14 years. High local teenage pregnancy rates have motivated administrators in several North Texas districts to take action and, with Ms. Foundation support, TFNEF has positioned itself to channel this energy into the development and implementation of expanded sexuality curricula.


Another grantee, California Latinas for Reproductive Justice (CLRJ), is currently identifying and training local advocates to appear at local events, in order to broaden community support for comprehensive sexuality education. Along with their partner in California’s central valley, ACT for Women and Girls (a Ms. Foundation reproductive rights grantee), CLRJ's immediate goal is to catalyze enough representation from young girls, parents and teachers to pass a progressive and far-reaching school board resolution this Spring that solidifies the commitment, finances and will to implement sexuality education in its district.

Grantees like these and others are winning the fight for responsible sexuality curricula. They are proving the impact that positive conversations about sexuality can have when it comes to improving the lives of women and girls from Ann Arbor to Addis Ababa. As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Pill, we must also work to move beyond the "risk management" approach that both the Pill and "teen pregnancy prevention" embody, as they do little to guarantee the physical and emotional well-being of young-people -- nor do they ensure that sex education goes beyond, "Take the Pill, don't ask questions." It will really be time to cheer when every girl and woman in America -- and around the world -- has access not only to the Pill itself, but also to the information and services they need to make informed decisions about their reproductive health.

Hopefully, not long from now, that's exactly what we'll be celebrating.

Sunny Daly
Corporate and Foundation Relations Manager
Ms. Foundation for Women

Sunny Daly is the author of Changing Images of the Birth Control Pill: 1960-1973 (2008). She has a Masters in Gender and Women's Studies from the American University in Cairo.

Ms. Foundation Grantees in the News - Congressional Edition

Two Ms. Foundation grantees are in the news with testimony and advocacy to Congress on Veterans' Affairs and Health Care.

Anuradha Bhagwati, Executive Director of Ms. Foundation grantee Service Women's Action Network, testified before the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs on the challenges faced by women in accessing health care and benefits, and in the processing of Military Sexual Trauma (MST) claims.

The Veterans' Administration routinely rejects claims for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Military Sexual Trauma (MST), regardless of the evidence a veteran submits.

Bhagwati's prepared testimony concluded with the following call for change:

Recommendations to Bridge the Gaps in Care for Women Veterans:

1. Require that the VA remedy the shortage of female physicians, female mental health providers and MST counselors at VA hospitals nationwide. Also require that the VA provide the option of female-only counseling groups for female combat veterans, and female- as well as male-only counseling groups for female and male survivors of MST.


2. Require the VA to implement a program to train, educate, and certify all staff, including administrative and medical, in federal Equal Opportunity regulations and MST, to reduce a discriminatory and hostile atmosphere toward women veterans.


3. Require the VA to increase accessibility of fee-based care for veterans (both male and female) who have been diagnosed with Military Sexual Trauma.


4. Require day-care facilities for veterans who are parents, as well as more flexible evening or weekend hours for working veterans and parents, at every VA hospital.


5. Require the VA to conduct a study into what percentage of claims are denied with a breakdown by gender as well as type of injury/condition, including both combat-related PTSD, and PTSD or other conditions resulting from MST.


6. Require that VBA claims officers undergo intensive training and education in MST and MST-related medical conditions.


7. Require that the VBA’s submission requirements for MST claims reflect a reasonable standard, such as proof of MST counseling during or after service, and diagnosis of MST-related medical conditions.


8. Require the DOD to conduct a retention study to determine the total impact of MST on re-enlistment rates of servicemembers.

Ms. Foundation grantee Raising Women's Voices is working to engage a broad array of women's health advocates in local, state and national health reform discussions to ensure that women's concerns will be addressed and the health care we get will be health care for all. They are cited for their mobilization in a Newsweek article about the negotiations on the subject of abortion and health care reform between Senators Grassley and Baucus. (See Raising Women's Voices and others in our earlier post Reproductive Health: Once Again, Ripe for Conservative Compromise.)

Collapsing 'Universe' in Health 'Reform'

Framed as yet another "wedge issue," and superfluous to true health care reform, immigrants' rights joins reproductive justice on the Congressional chopping block. Excuse us, but what ever happened to the term universal?

Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change, shares his thoughts on the matter in the Huffington Post:

All of the plans getting serious consideration in Congress would exclude undocumented immigrants. Many proposals would even bar access to community health centers and emergency rooms -- a historic shift from America's humanitarian tradition that in an emergency no one should be turned away. Some proposals would exclude legal resident immigrants who have been in the United States for less than five years. Unless the debate takes a different turn, millions of immigrants will be left out of the system.

We should not enshrine discriminatory principles into a new health care system. A "universal" health care program that leaves out millions of Americans is a fraud. Just as we stand up for other core principles in the health care debate -- quality, affordability, a strong public plan -- we need to stand up for immigrant coverage as an essential component of just and effective health care reform. Read more

Reproductive Health: Once Again, Ripe for Conservative Compromise

With the health care reform debate in full swing, it's become frighteningly clear that key elements of reproductive health care are in danger of being barred from whatever package emerges from Congress. The National Women's Law Center, a Ms. Foundation grantee, today wrote, "Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee are demanding the introduction of health care reform language that will strip women's access to abortion." And it's not just Republicans. As Time Magazine reports, a group of conservative House Democrats sent a letter at the end of June to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stating that they "cannot support any health-care-reform proposal unless it explicitly excludes abortion from the scope of any government-defined or subsidized health-insurance plan."

Anti-choice demands from both sides of the aisle would have dangerous implications for women--and their families, and their communities. They would further cement the deeply discriminatory Hyde Amendment, which since 1976, has prohibited the use of federal funds to cover abortion, with an overwhelming impact on low-income women and women of color. They could also prohibit coverage of abortion for millions of women who are now guaranteed it by their private health insurance.

So, once again, women's health and human rights are framed as a "wedge issue" and as such, considered ripe for compromise. And it isn't just women, of course. As Raising Women's Voices, another Ms. Foundation grantee at the forefront of the health care debate, writes, "If conservatives get their way on health reform, we will soon have quality, affordable health care for all --- except for women, terminally ill patients, gays and lesbians, people with HIV and anybody else conservatives don't like!" And let's not forget that women's health is intimately connected to the health and economic well-being of children, families and communities. Nobody can afford to let this pass.

The Senate Finance Committee is meeting this week. Take action by contacting your senator at help_comments@help.senate.gov if s/he is on the Committee (find out here) and urge her/him to refuse such politically-motivated exclusions and ensure access to comprehensive reproductive health services for all women.