26/10/02

Author Accuses Women's Groups of Racketeering

Kelley Beaucar Vlahos

Fox News

WASHINGTON — A researcher of women's organizations is accusing bedrock feminist groups of threatening legal pressure and public embarrassment of corporations and schools if they don't contribute millions of dollars and alter policy to their liking.

Author Kimberly Schuld, who recently published a Guide to Feminist Organizations for the Capital Research Center, breaks down the membership, personnel and funding of nearly 40 established women's organizations, think tanks and health groups.

"They use each other, they are very closely aligned and they don't work independently," Schuld told Foxnews.com. "The MO of these feminist organizations is to threaten with lawsuits and threaten with embarrassment. They don't care about women, they care about their own power."

The groups targeted by Schuld's critique, including the National Organization for Women, the National Council of Women's Organizations, and the National Women's Law Center, dismiss Schuld's claims as conservative paranoia, and say all they are doing is fighting for issues important to women like child care, Social Security and equality.

"If we did not exist, [conservatives] would have nothing better to do, that's all they exist for, to tear down what we do," said Martha Burk, head of NCWO, which is currently engaged in a campaign against the men-only Augusta Golf Club in Georgia.

Burk said her coalition has never threatened a lawsuit or a boycott and it does not take corporate dollars.

"[Schuld] doesn't know what she is talking about. Our agenda does help women, pushing our agenda is what we're all about and our agenda is for equal access for women in our society," she said.

Schuld contends that it's more about money than principle and says several major corporations have found through experience that it is easier to upgrade their policies beyond existing federal and state law than to tangle with the likes of groups like NOW.

"[Women] have workplace protections up the wazoo, we are probably the most protected class in the country." Schuld said. "But this is just a shakedown over public relations. The last thing [corporations] need is a story in The New York Times saying their corporation is being sued."

For instance, Schuld said, in 1999, NOW-NYC activists pressured more than 900 women employees to sue Merrill Lynch for gender discrimination on the job. The stock trading company settled with individual plaintiffs, and Merrill Lynch donated $25,000 to the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund in 2000.

"Sometimes the law doesn't work perfectly, and sometimes we're just pointing out that rights are being violated. No money is exchanged," said Nancy Duff Campbell, co-president of the National Women's Law Center. "I disagree that the law is perfect and nothing needs to be changed."

NWLC received $158,000 in legal fees in 2000, as well as $3.8 million in corporate, public and government funding.

Corporate dollars don't always stop the lawsuits, however. Merrill Lynch gave $10,000 each to NOWLDEF and NWLC in 1998. Donors like May Department Stores, which operates Lord & Taylor, has given money to NOW for many years. In recent years they have been sued several times, including by a male employee who wanted diaper-changing stations in the men's restrooms.

Officials at NOW did not return calls for comment. Between NOWLDEF, NOW and the NOW Foundation, the operation raised more than $12 million in revenues in 2000, though membership has been in decline for a decade, said Schuld.

Another breeding ground for lawsuits is on college campuses, where schools are required under federal Title IX statutes to give women equal access to athletic programs in public institutions that receive federal funding.

Under the threat of legal action, schools have cut longstanding swimming, football and baseball teams. Brown University is currently engaged in a lawsuit over female athletic participation rates -- even though it has more teams for women than for men on campus.

Schuld said the women's groups are in cahoots to "basically throw the fishnet out for plaintiffs" on campuses across the country, encouraging girls to seek legal assistance if they feel spurned by the system.

Campbell said she would not describe it that way.

"We are about trying to advance the legal rights for women and that includes educational programs about what their legal rights are. Women do have legal rights. They come to us to ask what their rights are," she said.

26/10/02

Author sees women's groups tied up in Democrat politics

Joyce Howard Price

Washington Times

A new book says the nation's top feminist organizations are more concerned with Democratic politics than women's rights and are no longer needed.

"The feminist groups that have the most influence on Capitol Hill and Wall Street do not represent most American women," author Kimberly Schuld wrote in the introduction to her book "Guide to Feminist Organizations."

"They may be savvy in politics and public relations, but they don't know or care about what most women and girls think or the problems they face in their homes, schools and communities," she added.

As for feminism today, Miss Schuld said: "Its time has passed. Two generations of girls have reached maturity knowing they can do anything they set their minds to. Women now make their own choices, and their decisions take into account the differences between men and women."

Terrence Scanlon, president of the Capital Research Center, a conservative but nonpartisan philanthropy watchdog group that produced the new book, said:

"It is clear that as the women's movement of old increasingly achieved its aims, the new generation running these feminist organizations have turned away from activism on behalf of legal and political equality to pursue an increasingly partisan agenda in support of the Democratic Party."

For her book, Miss Schuld researched the top 35 feminist organizations in terms of their "desire" and "mission" to influence public policy through political action. For each group, she provided a profile of their goals, projects, membership and funding,

Groups examined included the National Organization for Women (NOW); the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund; the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL); the Feminist Majority; the National Council of Women's Organizations (which is pushing to allow women at Augusta); the Miss Foundation for Women; the Planned Parenthood Federation of America; and the League of Women Voters

Miss Schuld said that her research showed many feminist groups are losing members. Nevertheless, she says, their influence is increasing, largely because of the power they wield with the press and with Congress.

Miss Schuld's book challenges NOW President Kim Gandy's claim that the group has 500,000 "contributing members."

But Miss Schuld points out that NOW's dues are $35 and that its 1999 tax return reported membership revenue of only $2.9 million. "If each member paid $35, NOW would have less than 90,000 members. If 500,000 women were full members, the organization would have raised $17.5 million," she wrote.

NOW officials could not be reached for comment.

NOW is currently focusing "on helping Democrats retake Congress and defeat Bush judicial nominees," Miss Schuld says.

"NOW claims to be nonpartisan, but it has publicly urged voters to defeat Republican candidates. In 2000, it attacked Ralph Nader's [Green Party] presidential candidacy, fearing he would take votes from Al Gore," she wrote.

What's more, NOW recently endorsed Democrat Chris Van Hollen in his bid for the House seat of Maryland's six-term Republican incumbent, Constance A. Morella, even though both are pro-choice and Mrs. Morella is female.

Miss Schuld said: "Connie Morella was right when she said NOW is a Democratic organization, not a women's organization."

Miss Schuld describes herself as a "political conservative" and a feminist of a different stripe. "I'm an opportunity feminist, meaning I'll fight for opportunities for anyone who pursues what they want to do. I am not a gender feminist, who say women need a 50-50 choice in everything."

Miss Schuld says her research into feminist groups revealed that liberal philanthropists, such as "the Ford Foundation, Lucille Packard, George Soros, Ted Turner and Warren Buffett have given millions of dollars in grants" to the groups. She also found that some, such as Planned Parenthood, receive heavy government support.

"What right does Planned Parenthood have to say the federal government shouldn't finance abstinence programs?" Miss Schuld asked, when 30 percent of the revenues of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates come from tax dollars.