Vol. 74/No. 13      April 5, 2010

A number of participants are involved in chapters of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, the campus affiliate of the Feminist Majority Foundation, a women’s rights organization with strong ties to the Democratic Party. Others came from women’s studies departments or campus women’s groups, including some who had been involved in defense of abortion clinics in their area.

While conference organizers saw the main focus of the gathering as mobilizing to support President Barack Obama’s health-care “reform” plan, many young women were eager to discuss broader questions about the fight for women’s rights.

At an afternoon session on “Women, Jobs, and the Economy,” two representatives of the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress presented a slide show of graphs showing unemployment rates for different sectors of the population. Their comments emphasized the gap between what professional women such as doctors earn, compared to their male counterparts.

Some of the young women at this session challenged the focus on women negotiating for high salaries as lawyers, government staffers, or other “careers.” They said they didn’t see that as their future.

During the question-and-answer period, Alyson Kennedy, a socialist and garment worker from Chicago, took the floor. “This so-called economic recovery is not a recovery for most working people,” she said. “Millions of women can’t find work or are forced to work temp jobs or part-time jobs. Temp jobs that pay $8 an hour, with no benefits—that’s what many women face.

“As the government’s own statistics just showed, the unemployment figures for young people and Black workers are much higher than the average. We need to understand that the attacks on abortion rights are part of the capitalists’ attacks on working people, including in the health-care ‘reform’ plan. That’s why they are trying to push women back,” she said to applause.

A workshop on “Access Denied: Women, Immigration Reform, and Reproductive Justice” was well attended. Many conference participants welcomed news of the massive demonstration for immigrant rights set for the next day here. Several groups of young women decided to join the march. In informal discussion and at workshops, many agreed with the idea that a national mobilization to defend abortion rights was badly needed too.  
 
 
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