President Clinton and Senator Dole Told:
Stand Firm on Affirmative Action
At a press conference to announce the coalition, Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority, said, "Affirmative action has opened doors for women, increased women's pay, and expanded women's opportunities in employment and education. Make no mistake about it: without affirmative action, women will go backwards." The press conference was also called by Elaine Jones, Director Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Barbara Arnwine, Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights.
About 30 women's groups and civil rights groups are part of the coalition to preserve affirmative action, including the National Association of Women Business owners, the YWCA, National Organization for Women, the American Association of University Women, the National Council of Negro Women, the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the Coalition of Labor Union Women.
Following the press conference, the women marched to the Old Executive Office Building for a meeting with President Clinton's Senior advisers. The women warned that Clinton risks a backlash if he does not wholeheartedly support affirmative action programs, which benefit a majority of the American population - 57% of the American work force is female and/or minority.
Affirmative action programs are under attack in California, where a ballot initiative and proposed legislation in the state assembly both would abolish affirmative action programs. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, who just a few years ago was a staunch advocate of affirmative action, is now calling for an end to the programs. And President Clinton is calling for a "review" of all affirmative action programs.
In an action that has drawn criticism from women's rights and civil rights advocates, the Clinton Administration has sued Illinois State University claiming the university discriminates against white men with a janitorial training program aimed at increasing the representation of women and minorities. Before the training program was instituted, the university's janitors were overwhelmingly white males.
Civil rights laws like Title VII, which prohibits sex and race discrimination in employment, and Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal funds, are largely responsible for women's entry into professional schools and better-paying jobs. Affirmative action programs have helped to integrate the work force by setting goals and timetables for hiring women and minorities.
Yet women still have a long way to go. "To this day, women comprise only 3% of firefighters, 8% of state and local police officers, 2% of construction workers, 12% of college presidents, and 6.2% of boards of directors at Fortune 500 and Service 500 companies," Smeal emphasized.
The glass ceiling is also firmly in place, as shown by the Department of Labor's bipartisan Glass Ceiling Commission, which just released a study showing that while white men constitute 43% of the work force, they hold 95% of the top management jobs at Fortune 2000 industrial and service companies. The Glass Ceiling Commission was established by the Bush Administration to examine barriers to the hiring and promotion of women to management positions.