To defeat a California initiative that would wipe out state affirmative action programs for women and minorities, the Feminist Majority has joined with the YWCA of the USA, the National Organization for Women and a host of women’s and civil rights groups.The California Civil Rights Initiative, a proposed initiative to amend the California Constitution which may be on the ballot in November 1996, is deceptively written as though it would ban discrimination. In reality, the initiative would end state and local affirmative action programs for women and minorities in public employment, education and contracting.
Not only does the proposed initiative repeal state affirmative action programs, but it also expressly would allow, for the first time in the California Constitution, discrimination against women and girls in public employment, education and contracting and thus expand the circumstances under which the state may restrict opportunities for women and girls. This initiative writes into the California Constitution "bona fide qualifications based on sex which are reasonably necessary to the normal operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting."
Backers of the California Civil Rights Initiative have just launched their attempt to gather the 700,000 signatures needed to place their anti-affirmative-action initiative on the November, 1996 ballot in California.
According to a poll conducted by Lou Harris and Peter Harris Research Group for the Feminist Majority Foundation, and confirmed by more recent polls, support for anti-affirmative action measures collapses once voters learn such measures will outlaw all affirmative action programs for women and minorities.
Affirmative action backers are concerned that if the California initiative passes, it could set a trend for other states. Already, voters in six other states may face anti-affirmative action ballot measures in November, 1996: Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Oregon, and Washington.
Affirmative action is also being challenged in Congress. Through procedurally questionable means, Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) attached Senator Bob Dole’s language to the U.S. Senate Appropriations bill to eliminate all federal spending on affirmative action. The Feminist Majority, in conjunction with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, helped organize Senate opposition from moderate Republicans and Democrats who succeeded in removing Gramm’s anti-affirmative action provision from the appropriations bill.
A combination of pro-affirmative action Senators and other Senators who opposed Gramm’s actions for procedural reasons resulted in the deletion of the anti-affirmative action language from the bill. However, affirmative action is not out of the woods yet in Congress; hearings on the issue are expected to be held in both the House and the Senate before the end of the year.
Affirmative action has been crucial to opening doors for women to professional schools and non-traditional jobs in management, police, construction, and other higher-paying jobs previously open almost exclusively to men. A 1995 study by Rutgers University law professor Alfred Blumrosen, a U.S. Labor Department consultant on affirmative action issues, revealed that an estimated six million women would not have the jobs they have today were it not for affirmative action programs. Further, the percentage of contracts awarded to women and minorities drops and employment opportunities decline without Affirmative Action.
The Campaign for Affirmative Action in California is currently raising money to hire staff, obtain office space, and educate the public about the devastating effects of this initiative. A statewide Steering Committee is being formed that will be comprised of leading women’s rights groups as well as women’s business and professional groups. Please send contributions to the Campaign for Affirmative Action, P.O. Box 3385, Los Angeles, CA 90051-3385.