Report prepared by Adele James, Program Officer, The Women's Foundation

ACTIONS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

1. We participated in several CAWA local and regional meetings to identify health as a priority issue affecting social and economic status. We recruited participants to provide leadership for the health access agenda that expands health concerns beyond the local community, traditional public health programs and hospital care. We established health priorities for a local CAWA network action plan and connected them to the other eleven areas of concern in the Beijing Plan of Action.
2. We recruited activists to support the priority agenda on health and to outreach to other women's and girls' organizations working on related health issues - full access to care, holistic health and preventive programs. We brainstormed with activists and began investigating legislative proposals for health care financing and analyzing their impact on women and girls.

OBSTACLES ENCOUNTERED

1. A lack of women's and girl's organizations and leadership advocating health care financing as a priority issue.
2. Lack of understanding of how opponents of equality for women and girls use gender, as well as racial tactics (ranging from stereotypical definitions of "family" to challenging government participation in the provision of health care as "bad") to defeat improvements in the nation's health care systems. This is especially visible in media campaigns that use "wedge issues " to target women and swing votes. Similarly, employers and medical associations (to maintain the status quo) focus their attention persuading women to support increased use of tertiary care (in hospitals), at the expense of primary care, holistic health and preventive methods.
3. Lack of public understanding of health care financing, the minimal resources available at local community levels and the limited number of women's and girls' health organizaations with a broad-based policy focus combine to maintain the present system in which women's voices are seldom heard at local, regional, state and national health strategy sessions.

LESSONS LEARNED

1. Women and girls in California have documented many times over that their health status and access to basic physical, mental preventative health care and services are key issues. Organizing and building a statewide consensus on HOW this can be successfully accomplished is a major obstacle given historical and well-organized opposition. Women utilize the health care system 30% more than men and carry most of the burden of obtaining health care for their families. Policies which result in decrease in public spending and the "devolution" (transfer of public services and funding from the national tax base to the state and local tax base), severe cuts in the safety net (Medicaid, Medicare), teaching hospitals, the balance budget agreement of 1997, changes in Welfare (TANF/CalWorks), etc are dismantling the infrastructure needed from which to construct and expand basic health care. These policies, without constructing a new, more efficient and efficacious policy of universal health care fundamentally, creates risk for ill-health for all and increases the vulnerability of especially poor people, including the working poor, to highest risk of ill-health. This is of particular importance to women and girls since women account for two-thirds of all adults living in poverty and two-thirds of all elderly adults living in poverty. The Health Task Force has learned how the social factors of income and its relationship to wealth, gender, race, disability AND a few health behaviors are major indicators of health and ill-health. As Dr. Donald M. Berwick, pediatrician stated: "Tell me someone's race, their income, whether they smoke and the answers will tell me more about their longevity and health status than any other question I could possibly ask." (NYT, 1/26/98).
2. We are developing organizing strategies and leadership, especially paid leadership. to accomplish the goal of educating women and girls, and develop a legislative health agenda as well as concrete local strategies for health access. We need collaborations of advocacy and policy at local and state levels to focus on health care for all. We need to insure that coalitions on health care include diverse communities, women and girls, and women and girls health care issues in overall legislation, research, and data collection and prevention strategies.
3. We have investigated how the interrelationship of poverty, prejudice and gaps in wealth create ill-health for women and girls which in turn creates more poverty, violence and ill-health for generations of people and the environment. Heart disease, for instance, is the number one cause of death for women (28% of all deaths). The growth of cancer, especially breast cancer for women and girls, is undeniably related to environmental factors. Other health related significant information is that domestic violence is the single largest cause of injury to women, accounting for more emergency hospital visits than auto accidents, muggings and rape combined. AIDS is the leading cause of death among African American and Latina women ages 25-44. Overall, women and girls of color have higher disease-related morbidity and shorter life span than white women and girls.

ACTION RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE CALL TO ACTION, 2/26/00

1. Universal Comprehensive Health Care. We advocate the creation of a health care system that places the needs of women and children at the center and ensures access to quality, culturally appropriate primary care, holistic and preventative care regardless of a person's ability to pay.
   

   All activities and actions are within the context of UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights as defined by the definition of health of the World Health Oganizatinon (WHO) and the Beijing Plan for Action (1995).

   • Develop a collaborative of public & private institutions, governmental agencies, and community-based organizations (CBOs) to establish relationships and representation with new and continuing California legislative initiatives & processes to influence policy and action toward achievable universal access to health care in California.
   • Continue to support the State-wide efforts toward universal health care, such as: expanding MediCal to disabled workers and enrolling parents of children who are enrolled in Healthy Families (also support simplifying applications and expanding outreach to immigrant communities) and SB480.
   • Support legislation to shift prison spending to health care and education.
2. Incorporate competency training and standards (including gender, mental & physical disability, race, ethnicity, national origin, refugees, immigrants, sexual orientation, income disparity, age, geographic location) in every health service and teaching institution for health personnel. Re-institute affirmative action to ensure that women and people of color are trained as health care providers.
3. Allocate more research dollars to explore the health care needs of women of various ethnic groups in California. Include women and girls in clinical trials and research. Collect researched data on women and girls and widely publish and distribute locally and to influence public policy.
4. Provide universal access to community-based family planning reproductive health services and care. Establish universal testing for mammograms and pap smears. Include all available choices for all women and girls throughout the entire life cycle by:

   Providing access and affordability to all new modalities of birth control as may be established by professional standards of care and contraception and sexual education and services including emergency contraception; supporting the elimination of means testing for reproductive health care, family planning; stopping the erosion of Roe v. Wade caused by barriers to access for low income and rural women, threats and violence against abortion providers, and legislative backsliding on reproductive rights; working to develop policies specific to hospital mergers to ensure that the requirement for meeting community health needs includes maintain access to the full range of reproductive/sexual health and family planning services; provide access to alternative and traditional family planning in all communities and STD/HIV prevention, detection and management, medical and surgical abortion; seek immediate approval of RU486. 

5. Provide reproductive health choices and health care for all women and girls throughout life from pregnancy, through pre-post-menopause. This means using our network to stop annual attacks eroding Roe v. Wade.

ACTIONS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Since the Beijing Conference, efforts have focused on work/family balance; living wage issues; pay and retirement security; and reform of CALWORKS programs.

In the area of work/family balance, the federal government has allowed states the option to use unemployment insurance for birth or adoption of children. In California, Governor Davis signed a bill to study the financial costs and benefits of paid family leave; and legislation has been introduced that would extend the family friendly protections of the California Family Rights Act to employees at businesses with 20 or more employees. In San Francisco, there has been a public hearing and study about the impact of paid maternity leave.

On the pay and benefits front, many local governments have enacted or proposed living wage ordinances to raise wages, provide health insurance and generally improve the living standards of workers employed by contractors.

Throughout the State, coalitions have been formed to raise awareness about the wage gap between women and men and to press employers for equal pay and greater benefits. Efforts to prevent privatization of social security have been successful and further efforts continue to ensure adequate funding for future beneficiaries. In business, women are starting firms at twice the rate of men and providing many jobs to California's workforce.

For women in poverty, active coalitions have mobilized to help provide transitional services for women moving from welfare to work. As women have entered the CALWORKS system, advocacy organizations have conducted focus groups with women to understand what works and to press for changes that will improve women's short and long term efforts to find economic self-sufficiency.

OBSTACLES ENCOUNTERED

Overall, the largest obstacle is the growing income inequality within the State - reflecting a trend of high job growth in the high-paying technology fields, which are dominated by white, male workers, as well as high job growth in the low-paying service industry jobs, where workers are more likely to be female and/or people of color.

Women make up a disproportionate number of those in poverty and roughly 70% of all minimum wage workers. While unemployment rates are low for Northern and Southern California cities, the central valley continues to experience deep unemployment and women have few viable job options.

Despite a booming economy. immigrant women are still invisible. Low-income, limited-English-speaking immigrant women toil for long hours in low wage jobs as electronics assemblers, agricultural workers, and garment workers, with few or no benefits and many occupational hazards.

Compared with women throughout the nation, California women earn generally higher wages - about $520 per week on average, compared to a national average of only $456 for women - yet we still have a wage gap with our male counterparts - in 1998, on average California women earned 85.7 percent of men's weekly wages. While this wage ratio is better than the U.S. average of women earning 76.3 percent of men's weekly wages, the higher wages are offset by California's higher cost of living, including higher than average housing and child care prices. In addition, the state lags behind others in the number of workers who do not have health insurance. The prospering economy has generated an influx of high-wage workers, yet housing creation has not kept up with demand -- resulting in a crisis in affordable housing. Rents have skyrocketed and new housing eludes all but the well-to-do. Complicating the picture is the problem of affordable child care -- statewide nearly five children compete for each child care slot, driving up the cost of care and pricing low-income families out of the market. The average cost of care is $545 a month, higher than the median average working woman's weekly salary. Too few employers offer family-friendly benefits, and flex-time, part-time, job sharing, and telecommuting is still unavailable for many. Moreover, too many women cannot afford to take unpaid time off from work for family and medical needs. In both government and private entities, women comprise an alarmingly small percentage of top managers and the skilled trades.

Occupational segregation is still the norm. Despite the great advancements in the overall number of women entering the professions and blue collar trades, the proportion of women in these nontraditional occupations is still very low, and women continue to experience isolation and sexual harassment in these fields. While women formed businesses at twice the rate of men in 1997, they still received only 2% of institutional venture capital money. Barriers include work/family pressures, having more responsibilities and less time to devote to business.

LESSONS LEARNED

We have made inroads in many areas and generated increased media attention to our concerns, but still battle the same problems. Success has been greatest for women with advanced education and training, and access to mentoring and supportive networks.

Diversity and affirmative action programs are critical to maintaining our status and should be expanded. Data collection has been important to understand links between gender and other identities such as race, immigration status, parental status, language, sexual orientation, disability, age, and other status. The living wage efforts are encouraging, yet must supplement other efforts to raise the minimum wage, ensure equal pay for equal work, and close the wage gap along gender, race, and other such lines. Coalitions are critical to push issues while partnerships with elected officials are essential to pass stronger laws and ensure enforcement of existing law.

ACTION RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE CALL TO ACTION, 2/26/00

• Through individual letter writing and phone calls, as well as coalition efforts, urge lawmakers to pass a higher minimum wage.
• At the local level, urge local elected officials to pass living wageordinances, and offer tax incentives to employers who already do so.
• Raise awareness about pay and benefit issues - hold educational forums that teach and encourage women how to assess their own skills and abilities and to negotiate on their own behalf, including seeking higher pay through raises, promotions and new job opportunities in higher paying fields. Empower women to advocate for themselves in the workplace.
• Press lawmakers to address the barriers which make it difficult for low-income women to maintain steady employment, including the lack of affordable, quality child care, adequate transportation and commuting times, and wages that lift a family above the poverty level.
• Use May 11th, Equal Pay Day, as an opportunity to raise awareness about the wage gap between women and men by holding rallies and sending letters and op-eds to newspapers and elected officials about the wage gap and calling on employers to take steps to assess the wage gap in their own companies and eliminate pay disparities.
• Promote greater opportunity for women in nontraditional occupations through apprentice-ship and job training opportunities.
• Press local School Boards to develop teacher training and curriculum which emphasizes math and science applications in ways that appeals to girls as well as boys.
• Call for greater enforcement of existing laws against employment and wage discrimination.
• Support women in business by requiring banks and other lending institutions to expand access to credit and micro-credit programs.
• Utilize "Take Our Daughters to Work Day" as an opportunity to expose girls to the kinds of jobs held by their fathers, brothers and uncles.
• Expand or build career centers where low-income women can learn more about high paying job opportunities and the skills and training needed to obtain those jobs.

Senior Advisor and Resource Specialist:

SUMMARY STATEMENT

At the Beijing Conference, three strategic objectives for action concerning human rights were identified including Strategic Objective I.1 whose goals are to "promote and protect the human rights of women, through the full implementation of all human rights instruments, especially the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)."

Furthermore, the U.S. Government made a commitment to ratify CEDAW as its top priority among the human rights treaties which were awaiting the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate. However, now in February 2000, the U.S. is the only western industrialized countries which has not ratified CEDAW, leaving it in the company of countries such as the Sudan and Iran. So far, 165 countries have ratified CEDAW.

We in the CAWA Human Rights Task Force continue to make the local, state-wide and national ratification of CEDAW a priority of our work: Krishanti Dhamaraj as Executive Director, Women's Institute for Leadership Development (WILD) for Human Rights and member of the Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) Board of Directors; Julianne Cartwright Traylor, Chair, AIUSA Board of Directors, and Founding and Current Member, Board of Directors, Human Rights Advocates; and Billie Heller, Founding Member and Chair, National Committee on CEDAW, in partnership and collaboration with the many non-governmental organizations, individuals, and networks with which we work throughout California and nationally.

ACTIONS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

California has taken major steps toward implementing the Beijing Platform for Action. The California State Legislature has twice passed resolutions urging the US Senate to act favorably on CEDAW, and was the third State in the US to pass such a resolution.

More recently "Resolution Projects" have been successfully done in six of its Counties, i.e., Los Angeles, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz; and in five of its Cities, i.e., Redlands, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and West Hollywood. Other Projects are in progress throughout California, i.e., in Napa, Placer and Sonoma Counties, and in the Cities of Auburn, El Dorado, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Mountain View, Napa, Roseville, San Bernadino, Santa Monica, Santa Rosa and South Lake Tahoe.

Particularly in relationship to the City and County of San Francisco, on April 14, 1998, San Francisco became the first ever US city to implement the principles of an international human rights treaty - CEDAW. The ordinance which was passed confirmed the status of the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) as the permanent city commission to implement and monitor the progress of implementing CEDAW. This ordinance represents a collaboration between governmental and community organizations led by K. Dhamaraj's WILD and the SF CSW with two other leading partner organizations including AIUSA - Western Region, and The Women's Foundation. There are separate packets from WILD available here at the Beijing 5+ Pacific Region Preparatory Conference with additional information on the local ratification and implementation of CEDAW process.

Other organizations are also involved in the CEDAW ratification process. For example, California State NOW (National Organization for Women) has made CEDAW Resolutions a priority action for all of their California chapters, which has led to a similar action for their national organization.

Resolutions Projects have led local NGOs and individuals to form coalitions facilitating work and education on CEDAW as well as other Platform for Action issues of concern. These networks are a valuable by-product of the Resolutions Projects.

California has also taken a leadership role on CEDAW at the national level. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the only woman serving on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced Senate Resolution 237 (S.Res 237) on November 19,1999, with 8 of the 9 women Senators co-sponsoring, urging prompt consideration of CEDAW by March 8^th (International Women's Day) of 2000. Since then seven male Senators have also signed on as co-sponsors.

In addition, Representative Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) introduced House Resolution 107 (H.Res.107), on March 10, 1999, now with approximately 100 co-sponsors, urging the Senate to give its advice and consent to the ratification of CEDAW.

OBSTACLES ENCOUNTERED

There have been problems at the federal level for CEDAW in dealing with a recalcitrant U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and its Chair, Republican Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC), who has a long-held aversion to any international treaty which he considers as potentially superseding U.S. law and has blocked action on the treaty, i.e., holding hearings in the Committee.

Other obstacles include the lack of enough public education, the abundance of misinformation, and the hesitancy to ratify CEDAW stemming from unfounded fears and myths associated with the implementation of CEDAW in the US, including unfounded allegations of CEDAW 1) giving too much power to the international community with the provisions of CEDAW superseding U.S. federal and state law; 2) defining "discrimination" too broadly leading to frivolous lawsuits; 3) destroying the traditional family structure in the U.S.; 4) usurping the "proper" role of parents in child rearing; supporting abortion and its promotion of access to family planning: 6) promoting equal pay for unequal work; and 7) diluting moral persuasion on the international level concerning human rights treaty ratification.

Since the 1995 Beijing Conference, there has been a growing conservative political climate throughout the state as evidenced in the wake of passage of propositions such as Prop. 209 (against affirmative action).

Concerning Resolutions Projects in California, so far one of the few problems reported has been that the City of Claremont has a policy that does not allow for Resolutions of the "CEDAW-type" on any subject.

LESSONS LEARNED

Lessons learned include the fact that while advocacy should continue to be done on the national level to ratify CEDAW, there is value in continuing to advocate for CEDAW ratification on the local, county and state levels. Both strategies should be used in order to implement the provisions of an international human rights treaty such as CEDAW. More community outreach, education and training, and networking need to be done concerning CEDAW ratification. All of these efforts will help to promote, protect and fulfill the human rights of women and girls.

ACTION RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE CALL TO ACTION, 2/26/00

• Overarching: Action for 2000 Elections - all candidates (local, state and national) must respond on their support/opposition to CEDAW
• Work to create state and local versions of CEDAW in California
• Contact WILD (Women's Institute for Leadership Development) for Handbook on models in Oakland & San Francisco
• Write letters (or FAX or e-mail) to legislators for hearings and ratification of CEDAW and the Rights of the Child
• Support H.Res 107 (Woolsey) and get co-signers for S.Res 237 (Boxer)
• Support HR 1050 on unemployment, jobs & training
• Write and seek placement of op-ed pieces which highlight how CEDAW affects the lives of all women and girls
• Educate others: Plan a media blitz, including use of e-mail and internet, to connect to others
• Register new voters
• Advocacy in support of Senator Barbara Boxer's S.Res.237, and Representative Lynn Woolsey's H.Res.107.

ACTIONS AND ACHIEVMENTS"

1. More women were elected to office in the last election cycle.

   In 1998, a record 65 women were elected to the US Congress, with a record 9 women serving in the Senate and 56 serving in the House, also an all time high. In California, we sent 15 women to Congress, including the two women in the Senate. Nationally, women represent 12.1% of congressional representatives, and in CA we sent 25%, more than double the national rate. In California, 40% of women we send to Congress are women of color. In our State Legislature, we send 25% women, which is higher than the national average of 19.8%. Washington leads the states in gender equity with 40.9% women in their State Legislature. We have an unusual phenomenon in the Bay Area, where we send two women to the US Senate and six to the US House of Representatives.

2. Women's Appointment Project

   The California Coalition of Women, composed of a coalition of women's groups: National Women's Political Caucus of CA (NWPC), California Elected Women's Association for Education and Research (CEWAER), Leadership California, and the California Commission on the Status of Women, created the Women's Appointment Project (WAP) to increase the number of women in state appointments, especially the top cabinet, department directors and deputy directors positions. The Project was based on a successful national project NWPC pioneered. The Project provided research, screened applications and sent 295 names to the governor for top policy positions, and provided training for women on how to obtain an appointment. WAP was widely advertised through women's organizations around the state, greatly increasing awareness of appointment opportunities. This project was called the "best organized project seeking appointments" by the San Francisco Examiner. Key appointments to women by Governor Davis include Lynn Schenk as Chief of Staff and three women, Aileen Adams, Maria-Contreras-Sweet and Mary Nichols in Cabinet positions.

3. The Women's Vote:

   Women's Vote Projects have been in full force around the country, recognizing that the women's vote can and will make a big difference in elections. There are nine million more women than men in the United States and their votes can help to determine the next president of the United States. A gender gap that widened in the 1980's and 1990's may be more pronounced than ever.

   The gender gap occurred this year in the New Hampshire primary where the parties split principally along gender lines: men flocked to the Republican primary, while women chose to vote in the Democratic contest. Women accounted for 62 percent of the Democratic electorate in New Hampshire, compared with 54 percent in 1992 and 52 percent in 1988. In the Republican primary, men made up 57 percent of the Republican vote, comparable to the profile in 1996, when Bob Dole and Pat Buchanan were vying for the nomination, and they voted in larger numbers than in previous years. Men made up only 51 percent of the GOP electorate in 1988. The size of the gender imbalance in New Hampshire was striking, and it may hold true throughout the campaign.

OBSTACLES ENCOUNTERED

Not enough women are running for elected or appointed office and not enough women are helping and supporting women in gaining political power. There are not enough women seeking appointments or running for office at the local, state, or national level. Women often fall short, analysts say, for the same old reasons -- not enough money or networking too many responsibilities at home and at work. But women who are active and successful in politics say many women still lack the kind of all-consuming commitment that drives many male political animals. Unless more women put politics at the center of their lives -- recruiting and supporting one another as they pursue political power -- the country will continue to be shaped without their influence. Many women with brains and political talent are choosing not to make that commitment, deciding to balance a career and family early in their lives.

Roe V. Wade is in danger of being overturned. The November 2000 election will decide whether Roe v. Wade will prevail. The stakes are enormous. The next president will appoint up to three Supreme Court Justices. Currently the majority of Congress is adamantly anti-choice. Women in this country are faced with daily erosions on a woman's right to choose, from laws that restrict the rights of young women to choose under the rubric of parental consent and notification to restrictions on late term abortion. Pro-choice elected women can make an important difference in the Congress, in the Senate, and in City Hall. When we elect women we make sure that women's voices will be heard on such issues as health care, social security, and pay equity.

A women's right to reproductive self-determination is being threatened by Congress, which has busied itself for the last five years with anti-abortion legislation: 102 pieces between 1994 and 1998. We need to continue to support candidates who will represent our view that every woman has the right to privacy and reproductive freedom.

LESSONS LEARNED

We have to better educate the public about Roe v. Wade and why a pro-choice President this next term is crucial. We need to encourage women to give money to candidates, no matter what the amount. Without money, candidates do not win. We need to encourage women to work on women's campaigns, to pick one or two candidates each election cycle and volunteer their time. A collective voice of women's organizations is much stronger than individual voices saying the same thing. CAWA is certainly an example of how effective networking can be.

THREE MAJOR PRIORITY ACTIONS

1. We must elect a pro-choice President to protect women's reproductive freedom. We are a single vote away from overturning Roe v. Wade. Presidents appoint Supreme Court Justices and they also have the power to veto congressional legislation that does not have a two-thirds majority capable of an override.

2. We need to continue to focus our energies on women's appointments at the federal, state and local level. Women in appointed position gain political experience. Appointment office is a wonderful pipeline for elected office. We need to develop local appointment projects in all counties in California. We should repeat this project statewide every four years.

3. We must focus our energies on recruiting and training pro-choice women to run for elected office. The timing is ripe for women to pursue high office and change the gender balance of America. We need to make a concerted effort to recruit potential pro-choice women candidates in districts where incumbents will be forced to retire because of term limits. Incumbent women legislators who are being "termed out" should help to identify and groom successors for their seats. If more women run, their visibility in politics would grow, more would win office, and those positive trends would ripple to produce a flood of female candidates. We need to encourage women to put politics at the center of their lives - recruiting and supporting one another as they pursue political power. As women decide to run for office, we should assist them win their elections by providing campaign training tailored to women who run for office.

ACTION RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE CALL TO ACTION, 2/26/00

• TOP PRIORITY: Influence the 2000 elections - GET WOMEN TO VOTE
• Broadcast the Women's Leadership Alliance (WLA) position papers to the entire network and the public; incorporate local issues into the subject areas of the position papers
• Question candidates on the issues and report publicly on their responses
• Engage young girls in the political process - e.g. to: 1) vote and run for office in school; and 2) speak at school programs and to school organizations on issues; and 3) volunteer in political campaigns and in the offices of candidates and elected officials.
• Work with others for universal health coverage
• Use the internet to communicate and to find information
• Monitor elected officials on their "women's issues" votes and on pay equity to their staffers
• Appointment and election of gender equity-minded, pro-choice people to positions of power & influence
• Implement a support system in schools in which children and youth are encouraged to report and organize discussions on anger/hostility
• Work with CAWA network and other organizations for universal health coverage
• Create or find a forum/community for women's voices
• Encourage financial institutions to make small business loans
• Educate women re credit and provide financially-empowering advice
• Identify a network of organizations promoting gender equity - know what everyone is doing; identify web sites and use the internet to connect)
• Bring media to our actions: use public access and mainstream media; encourage media literacy and evaluation
• Newsletter/magazine creation for young women and/or identify and publicize existing ones
• Use of civil disobedience
• College program to mobilize teens to teach equity
• Develop and apply a gender equality curriculum in schools (including financial information/advice)
• Probe and correct gender bias in current textbooks
• Encourage parents/schools to enforce education codes
• Be individually aware and SPEAK OUT!
• Develop and educate public on a "female model" for health delivery and research
• Work with other task forces/groups on diverting U.S. budget/investments from military/corrections to family-oriented programs