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Do women need NOW?
By Betsy Byma
As much as fish need bicycles
As a conservative woman, I am philosophically against affirmative action and Title IX.� Substitution of one form of (perceived) discrimination for another is a step backwards. It shows we have not learned our lessons.
Affirmative action was developed to right the wrongs of the past, to help oppressed groups of people.�By law of averages, women make up the largest of such groups and are “helped” the most.
Ok, ladies, I do not know about you, but I do not need anybody’s help.�I can manage on my own. I would not feel right about receiving a promotion or a raise because, by law, my employer has to fill a quota.
Our grandmothers and mothers shattered the glass ceiling decades ago.�They earned us the right to vote and to participate in the work force. And even though I feel those were great achievements, we do not need to go into extremes.�It is not necessarily important to try to make 50 percent of every office women.�And why sit around trying to figure out how to make half of the firefighters women or sending them into military combat.
Personally, I found a role model in Elizabeth Dole, the Senator-elect from North Carolina.�Dole is also the wife of Bob Dole, a longtime senator from Kansas and Presidential candidate in the 1996 election.�Elizabeth Dole stood next to her husband for many years as he served in public life, and at the same time raised their family. But she is no housewife. She was the director of the Red Cross and served in the Bush administration as Labor Secretary. Affirmative action cannot be credited for her selection to these posts. It was because she is a brilliant woman with an infectious personality and solid principles.
Campaigning in North Carolina, Elizabeth Dole was told she was too conservative and might turn voters away, especially women. She campaigned on the privatization of social security, the sanctity of the lives of pre-born children, and continuation of second amendment rights. She did duck the fight when faced with liberal, Democratic scare tactics. She continued to push for welfare reform, denounced Title IX and advocated school choice.
Her platform of common sense policy and reforms prompted the National Organization of Women to raise money for her opponent — a male! Is NOW supporting women or is it a branch of the Democratic Party, similar to the NAACP? Why would Elizabeth Dole be a threat to NOW? Is it because she is successful without their help?�Or, maybe she is not the ideal feminist?
Conservative women are growing in number.�We don’t need the help of organizations or government programs with exclusively liberal agendas. They do more harm than good.
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