NOW – Don't Gel Too Soon

Kim Gandy Would Be a Perfect Director of the Women’s Bureau

This is Kim Gandy, currently moving toward the end of her second term as President of the National Organization for Women – known to most as NOW. Throughout her tenure she has been a fierce, sensitive and sensible advocate for women's rights and the rights of women as workers, whether at WalMart or West Point. (see her bio here or at the bottom of this post*) The initiatives she's launched have raised visibility and prospects for issues ranging from equal rights to violence against women, and she's been a national political force for women and girls. As a modern leader and early adopter of the Web, she has been a frequent speaker at online conferences including BlogHer, and Fem 2.0 among others. She is also, warm, smart, funny and determined.

Now she is a prime candidate to become Director of the Women's Bureau in the Department of Labor, a job she was born, and trained, to do, and there is a vague but nasty smear campaign emerging from a new organization that has very little track record and claims what appears to be a non-partisanship. I don't want to give them any more traffic by linking to them. But believe me, Kim Gandy, (full disclosure: I have worked a bit with her on a broad women's initiative) is a spectacular leader, committed to the equality and well-being of all women. If she is chosen, she will use her vast experience – and her vast network – to serve the women of this country with determination and political savvy.

We need and deserve her as our advocate in the Women's Bureau, and any who question her commitment or capacity are, in my view, sadly mistaken. Please ignore any groups detracting from her and her dedication to the safety, equality and success of American women and
those around the world. And if you're so inclined, you might want to post about it yourself!

*Kim Gandy – President

Kim
Gandy is serving her second term as president of the National
Organization for Women, elected by the group's grassroots members in
2001 and again in 2005. She has served as a national officer of NOW
since 1987 and in state, local and regional leadership positions since
1973.

Gandy also is president of the NOW Foundation, chair of NOW's Political Action Committees, and serves as the principal spokesperson for all three entities. Gandy oversees NOW's multi-issue agenda,
which includes: advancing reproductive freedom, promoting diversity and
ending racism, stopping violence against women, winning LGBT rights,
ensuring economic justice, ending sex discrimination and achieving
equality for women.

Since 2001, Gandy has led NOW's campaigns on issues ranging from
Supreme Court nominations to the rights of mothers and caregivers, from
Social Security reform to ending the war in Iraq. Through grassroots
political action, Gandy helped increase the women's vote and change the
face of Congress in 2006 and is leading the organization's efforts
around the pivotal 2008 elections.

Gandy regularly appears in print, television, radio and Internet
media, and she appreciates the enormous impact the media have on
women's lives. Under her direction, NOW has continued a decades-long
commitment to media issues, such as expanding women's opportunities in
the broadcast industry, increasing news coverage of women's issues, and
improving the portrayal of women and girls in advertising and all media.

During Gandy's presidency, NOW celebrated its 40 year anniversary,
organized conferences on issues affecting women of color and women with
disabilities, campaigned against Wal-Mart as a Merchant of Shame, and
expanded efforts to win equal marriage rights and benefits for same-sex
couples. Through the creation of NOW's Campus Action Network
and the Young Feminist Task Force, Gandy has demonstrated a commitment
to reaching out to young women and encouraging their leadership in the
organization.

During her first presidential term, Gandy was one of the lead organizers of The March for Women's Lives
in 2004. Gandy was a key organizer of the 1989 and 1992 marches, and
her expertise in mass actions helped ensure that 1.2 million activists
made the 2004 march for women's reproductive freedom the largest and
most diverse grassroots mobilization in our nation's history.

In the legislative arena, Gandy served on the drafting committees for two groundbreaking federal laws: the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which gave women the right to a jury trial and monetary damages in cases of sex discrimination and sexual harassment, and the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act,
which has dramatically decreased the daily violence at abortion
clinics. In addition, Gandy led the fight against anti-abortion
terrorists through the landmark racketeering case NOW v. Scheidler, which was in litigation for two decades and reached the Supreme Court three times.

In 1991 Gandy directed the WomenElect 2000 Project, a nine-month
grassroots organizing and recruiting effort in Louisiana which tripled
the number of women in the legislature, elected the state's first woman
Lieutenant Governor, and helped to defeat former Klansman David Duke
for Governor.

A long-time activist, Gandy served three years as Louisiana NOW
President. She was elected to the NOW National Board in 1982 and held
the position of Mid-South Regional Director for four years before being
elected to national office.

Gandy graduated from Louisiana Tech University in 1973 with a B.S.
in mathematics. Her NOW involvement inspired her to attend law school,
and she received her law degree in 1978 from Loyola University School
of Law, where she was a member of the Loyola Law Review and the
National Moot Court Team. Gandy went on to serve as a Senior Assistant
District Attorney in New Orleans, and later opened a private trial
practice, litigating countless cases seeking fair treatment for women.

Currently, she resides in Silver Spring, Md., with her husband Dr.
Christopher "Kip" Lornell, an ethnomusicologist and part-time Professor
of Music at George Washington University. They have two daughters,
Elizabeth Cady Lornell and Katherine Eleanor Gandy.

SARAH PALIN II: IS ANYBODY ELSE READY TO THROW UP THAT WE’RE DOING ALL THIS MOMMY TALKING?

I worked at the TODAY SHOW from 1980 to 1989. During that time I probably produced, conservatively, two pieces a month on "working mothers", as we were called then. It was rough slogging. No matter how many times we looked at it (always from both sides) it just wouldn’t die. Of course early in that same period we had trouble getting cameramen who would shoot a story including an AIDS victim, so there were tougher issues for sure.

In any case, in that period we talked to T. Berry Brazelton (often), Lois Hoffman, Ellen Galinsky, Dr. Edward Zigler, Phyllis Schlafly, Sylvia Hewlett, activists from Catalyst, NOW, Eagle Forum, David Elkind, Letty Cottin Pogrebin and literally hundreds of others. We debated every aspect of child development, nature/nurture – you name it, we covered it. By the time I left at the end of 1989 the issue had mostly been settled – by demographics if nothing else. Mothers were working. Many needed to be. More were on their own, abandoned by or never having had a partner in raising their kids. What was left of the battle was scraps, remnants and [very important] policy issues dealing with childcare, equal pay and family leave etc. Working moms were an American reality.

That was twenty years ago! Twenty years! And now, artificially or not, the issue has emerged again. And many of those allegedly "defending" working moms (or at least one named Sarah) are those who, for much of my working mother life, so vehemently opposed the idea of women going out of the home to work. Sorry. I know the conversation has passed this issue in many ways but as I read posts and newsletters today, it made me mad all over again. With all these conservatives defending working mothers, after what I remember, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. They’re all working now too so some of it is probably genuine but there’s also such an element of strategic hollering. Anyone else feel like they fell down the rabbit hole?

BONNIE AND CLYDE, VIOLENCE AND TIME PASSING

Last Sunday the New York Times reminded us that Bonnie and Clyde, a film seared behind the eyelids of people like me, is 40 years old. I remember it particularly because just after I saw it, I went to a 21st birthday dinner for a friend at her uncle’s home on Park Avenue in Manhattan. I was new to such places then, and, despite my anti-war lefty politics, both thrilled and intimidated – particularly because her uncle was a writer of some renown. For a college senior, it was another experience milestone.

Along with most of adult America, our host had been appalled at the violence of the film. We, on the other hand, argued that the film was an accurate metaphor for the violence in Vietnam; a social comment that spoke deeply to all of us. The argument was long, fierce and audacious — and, of course, unresolved. I haven’t seen the film in many years and am curious how I would react.

I’ve become a lot more sensitive to visual violence as I’ve raised my sons. Beverly Hills Cop was released when my younger son was five. His big brother was nine and really wanted to see it; since we hated leaving Dan behind, he came too. Do you remember the ending? It was a gun battle too but multiples more gory and violent than Bonnie and Clyde ever dreamt of being. The worst part? My son was upset, yes, but the audience barely reacted – and many cheered. Film and TV violence in the years between 1967 and 1984 had escalated slowly, right in front of us – and we had barely noticed. That progression has continued.

It’s a creepy dilemma. I’m a true romantic who revels in love stories like Bull Durham (1988) and Shakespeare in Love (1998), oldies like Now, Voyager (1942) and two I’ve written about before, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)and Rebbecca (1940) as well as decade-old satires like Wag the Dog (1997)and Warren Beatty’s (aka Clyde’s) masterpiece Bulworth (1998). But another of my favorite films is Pulp Fiction (1994)- steeped in violence, much of it random. Silence of the Lambs, too. And of course, The Godfather Trilogy (1972, 1974, 1990) None of these, and other more "realistically violent" films, would have been possible before Arthur Penn brought Bonnie and Clyde to life.

My protective instincts as a mother and activist clash with my respect for the vision of the artist and the gifts those visions can bring to the rest of us. This isn’t a new conversation of course, any more than it was new in 1967. It’s been going on as long as artists have. What’s different this time is that I was a kid when Bonnie and Clyde slammed into our lives; now I’m at least the age of that angry uncle. I know a lot more and that colors how I look at things I don’t know.

I named this blog Don’t Gel Too Soon because I struggle to stay open – available to understand, to appreciate, that which comes next, and to remember that no matter how lovely the lovely there’s more to life than that. And that, after all, if someone doesn’t help us to see it, we can’t join together to change it.