My Internship with NWPC

                              BY: Piper O'Keefe, NWPC Development Intern

In this post, Piper reflects on her experience interning for the National Women's Political Caucus for the Summer of 2015.

As I was searching for internships for this summer, I wanted to find a way to channel my passion for women in politics. At Gettysburg College, I am a Political Science and Globalization Studies double major and German minor, so I am especially interested in the role that women play in politics throughout the world. Although there are many ways in which the United States is a leader when it comes to human rights, only about 20% of the House of Representatives is female, meaning it ranks 72^nd in the world for the percentage of women representatives in national lower houses. We can and should elect more women than this!

I was incredibly excited when I discovered the internships offered through the National Women’s Political Caucus because NWPC is an organization that truly reflects my belief that more pro-choice women from both parties need to be elected to all levels of government. Being a Development Intern with NWPC for the summer has meant that I get to spend the summer in Washington, DC (which is great in itself!) and has given me innumerable opportunities. I have been able to work both in and out of the office furthering women’s equality, and I have learned more than I ever could in a classroom. From meeting with women leaders from across the nation and world to helping to plan and run a major convention, my internship has been packed with more amazing experiences than can even be described.

One of the exciting opportunities I had early this summer was meeting with a delegation of women political leaders from Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Turkey, and Ukraine. We primarily talked with them about what political participation is like for women in the United States and their respective countries. Interestingly, the women shared that in most of their countries there really is no abortion debate in politics- almost everyone is simply pro-choice. They were shocked and confused that the issue of abortion is still a topic of political debate in the US. Until that meeting, the only experience I had with women in politics internationally was comparing statistics; I really enjoyed getting to personalize the facts by meeting these women and hearing what their involvement in politics in other countries has been like.

The NWPC’s 22^nd Biennial Convention took place in Washington, DC this July and the theme for the weekend was 50/50 by 2020: Marching Towards Parity. NWPC members from around the nation came together for three days to elect new national officers and attend panels, events, and workshops filled with incredible speakers. As an intern, I helped to plan the convention beforehand and then actually run it. It was incredibly rewarding to see events that we spent months preparing for unfold successfully before my eyes. The Good Guys Gala, for example, was a seated dinner where we honored four men who are committed to helping women reach equality- Former NWPC Political Director Nick Demeter; the late Dr. Howard Lessner; Baltimore City Councilman, Nick Mosby; and Missouri State Representative Stephen Webber. The Keynote Speaker for the event was Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby. Working from the beginning of the summer to help to get nominations for these awards, contact the honorees, put together their bios, order the awards, and create the event program made hearing their speeches and meeting them an even better experience than it would have otherwise been.

Interning with NWPC has been great for so many reasons- instead of just learning about women in politics, I have met and helped support women in politics; instead of just attending a convention, I have helped to plan and run a convention; and so much more. It has been a pretty incredible summer, to say the least!

To apply for a Fall 2015 internship with NWPC, click here: http://www.nwpc.org/intern 

Rape. Then and Now

BY: Kate Nace Day, Director/Producer of A CIVIL REMEDY

          

Twenty-five years ago, survivors of rape and domestic violence in the United States started telling their stories to Congress. For four years, their stories joined the testimony of physicians, law professors, representatives of state law enforcement and private business in the eight separate Reports issued by Congress and its committees that led to the enactment of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994. On rape, Congress found:

         “Three-quarters of women never go to the movies alone after dark because of the fear of rape and nearly 50 percent do not use public transit alone after dark for the same reason.”

        

         “According to one study, close to half a million girls now in high school will be raped before they graduate.”

         “[One hundred twenty-five thousand] college women can expect to be raped during this -- or any -- year.”

         “[Forty-one] percent of judges surveyed believed that juries give sexual assault victims less credibility than other crime victims.”

         “An individual who commits rape has only about 4 chances in 100 of being arrested, prosecuted, and found guilty of any offense.”

In September 1994, the VAWA was enacted, declaring for the first time: “All persons within the United States shall have the right to be free from crimes of violence motivated by gender.”  Violence against women became more than a crime or personal injury. Such violence was now, in national law, sex discrimination, a violation of civil rights. Victims were given the same civil rights remedy as victims of crimes motivated by race or religion: a federal civil action for damages against perpetrators. 

That September, Christy Brzonkala was an 18 year-old freshman at Virginia Polytechnic Institute.  In her dorm, minutes after she met two varsity football players, one of them asked her to have sex with him. She told him “no,” twice.  When she went to leave, she says they raped her – first one, then the other, and then the first again. As he left, the first warned her, “You better not have any fucking diseases.” He later announced publicly, he “liked to get girls drunk and fuck the shit out of them.”

After Christy Brzonkala complained to the school, two rounds of disciplinary hearings were held.  One football player was acquitted and the other was found guilty of sexual assault and suspended for two semesters.  His suspension was quickly voided.  He was then found guilty of “using abusive language.” The University Provost personally intervened and overturned his second suspension.  He returned the next fall, on a full athletic scholarship.

Christy Brzonkala sued under the civil remedy provision of the VAWA.  As her case made its way to the Supreme Court as United States v. Morrison, the only question had been framed early on by the trial court. It was not the question whether her civil rights had been violated, but a question of federalism. The Supreme Court answered: Congress had no power to place law in the hands of women victims.  In the entire record of her case, Christy Brzonkala has only one word, “no.”

…

It is fifteen years since the Court’s decision in Morrison. The story of rape on American campuses has been building - on new social media, like the websites of survivors like Know Your IX and student organizations, SAFER, and blogs like Feministing and in the unprecedented political and legal responses of the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights' disclosures of Title IX investigations and The First Report of the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. 

This past year, survivor stories became newly visible in documentary film.  In Cecilia Peck's BRAVE MISS WORLD, rape survivor and activist Miss Israel and Miss World Linor Abargil encourages victims of campus rape in America to speak out, and they do.  The director of the award-winning THE GREATEST SILENCE: RAPE IN THE CONGO, Lisa Jackson follows five survivors as they fight for accountability on campus and in federal court in her newly released film, IT HAPPENED HERE.   

Just days ago, Kirby Dick's film about campus rape, THE HUNTING GROUND, premiered at Sundance.   Dick is known for telling human stories of inequalities and power, violence and impunity.  The Invisible War, his 2012 film on rape in the US military, pressed for accountability in how the military handles rape. In March 2014, a bill to take military sexual assault prosecutions out of the hands of commanders fell only five votes short of beating a Senate filibuster. 

 I have not seen THE HUNTING GROUND, described by the Sundance Film Festival as a “piercing, monumental exposé of rape culture on campuses.” While it may be too early to know the specifics of the film’s policy agenda, US Senators Barbara Boxer and Kirsten E. Gillibrand were at Sundance speaking on a related panel. Both are backing legislation requiring schools to disclose publicly the result of anonymous surveys concerning assaults. 

I hope colleges and universities will use these films to teach the vulnerability and violence of rape, its entrenched inequalities and shocking failures of accountability. To teach what the law says, what law does, what law has the power to change – in rape at home, at school, and on the streets, rape as pornography, rape for profit, rape as spectacle, rape in the military, rape as genocide, rape as war too extraordinary to be believed, rape in peace too commonplace to be visible.  

To those in colleges and universities who try to silence survivors or erase the small details and remembered events of their stories, then and now, young women are saying, “no.”

Observations from my first "March For Life"

                              BY: Jessica Greer, NWPC Political Planning & Action Intern

In this post, Jessica reflects on her experiences attending the "March For Life," an annual anti-choice rally held in the nation's capital on the anniversary of the Roe v Wade decision.

 It felt very cold on one of the last Thursdays in January when I went to protest the March for Life. However, after talking with older women who have been coming to this rally for years, forty degrees was nothing. I was quickly given a sign and became a part of my first feminist protest. I have been to protests before, but never one for women’s rights. I felt more impassioned during this protest than others, and after hearing the pro-choice men, I realized how important it is to have other groups actively support you. I have met many men who support reproductive rights, but never ones who went out of their way to prove how important my rights were to them. It meant a lot to me. However, the good feelings did not last long, as pro-lifers starting trickling in bit by bit. At first they were passive, walking around with their signs, babies, and rosaries. There were also occasional prayers said for our souls, so nothing out of the ordinary.

       About an hour later, the hoard arrived and we blocked the road while chanting in unity. The police gave us the right to protest for a while, but eventually we had to clear the street in order to let them pass. A few young (and old) brave women refused and were arrested. All I can hope is that when I am old, I have the gusto that these women do. Watching the pro-lifers march past was an interesting experience. I went to a catholic school for 12 years, so I know what they can be like, but I never saw them in their full glory—and it was terrifying. Seeing all the younger children march past with confused faces was incredibly disheartening. I wouldn’t bring my children to a march for anything at that age. The babies were worse. These people shout about how much they care about babies, but they bring theirs in cold weather to an event with thousands of screaming people. Something else that disturbed me was how many men were marching. They were telling stories over loudspeakers about how their girlfriends had abortions and they felt as if they “lost their fatherhood.” They really brought themselves into a debate that they have no business being in. How can someone be so against something that doesn’t even affect them? The women in the march also barely had respect for their fellow females. Of course, abortion is a choice and you can always choose not to have one. Nonetheless, women should still respect other women who feel that they are unready for a child or simply do not want to be pregnant.

    Despite all this, there was one thing that gave me hope. Seeing all the kids around the junior high age, pressured to be there by their religion, was not as discouraging to me. I am certain that one day these children’s minds will lead them away from their religious bubble. After all my time in that bubble, I know that many kids will find their way out; I watched it happen. Against the pro-lifers loud and repetitive chant, I do not believe there will be an up and coming “pro-life generation.”