A Plan that Worked

In the 1990’s, when I was teaching at Walton High School in the Bronx, during the height of the HIV epidemic; the Board of Education decided to institute a program that involved providing condoms at selected schools.  Maybe Walton was chosen  because it used to be an all-girls school and they did get pregnant.  I do know that to commemorate the event, Magic Johnson, who had just announced that he was HIV positive, decided to host an assembly at Walton.  The administration, students and the media were all there to publicize the event.  Some parents, in Staten Island and Queens objected strongly to the program but it went ahead anyway.

            Volunteer teachers (myself amongst them) were trained by the Board to teach about HIV and how to use condoms to prevent exposure to the disease.  We taught the lessons once a week during the third period in selected classrooms to either our own students or with another teacher present in his or her subject class. (We were warned not to mention the term pregnancy during the lessons.)  I mention this because I just read that the city has decided to reenter the fray by initiating a poster campaign at MTA bus and subway locales to educate students about the dangers and consequences of teenage pregnancy.

            Some viewers have stated that they find the ads demeaning and immoral and others have said it’s a very good idea.  I have no opinions one way or the other on the subject because I haven’t seen the ads yet or spoken to teenagers about them.  I just have one question?  Why now?  Statistics here and in the rest of the country don’t show an increase in teenage pregnancy but nearly 9 out of 10 teenage pregnancies in the city are unplanned.  The city spent over $400,000 to implement the program which includes a survey, a website, and video games to teach the dangers of an unplanned pregnancy.

            Planned Parenthood, on the other hand, denounced the campaign, saying it ignored the racial, economic and social factors that contribute to teenage pregnancy and stigmatized teenage parents and their children.  Planned Parenthood originally helped to sponsor the condom distribution plan described above and, of course THEY were stigmatized at the time for even suggesting such a program.

            In today’s political climate, where the Arkansas legislature has passed a law to outlaw abortion up to the twelfth week of pregnancy, I’m not surprised that New York City has hired a public relations company to stigmatize teenagers.  Better trivialize the issue with emotional posters and video games than do what we actually did almost thirty years ago to prevent pregnancy in the first place.  And it worked!

Who Speaks for Us?

                                                                            

                There has been much comment and controversy concerning the role of feminism in the women’s movement.  Everything from the commemoration of the 50^th anniversary  of the publication of The Feminine Mystique to a documentary on public television tracing the modern history of the women’s movement.  Today Maureen Down in the New York Times focused on the books and comments by two powerful women executives (from Facebook and Yahoo) who have recently instituted policies that seem to contradict the original tenets of the movement about whether a woman’s place is actually in the home or at her job site.

                All this reminds me of the contradictions about policies circulated by the original founders of the women’s movement concerning lesbians, housewives, professionals, women of color and other factions that abounded during the original demonstrations and publications.  One thing was certain: the reason that feminism floundered as it progressed through the 20^th and 21^st centuries was the very reason it is weakened today.  It is focused on middle and upper class women who have never really benefitted from the gains made down through the years and it was mostly an American phenomenon.

                To support this contention, I could cite many examples.  Two of them were outlined by articles in the Times today.  One dealt with sexual crimes committed against women in the military that went unreported for years because women were afraid to speak out against their male trainers who were above their rank and intimidated them.  It was also the military protocol (controlled by male officers) that made it difficult to prosecute these sex offenders.  It is only at the present time, when thousands of enlisted women have had the courage to come forward to report these crimes, that the military establishment has decided to do something to change this environment.

                The same could be said about availability of child care that was described in an article about Japanese mothers today who have full time jobs but sometimes have to wait years to get their children placed in nurseries that are terribly crowded or not available to them at the present time.  This is also true for millions of women around the world, and even in big cities in the US, where subsidized day in unavailable or too expensive for lower and middle class mothers.

                It’s true that women like the CEO’s of Facebook and Yahoo have all their childcare needs provided for them so they can maintain full professional responsibilities and spend time with their children whenever they want.  But what about single mothers throughout the country who have to find alternate facilities so they can continue to work and provide for their children’s needs?  How has the women’s movement helped improve the situation for them down through the years?

                Until the women’s movement recognizes that a women’s place is anywhere where their rights as parents and workers are truly protected by social movements or the government and works to protect these rights, it will not represent the true mission of feminism in this generation.