Greens Call on Congress to Ensure Equal Rights for Women on Int'l Women's Day

THE GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES

MEDIA ADVISORY
For immediate release:
Wednesday, March 6, 2002

Contacts:
Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576,
nallen [at] acadia.net
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624,
scottmclarty [at] yahoo.com



GREENS CALL ON CONGRESS TO ENSURE EQUAL RIGHTS
FOR WOMEN ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

The Green Party urges ratification of the U.N.
Convention on women's rights and passage of the
Fair Pay Act


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party candidates and
leaders, marking International Women's Day, March
8, called on the Senate to ratify the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women, adopted by the U.N. more than two
decades ago.

"The situation of women in places like
Afghanistan proves how urgent it is for the U.S.
to endorse the Convention," said Starlene Rankin,
a member of Chicago Women In Black and Green
candidate for the Chicago School Council. "It's
the only comprehensive international treaty
guaranteeing women's human rights and the
prevention of discrimination against women.
Women worldwide believe that only when they are
full and equal participants in governance will we
be able to truly manage the problems of the
world."

In late 2001, Greens pushed for involvement of
the Revolutionary Association of the Women of
Afghanistan (RAWA) in the formation of a
post-Taliban democratic government; several Green
activists, including International Committee
co-chair Annie Goeke, are members of the
international peace network Women in Black.
Medea Benjamin of the California Greens led a
delegation of women from Global Exchange on a
fact-finding trip, meeting women in Afghanistan
and Pakistan, in late November, 2001.

Greens also urge Congress to recognize equal
rights for women in the U.S. by passing the Fair
Pay Act.

"Full-time women workers earn 73% of what
full-time working men earn," said Anne-Bernadette
Weiner, a member of the Illinois Green Party
Executive Committee, Campus Greens organizer, and
women's rights activist. "It's time to enact
Federal Fair Pay legislation."

"The U.S. pay gap exists because women and people
of color are still segregated into a few
low-paying occupations," said Weiner, noting that
more than half of all women workers hold sales,
clerical, and service jobs. "The more an
occupation is dominated by women or minorities,
the greater the wage gap; the less it pays, the
lower Social Security benefits are reckoned.
That's why so many older women retire
impoverished."

The Green Party of the United States also
supports the establishment of a living wage,
making child care universal, and enacting
universal health care through a national health
insurance plan. 60% of minimum wage workers are
women; millions of working and poor women and
their families have been denied health coverage
and reproductive choice because of insurance
company and HMO bureaucracy.

"Greens support affirmative action for women,"
added Gloria Mattera, Green candidate for New
York City Council in District 39 (Brooklyn) in
2001. "We favor family-friendly work policies
such as flex time, job sharing, on-site child
care, provision of benefits to domestic partners,
including same-sex couples, passage of the
national Employee Non-Discrimination Act
outlawing job bias based on sexuality, and
measures against sexual harassment and other
workplace abuses. Unlike Democrats and
Republicans, the Green Party endorses all of
these policies in its platform."

"Feminism -- the notion that women deserve full
civil rights, equality, and freedom -- is one of
the key values of the Green Party," noted Dr.
Jonathan Farley, Green candidate for U.S.
Congress in Tennessee.

Green political leaders around the world include
Wangari Maathai (Kenya), Ingrid Betancourt
(Colombia), Dominque Voynet (former Environmental
Minister of France ), Satoko Watanabe (Japan),
Jeanette Fitzsimons (New Zealand), Natalia
Escudero (Mexico), Lotta Hedstrom (Member of the
Swedish Parliament); Medea Benjamin, Carol
Miller, and 2000 Vice Presidential candidate
Winona LaDuke in the U.S.; and the late Petra
Kelly, founder of the first Green Party, in
Germany. Three of the six members of the
Steering Committee of the Green Party of the
United States (Anita Rios, Nathalie Paravicini,
and Jo Chamberlain) are women, and the annual
slates of U.S. Green candidates include a large
percentage of women.


MORE INFORMATION

The Green Party of the United States
http://gpus.org
http://www.greenpartyus.org

Revolutionary Association of the Women of
Afghanistan http://www.rawa.org

Women in Black http://www.igc.org/balkans/wib/

Global Exchange http://www.globalexchange.org


END