I'm appalled. I thought what you said was one of the cornerstones of NOWs current positions.
"While we do not know the truth of the allegations made against President Clinton, we want to state clearly our belief that it would be a misuse of power for any public official to have a sexual relationship with an employee or intern," said NOW President Patricia Ireland.
"Whether the boss is a county supervisor or the president of the United States, no public official should take advantage of the aphrodisiac of power. We must demand that public officials, at all levels and in all branches of government, pledge to reject sexually intimate relationships with employees\volunteers."</i?
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STATEMENT OF NOW PRESIDENT PATRICIA IRELAND ON KATHLEEN WILLEY'S TESTIMONY
MARCH 16, 1998
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Kathleen Willey's sworn testimony moves the question from whether the president is a "womanizer" to whether he is a sexual predator. Ms. Willey's deposition is particularly compelling because she is a reluctant witness with no apparent political or financial motivation. If her story is true, it is not just sexual harassment, it's sexual assault.
If the chief executive of the United States uses that position of power in the way that's been alleged, it has a very serious impact on women in the workplace. His behavior either sets an example of compliance with nondiscrimination law or contempt for it. Clinton's actions in office are not a private matter but a highly public one.
We hope that the public spotlight on sexual harassment will not only affect workplace policies but also public opinion. Employers must make sure their employees know that sexual harassment is not acceptable and that employees who are harassed are able to get a fair hearing and a just resolution of their claims. And, all of us must reexamine the culture that says harassment is flattering behavior and "boys will be boys."
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STATEMENT OF NOW PRESIDENT PATRICIA IRELAND
IN RESPONSE TO
REPORTS OF CLINTON TESTIMONY
AUGUST 17, 1998
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We have said from the beginning that no CEO and no elected official, including the president, should take advantage of the aphrodisiac of power to have sex with interns or staff.
Consensual sex with a White House intern is an abuse of power by the president; but consensual sex is not illegal harassment and it is not an impeachable offense. Nor is it in the best interest of our country for the president to resign.
Whatever Congress decides to do, in all fairness the only ones who should vote on this issue are members who themselves have never had sex outside of marriage and never lied about their sex lives -- either denying or exaggerating!
After all this time and money, it appears Ken Starr has found nothing to pin on the Clintons – nothing on Whitewater, nothing on Filegate, nothing on Travelgate – nothing more than some sort of consensual relationship between Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.
The investigation – and the attempts to legitimize the wildest of allegations – began with the appointment of the special prosecutor in August 1994, right before the elections that turned over the Congress to Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott. Now Ken Starr is going to send his report to Congress right before the 1998 elections. This may or may not be a right-wing "conspiracy," but it certainly makes NOW's political action committees' electoral project, Victory 2000, even more important. We are determined to elect 2000 new feminists to office by the turn of the century as part of our strategy to end the disrespect of women in the workplace and in politics.
NOW never thought Bill Clinton was the answer to our dreams of equality for women. Clinton was, for many of us, the option in 1996. Women voters elected Clinton, and the majority of women still approve of his performance in office, apparently judging him as a president whose strengths outweigh his flaws.
Clinton's administration worked hard and successfully on the Violence Against Women Act, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the earned income tax credit, women's health and other issues that affect us and our families; he has appointed more women and women's rights supporters to positions of power than ever before. Still, he seems to be a man who divides women into two unfortunate traditional categories: women he must treat with respect like Janet Reno, Madeleine Albright and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and those he can use and toss aside like tissue paper.
We would like better options for president in the future. That's why we're working to re-elect Senators like Barbara Boxer, Patty Murray and Carol Moseley-Braun, to send Geraldine Ferraro to join them and to elect more feminist women like New York's Betsy McCaughey Ross to governors' mansions, which have been the springboard to the White House in recent years.
We reiterate our demand for immediate action by the president, the Congress and employers across the country to stop sexual harassment in the workplace. We call upon right-wing women's groups, conservative commentators and the leadership of Congress – given their new-found interest in sexual harassment and workplace abuses – to work to strengthen anti-discrimination laws by: removing the cap on damages and extending the deadline for filing charges under Title VII; authorizing and appropriating sufficient funding for the EEOC to clear up the massive backlog of discrimination complaints; and filling the many vacancies on the federal courts that hear such complaints.
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NOW CHALLENGES CLINTON AND CONGRESS
Statement of NOW President Patricia Ireland
September 11, 1998
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In the wake of the president's sexual relations with an intern in the White House, women's progress is surely at risk -- less from the president's appalling, albeit unfortunately common, behavior than from the impact of this scandal on electoral politics in 1998 and beyond. The obsessive focus of pols and pundits on Ken Starr's report threatens to eclipse the campaigns of feminist candidates running in major state primaries this Tuesday and in the general election in November.
The only hope for real change is to elect real feminists. If women stay home on election day, we will face a Congress even more hostile to women's rights and we will never have better choices for president. We must not allow right-wing forces to sail to victory as a result of women voters' disillusionment.
From the very beginning of the Clinton scandals, the president's enemies have attempted not only to bring down Clinton and the Democrats, but also to weaken sexual harassment laws and the feminist movement. NOW will not play into the hands of our adversaries. And we will not ignore the transgressions of the president who once held out great hope for an end to business-as-usual in the nation's capital.
We will not settle for heartfelt apologies or lip service to women's issues. Nor will we accept moral diatribes from politicians clearly living in glass houses. To the president who betrayed the trust of the women who supported him, and to Congress members who cynically seize on the issue of sexual harassment to promote their own partisan agendas, we demand that they stop talking and start taking action on behalf of women in the workplace.
The Congress and the president have one thing in common: Both have courted women for our votes, both have cheated on us.
President Clinton may not have violated the letter of the law, but he most certainly betrayed its spirit. And in doing so, he threatened the dignity and respect of millions of women who must face bosses and coworkers with the false impression that such behavior is acceptable.
At the same time, the very members of Congress who assailed Anita Hill now espouse a newfound interest in stopping sexual harassment. The same people who put an arbitrary cap on damages in sex discrimination cases suddenly are speaking out about women's rights in the workplace. Congress members who refuse to fully fund the EEOC want us to believe they are champions for our cause.
We call on Congress, the president and business leaders to launch a national campaign to stop sexual harassment and sex discrimination. From the Oval Office in Washington, DC to the Ford manufacturing plant in Chicago, all employees -- women and men alike -- deserve to be respected for their abilities, to have support in balancing their family and work obligations, and to be free of harassment, discrimination and assault in the workplace. Protection of these most basic employment rights must be strengthened and enforced. We expect elected and corporate officials to take real leadership on these issues, but to give them a jump-start we have put forward NOW's Initiative to Stop Sexual Harassment, attached.
And NOW activists will focus our energy on electing candidates at all levels who will support women's equality. Through our Victory 2000 Campaign, we will move from trying to influence people in power toward becoming the people in power.
now.org
It appears NOW didn't like Slick WIllie's actions right up to the point when it came time to actually DO SOMETHING.
NOW President Patricia Ireland Challenges Livingston to Rein in Conservatives and Calls upon Women to Lobby Against Impeachment
December 11, 1998
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The Congress is seriously considering the impeachment of a president who not only was elected twice with overwhelming support from women, but also continues to have the support of the nation. The Republicans are mired in a partisan game of chicken; their feet are firmly planted on the accelerator, and they clearly are determined not to stop until they crash.
Could their party, represented by an elephant, have already forgotten the voters' message in 1998? Does Bob Livingston want to be a one-term speaker?
No matter how offensive the president's behavior was, it does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense. And, the no-holds-barred attack by the ultra-conservatives on women's issues is a far more onerous threat to women and our families. It is time to bring the House Judiciary Committee's sideshow to a close, and for Congress to focus on important issues like improving Social Security and Medicare, passing equal pay initiatives, strengthening public education and funding anti-violence-against-women programs.
With Newt Gingrich busy packing his bags, the House seems to have been taken over by reckless right-wingers. It's time for Livingston to take the wheel and get Congress back on course. He must rein in his conservative cohorts who seek to thwart the will of the people with their abuse of the impeachment process. The new Speaker of the House must stand up and be a leader. The country deserves nothing less.
And women must lobby against impeachment. We have spoken repeatedly in the public opinion polls. We have registered our views in the voting booths. Now, we must send our message to every member of Congress: Vote "NO" on impeachment and get back to work!
The vote on the floor of the House of Representatives will be the last chance for 105th Congress to achieve something of note. By voting against impeachment, they can give the new Congress the gift of a clean slate in 1999 -- and the chance to work on public policy instead of debating presidential parries.
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