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Helping women, 'a' word aside

By MARLENE SOKOL
Published August 19, 2005

Forget, for a moment, what they are not allowed to say. These women have plenty to talk about.

They just wrapped up a sobering paper about the barriers Tampa's low-income women face as they seek to support their families.

Besides the obvious - meager wages and inadequate public transportation - the study looked at an alarming increase in women's criminal arrests. And when women leave prison, it's even harder to find good jobs.

All of this, documented by researchers at the University of South Florida, is contained in a 50-page report by the Hillsborough County Committee on the Status of Women.

The committee has a woefully low profile despite its compelling and far-reaching topics.

Last time they met for a public workshop on children's needs, the public was more interested in protests about the gay pride controversy.

Who knew the panel discussed a shortage of before-school and after-school day care programs, and what has transpired since the Department of Children and Families privatized its child abuse investigations? Not many people, I'll wager you.

No, this board of agency representatives and County Commission appointees toils in near-obscurity.

They might not have piqued my curiosity, were it not for this provision in their founding resolution: "not including abortion."

Yes, the "a" word is censored. Verboten. Specifically, they are allowed to discuss "all matters pertaining to the status of women included but not limited to: discrimination against women; employment of women; education of women; establishment of day care centers in the community, and attitude toward women in the community, not including abortion."

Heck, they can even study women's health care issues. Just not the "a" one, please.

I couldn't resist. "What's this about not being able to talk about abortion?" I asked during their monthly meeting Monday.

I don't want to get anybody in trouble (maybe they should have hit some kind of ejector button to catapult me through the ceiling) but this is the explanation they gave:

In these political times, they would not be allowed to convene unless they agreed to those conditions.

Strange.

But maybe not so strange.

According to Edith Stewart, a public affairs officer who functions as their resident historian, the county disbanded a similar women's commission decades ago because its members talked too much about abortion.

So we've come a long way, baby, we just need to stick to the script.

Chairwoman Susan Leisner consoles herself that "there is enough out there to talk about" without the status of you-know-what. Last year's housing report, for example, revealed some alarming trends, particularly where elderly women are concerned. More than half the elderly women living alone in the county fall below national guidelines for "very low income."

In general, women own homes in numbers disproportionate to men. Too often, they lose their homes because they lack sufficient funds to keep them up to code.

A third and fourth study will focus on children's needs and women's health.

Leisner, a Carrollwood feminist and proud of it, is a brokerage industry retiree who serves on numerous nonprofit boards. She was Pat Frank's nominee to the women's commission and, after Frank left, Mark Sharpe kept her on.

"When we started this, everyone had so many issues," Leisner said. Two years into the effort, she hopes to focus the board on just one or two.

Teen pregnancy prevention would top her list, and she'd like to support prevention programs in the schools. Many social issues would be helped, she said, "if you stopped women having children so young . . . if they would wait until they have job skills, a place to live, a car."

Is teen pregnancy a moral and political minefield?

Yeah, probably. But Leisner considers it the root of many economic issues facing women and children.

"I think in two years we have accomplished a lot," she said.

"We have tried not to stir up trouble; we just want to help poor women. You know, so many more women today are going to college and medical school and law school. But the women at the bottom are in trouble."

[Last modified August 18, 2005, 11:46:08]