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PAGE 6 THE PROUDER STRONGER TIMES NOVEMBER, 19&4
Reagan fights for equality
All the President’s women
by Kim Paap
University of Californie
Ronald Reagan has
selected more women for
policy-making positions
during hr lirst two years in
office than any of his
predecessors. All told,
women hold more than 1,600
positions in the White
House and throughout the
Executive Branch.
Soon after Reagan’s elec
tion in 1980, the first woman
ever to serve on the U.S.
Supreme Court, Sandra Day
O’Connor, was appointed.
He is also the first president
to have three women serve
in his cabinet at the same
time.
Margaret Heckler,
Secretary of Health and
Human Services, heads an
organization whose budget
HHS Secretary Margaret
Heckler
Is the third largest in the en
tire world. She remarks, “I
have had several occasions
to recommend alternative
solutions to the president
on key issues and have been
able to convince him to
reastes his prior positions.
He has always listened to
me carefully and respected
my opinion.”
Elizabeth Dole, Secretary
of Transportation, is the
first woman to head a
department which also con
tains a branch of the armed
forces, the United States
Coast Guard. Ms. Dole feels
that President Reagan
deserves much more credit
for his genuine support of
competent women.
Jeane Kirkpatrick, United
States Ambassador to the
United Nations, plays a
powerful role in the forming
and carrying out of this
country’s foreign policy.
Lest there be any doubt
about her impression of the
president, she has com
mented that: ‘male
chauvinists are not willing
to listen to what women
have to say on foreign af
fairs ... The president has
been dealing with me
seriously, and taking me
seriously since I met him.
And I think he does the same
with other women as well.’
Perhaps the best
understanding of the Presi
dent’s attitude towards
women in positions of great
responsibility can be glean
ed from his own words:
‘The conservative party of
Great Britain chose
Margaret Thatcher as their
Transportation Secretary
Elizabeth Dole
leader not because she was
a woman, but because she
was the best person for the
job,’ Reagan said. ‘There
was no tokenism or cynical
‘symbolism’. She became a
leader of her party, and
prime minister of Great Bri
tain because she was judg
ed by her peers to be a
superior leader. And that is
how the first republican
woman president will do it.’
‘The women who have ad
vanced in the Republican
party, coming up through
the ranks, and doing it by
merit. These women are
changing America, and they
are changing it for the bet
ter. The American people
recognize this and will sup
port such a woman when
she runs for President of the
United States.
Equal rights: the real story
Since being elected, the
Reagan administration has
vigorously supported legal
and economic equality for
ail women.
Reagan has stated that
women should be protected
against discrimination in .'
forms, but that these prok
tions should take the torn,
of specific legislation. He
believes that legal equity
should be guaranteed, but
the power to establish that
equity should be left with
the elected representatives
of the people.
He has also called for and
produced stronger enforce
ment of protections already
written into the statutes. At
his direction, Justice
Department workers active
ly enforce possible viola
tions of equal rights legisla
tion passed in the past.
In 1981, Reagan created
the Task Force on Legal
Equity for Women to work
with the Justice Department
in finding and cataloguing
gender-biased laws and
rules, so that they can be ef
fective changed or
eliminated. As a result,
more progress has been
made to correct gender-
biased federal statutes than
in any previous administra
tion. The Task Force also
recommended internal
reviews wi*hin the ad
ministration iO determine
possible bias in its own
regulations, a recommenda
tion ail 42 federal depart
ments have followed.
He has endorsed 122
changes in federal law
recommended by his task
force on legal equity to
remove provisions that
discriminate against
women, and another project
has sparked forty-two of the
fifty states into examining
their own laws to identify
and eliminate gender-
discriminatory language.
Individual Retirement Ac-
countg (IRA) rules have been
liberalized, in order to
recognize the value of non
working spouses to provide
greater retirement savings,
the President has proposed
raising the spousal IRA limit
from $2,250 to $4,000. The
"marriage tax penalty” also
has been greatly reduced-a
great savings to lower-
income families with two
breadwinners.
In addition, since Presi
dent Reagan took office,
women have benefited, as
have all Americans, from
lower taxes, reduced infla
tion, lower interest rates,
and, most importantly, more
job opportunities. He has
also reduced the marriage
tax penalty, virtually
eliminated the estate tax,
expanded savings oppor
tunities for spouses, put
teeth into child support en
forcement legislation, and
worked for pension equity
for women.
“We must work together
to ensure women can par
ticipate in our national life
in the manner they choose
and that they are treated
equally”, he has said. “We,
in this administration, are
committed to eliminating,
once and for all, all traces of
unjust discrimination
against women.”
Today’s students: Quieter, but still concerned
by Eric Nelsen
Dartmouth CoHege
In the spring of 1984, all
eight candidates seeking
the Democratic presidental
nomination arrived in
Hanover for the first debate
of the campaign.
Simultaneously, in an at
tempt to gain publicity for
their causes, Pro Life and
Pro Choice activists, along
with a few other activist
groups, took advantage of
this attention by protesting
before, during, and after the
debate.
But these demonstra
tions were rather sparsely
attended, and although all
were held on the college
grounds, very few students
participated. What has hap
pened to the student ac
tivism of the Sixties and ear
ly Seventies?
Critics will quickly relate to
you that today’s college
students have lost interest in
demonstrating and have
become concerned about their
potential salaries. They claim
that those members of our
society between the ages of
18-24 have become narrow
minded and self-centered,
stereotyping studerus into the
Me Generation. These critics
form an image of today’s stu
dent as an uncaring and unin
formed group that refuses to
put forth the effort to acquai nt
itself with the issues.
While these critics may feel
they have all the answers, the
one thing they don’t quite
possess is a perfect concept of
reality. To those well ac
quainted with the Eighties
Generation, its members come
across as interested, informed,
and concerned about the issues
and the political scene that sur
rounds them.
While they may not be as
vocal as their counterparts from
earlier generation, they often
seem more interested in acquir
ing knowledge about our
political process. As a result,
they have learned how to get
their issue into the limelight by
using the system and by
avoiding the use of violence and
destruction.
For example, at the afore
mentioned debate, while the
demonstrations continued
without many supporters, the
auditorium was packed with
students eager to hear the can
didates. Other areas containing
closed-circuit television screens
were filled with those unable to
Inemployment Rate
m.o%
1979
CONTROLLING
INRATION—THE
FAIREST POLICY OF ALL
gain entrance into the debate
itself. Even in the tube rooms of
the anti-intellectual frater
nities, brothers watched the
proceedings with fascination.
After the debate, four recep
tions were held, and again,
students made their presence
felt by filling the halls and ask
ing pertinent questions of the
candidates.
At a more recent event,
Reagan-Bush campaign direc
tor Edward Rollins spoke here
about the intricacies of cam
paigning. Cramming a hall that
seated fifty, over two hundred
students listened intently to the
strategies of national cam
paigning. These students,
representing a wide range of
political viewpoints, came to
learn and listen.
Student activism still has a
strong presence on our cam
puses. It is only the methods we
employ that have changed. No
longer do we march and burn,
but try to change the system by
working with it. Perhaps a less
colorful strategy, but ultimate
ly, we think, more successful.