Woman fear outfall of Prop. 209 passage
[sic]
Stories of individual incidents have chilling effect
on female voters
Dara Akiko Tom
Santa Barbara News-Press, November 3, 1996
Lisa Campbell has been laughed at, spit on. Someone took a shot at her house and threatened her family. For a brief -time, she hired a bodyguard for her young daughter. All because Campbell, founder and president of a small environmental engineering firm in Pomosa, wanted to a fair chance to submit a contract bid. When she caught a general contractor using her name on the billing but employing someone else on a military base project in 1990, she was told: "Little girl, if you say anything, to anybody, I will make sure you will never do a job in the state of California" It happened again, three years ago, this time on a state contract. At a meeting with the contractor and state officials, the project manager, who admitted to falsely using Campbell's name, said: "We're just .a bunch of dumb country boys just trying to do an honest day's work." . It is experiences such as these that have prompted Campbell, a lifelong Republican, to become an ardent anti-Proposition 209 spokeswoman.
The controversial ballot measure would prohibit race and gender preferences in public hiring, contracts and education. Supporters claim Proposition 209 will eliminate unfair preferences. Opponents claim it would end affirmative action programs for women and ethnic minorities, setting back many of the hard-fought gains of; the 1960s civil rights movement. Supporters of Proposition 209 including Gov. Pete Wilson and state Attorney General Dan Lungren, say that Clause C-which focuses on gender-would not affect existing laws. They say it would maintain certain gender-based protections, such as prisoners' right to same-gender strip searches and prohibitions on m' entering women's bathrooms. But opponents, including most national women's and civil rights groups, say Clause C would weaken gender discrimination laws and reduce funding for programs such women's centers on university campuses. They say it could me. cutbacks in prenatal care for teen mothers, and possibly eliminate many female sports programs.
"This issue is about what we want for our society. It's not about competition of units, of self-interest and greed," said Paul Rockwell, president of Angry White Guys for Affirmative Action. "We have to, stop talking about you versus me. Affirmative action is about community, about bringing people together.
"If a woman gets a job, I will benefit as a man.... As a white male, I feel inadequate in my job without the wisdom and expertise of (women) and minorities," he said.
Opponents of 209 say Campbell's experiences are all too common for small business women and women in traditionally male careers. In 1994, less than 5 percent of federal contracts nationwide went to women- and ethnic minority- owned companies, Campbell said -- and that's with affirmative action.
Proposition 209 opponets scoff at the idea that without affirmative I action, people would use good faith efforts to diversify schools.
African-Americans relied on good faith efforts for hundreds years, and women did so for 2,000 years, said Eleanor Smeal, president of Feminist Majority. "'Good faith' got us where?" she asks.
Carl
Gutierrez-Jones
Department of English
University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93106
E-mail: carlgj@humanitas.ucsb.edu