- FILED UNDER
- Rekha Basu
International Women's Day was observed around the world yesterday with appeals for greater women's empowerment. But here in Iowa, members of the Legislature were fixing to gut the state division that advocates for women.
And not just women, but some of the state's most vulnerable: those with disabilities, African-Americans, Asians, Native Americans and Latinos. Those are the groups represented by the Iowa Department of Human Rights' Division of Community Advocacy and Services. House Republicans want to cut it by 27 percent, or $236,000. The governor had proposed a 6 percent budget cut.
Lobbing a disproportionate cut on the disproportionately marginal scores points for irony, if nothing else. Isaiah McGee, Gov. Terry Branstad's Human Rights Department director, called it disheartening. But some supporters of the Division on the Status of Women say McGee himself is muzzling division heads so they can't even advocate on their own behalf - though they are an advocacy agency. In fact, staff can't so much as enter the state Capitol. Other Human Rights division heads (Advocacy Services, Criminal and Juvenile Justice and Community Action Agencies) are still allowed to speak for themselves.
In its 50 years, under lawmakers and governors of both parties, the commission has successfully lobbied for adding women to the Iowa Constitution, and for laws protecting domestic-abuse and sexual-assault victims, against sexual harassment and employment discrimination, among other things. But McGee says it hasn't done a good enough job of convincing lawmakers: "Some of the issues have the appearance of being politically motivated."
Commissioner Phyllis Peters feels that under McGee, the division's record of accomplishments is being tossed aside and "viewed as having 'an agenda.' "
He riled some commissioners (male and female) in a Feb. 10 meeting by saying he wants the division to be objective on issues, and, "If proposals from DHR are actually the right thing to do, they would have unanimous support" from policy-makers. But many of the issues the commission has advocated for have faced resistance, such as a bill for gender balance in government boards and commissions. An equal-pay bill was opposed by female Republican legislators.
Asked if he'd take a position against the shackling of women prison inmates in labor - something the commission has opposed - McGee told me, "People take too much time to say you're for or against something," and that people "think there always has to be a law for change to happen." Instead, he said he's working to forge agreement with the head of the Department of Corrections.
This proposed budget cut, which could reduce the division's 14 employees by four or more, comes on top of a Human Rights Department restructuring and streamlining under the Democratic Culver administration last year. Commission Chair Michelle Durand-Adams calls this one ideologically based. And when you hear about a bill (now dead) that would have prohibited any services or advocacy from being offered on the basis of race or ethnicity, it's hard not to conclude some lawmakers have a problem with recognizing the particular struggles of minority groups. Introduced by Republican Sen. Mark Chelgren of Ottumwa - for whom preschool funding evoked Nazi indoctrination - it would have eliminated the divisions for African-Americans, Asians, Native Americans and Latinos.
In the face of such pointed attacks, an advocacy agency for the voiceless has to advocate even harder.
