The Lincoln-Lancaster Women's Commission plans to change its name and mission. The switch is partially in response to the county's aborted attempt last year to remove their share of the Commission's funding. That raises some questions: Do we need a publicly-funded Women's Commission today? Do the Commission's activities justify continued public support? Would private funding be more appropriate for the Commission's mission?
Those are all honest questions, by the way, not statements disguised as questions. I really don't know enough about what the Women's Commission does to make a decision one way or the other. I do have a general bias toward favoring private rather than public funding for interest group organizations, but my opinions on the matter are not absolute.
It seems like the burden is on the Women's Commission to justify its continuation (though I could be wrong about that). The Commission's reorganization seems like one attempt to do just that. What other arguments can be made for keeping the Women's Commission around?
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For the life of me, I have no idea what the commission does. I, too, think that private dollars/fundraising, etc. would fit the bill. I thought Bonnie Coffey was okay on the radio before she left to run the commission.
I think private funding would be more appropriate as well.
I’m not saying sexism doesn’t exist anymore (god knows it does) but I think it’s less institutional now. We don’t necessarily need a publicly funded commission to get rid of personal prejudices.
How about we replace it with a “poor people’s commission?” I don’t know if such a thing exists (and I realize that would be a god awful title), but it should. It seems like whenever someone’s getting the shaft, it’s those on the lower end of the economic spectrum, regardless of sex or race. The Lincoln Women’s Commission seems to address poverty of women a lot, why not just shift to address all poverty? One of the other things they cover is sexual harassment, which isn’t an issue that only women face. In fact, many of the issues they address just aren’t women issues- they’re family issues, and society issues. We, as a society, need to stop treating things like spouse abuse as a women’s issue and realize it affects all of us.
OK, sorry, I got off track. I tend to think organizations like this, while they have undoubtedly done a lot of good, end up marginalizing women’s issues rather than bringing them to the forefront.
Here’s the website link:
http://www.lincoln.ne.gov/city/mayor/women/srvcs.htm
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