Marian Lief Palley

Women of Japan and Korea: continuity and change

1. Introduction --Joyce Gelb and Marian Lief Palley Part I: Japanese Women 2. Women and the Family in Transition in Postindustrial Japan --Chizuko Ueno 3. Womens Education and Gender Roles in Japan --Kumiko Fujimura-Fanselow and Atsuko Kameda 4. Abortion and Womens Reproductive Rights: The State of Japanese Women, 1947-1991 --Miho Ogino 5. Women Workers in Japan: Past, Present, Future --Eiko Shinotsuka 6. Obstacles and Opportunities: Women and Political Participation in Japan --Kimiko Kubo and Joyce Gelb 7. A Short History of the Feminist Movement in Japan --Sandra Buckley Part II: Korean Women 8. Six Barriers to Equality for Women in Korea --Elizabeth Choi 9. Overcoming Confucian Barriers: Changing Educational Opportunities for Women in Korea --Ho Kyung Won 10. Korean Womens Groups, Social Movements, and Health --Lisa Kim Davis 11. Women Workers in a Changing Korean Society --Roh Mihye 12. Agenda for Social Reform: Womens Political Participation in Sough Korea --Sohn Bong Scuk 13. Feminism in a Confucian Society: The Womens Movement in Korea --Marian Lief Palley About the Contributors Index

Women's Policy Leadership in the United States

Todays policymaking process encompasses a broad range of participants: legislative, executive, and judicial office holders; members of the bureaucracy; and leaders of nongovernmental organizations, including nonprofit and volunteer organizations, private businesses, and interest groups. During the past three decades, women have become significant players in American policymaking, though their success rates have been uneven. Since

Women and Interest Group Politics: A Comparative Analysis of Federal Decision-Making

T HE DECADE OF THE 1970s has seen both a changing and an increasing role for women activists and their supporters in American politics. Though not always victorious in the pursuit of their goals of economic, social and political equality, feminist groups and their supporters have experienced considerable success for relative newcomers to the political process. An ongoing and unified womens movement has been created although it will be demonstrated that despite general support from womens groups, lobbying efforts by feminists have become functionally specialized along issue-related lines. In this essay, the authors will consider the extent to which emergent feminist groups have been successful in influencing the American policy-making system. The kinds of issues most likely to foster additional successes and the techniques most useful in achieving political goals will be surveyed. In this latter context, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974, the anti-sex discrimination provisions of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the antiabortion Hyde Amendments of both 1976 and 1977, and the Amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which would end discrimination in employment on the basis of pregnancy or preg-

Rethinking a Women's Health Care Agenda

Abstract The baby boom population has entered middle age. In addition many people, especially women, are living into old age. These are large population cohorts that are politically engaged. Also there is money to be made by commercial stakeholders in responding to the health risks of these women. The definition of womens health care needs has changed in the past decade. Traditionally the defining characteristics of womens health policy were reproduction, childbearing and a womans role as a sexual partner. Today it also includes the way that different diseases affect women and the best way to reach women at risk for a wide range of conditions, e.g., heart disease, cancer and depression.

Women's Rights as Human Rights: An International Perspective:

Exploitation of female labor as well as more general issues of gender equity have emerged as universal concerns of nations in the past decade. In addition, women often face problems of sexual exploitation. Womens movements have been organized in most societies to address these problems and to demand more equitable conditions for women. The social and political responses of both men and women to these movements have been culturally constrained. There are as many perspectives and approaches to resolving gender inequities as there are societies. In this article, illustrations are drawn from a cross section of societies to illustrate several assumptions regarding womens rights and womens movements. More specifically, the constraints imposed by behavioral culture that affect issue development and change mechanisms will be considered in the context of universal calls for gender equity and an end to the exploitation of female labor and sexuality.

Historical and Cultural Perspectives

The issue of women’s health care has roots in the historical and cultural definitions of gender and sexuality. Historically, the social construction of women emphasized women’s sexuality, reproduction and child care and these were seen as their defining characteristics. The Social Darwinists of the late nineteenth century further claimed that non-whites were inferior to whites and women were inferior relative to men. Nevertheless by the late twentieth century and into the twenty-first century, the specific vulnerabilities of women to disease became concerns. The public policy agenda increasingly recognized chronic diseases of the elderly, a group that is disproportionately female, as part of the women’s health agenda. Women’s groups increasingly define reproductive health issues such as the availability of access to abortion and contraception as central to the women’s health care agenda. Opponents of the provision of abortion services have been successful in politicizing this issue and in limiting access and availability.

Hospital mergers: The future of women's reproductive healthcare services

When secular and sectarian (often Catholic) hospitals merge women’s reproductive healthcare services are often put in jeopardy. Some merger efforts are successful and others fail. Several issues arise as a result of this situation. First what role do women’s reproductive rights activists and their supporters play in effecting hospital merger decisions? This question does not assume that all women support women’s rights organizations or that all women support a full range of reproductive rights. Secondly what other factors seem to effect the outcome of merger discussions? In order to answer these questions it is first necessary to understand the extent of Catholic hospital expansion and the nature of the hospital merger movement itself. These considerations will provide perspective for the two case studies of the American hospital merger movement that provide venues for examining the issues relating to participation and other factors that effect the outcome of merger talks. Cumberland and Baltimore are the two communities examined in this study. Though it would be a mistake to generalize to all merger situations based on these two cases there are lessons that women’s reproductive healthcare advocates can learn from the experiences of these two communities. The issue of hospital mergers and the availability of reproductive healthcare services for women does raise an additional issue. Private sector decisions are being made that have a direct impact on public services that is the availability of a set of healthcare services in communities. This is not the direction that most public policy analysts consider. The more frequently asked policy questions begin with public policy decisions and ask how they influence non-governmental decisions. (authors)

Beyond the Deadline

Though the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) fell three states short of ratification, the womens movement seems to have learned from its mistakes and made some changes in its tactics, organization and focus. Specifically, feminist organizations—now stronger than ever—are stressing grass roots political activities and issues which are economic as well as social. Feminist groups seem to have been most successful in influencing public policy when they have focused on role equity issues rather than role change issues. As Joyce Gelb and I explained in a recent book on women and public policy, Role equity issues are those policies which extend rights now enjoyed by other groups (men, other minorities) to women and which appear to be relatively delineated or narrow in their implications, permitting policy makers to seek advantage with feminist groups and voters with little cost or controversy. In contrast, role change issues appear to produce change in the dependent female role of wife, mother and homemaker, holding out the potential of greater sexual freedom and independence in a variety of contexts. The latter issues are fraught with greater political pitfalls, including perceived threats to existing values, in turn creating visible and often powerful opposition. Of course, many issues deal both with role equity and role change. When feminist groups have failed, it has often been because their opponents have emphasized the role change aspects of an issue. Many of the issues which are primarily questions of role equity are economic. Thus, it was probably wise for the National Organization for Women (NOW) to emphasize in its ERA effort that the average female worker earns 59 cents for every dollar earned by her male counterpart.

A Call for a National Welfare Policy

&dquo;A ’national’ nation requires national bases of power to mobilize the energy necessary to redistribute resources&dquo; (Guskin and Ross, 1971: 56). At present, the United States has not organized itself as a &dquo;national&dquo; nation for the purpose of establishing greater social equity for all Americans. Within this nation, there exists a wide range of programs, compliance to standards, and definitions of adequacy. Variation exists from state to state and within the separate states as well.’ It is our purpose in this paper to provide evidence sufficient to convince our readers that the current social welfare system, based as it is now, to a considerable extent, on state initiative, fails to establish a &dquo;national social welfare policy&dquo; with national programs, standards, and enforcement mechanisms. Currently,

Rethinking a Women’s Health Care Agenda in the United States

Women’s health care issues are increasingly a part of the political agenda in the United States. The organized women’s movement has been successful in improving opportunities for women in a number of areas such as education, business, sports and other professions. It has often been successful in changing the definition of women’s health and placing many elements of women’s health care needs on the policy agenda of the United States. Among the areas now recognized as part of the women’s health agenda are inclusiveness of women as part of National Institutes of Health research projects, attention to the risks of hypertension and cardiovascular disease, violence against women, women and the diseases of aging and women as personal and professional caregivers. Also, an area of progressive attention as well as political reaction concerning women’s health is the subject of women’s reproductive rights—including the availability of abortion and, in some instances, contraception.