“You get the coffee, I’ll plan the revolution”

Wednesday, November 12, 1997

"You get the coffee, I’ll plan the revolution"

ANNIVERSARY Aim is still to make the campus

a better place for women

By Rachel Munoz

Daily Bruin Contributor

Without the usual bedazzlement of balloons and party favors
accompanying a celebration, the Women’s Resource Center
commemorated its 25th anniversary Tuesday with unmeasured
pride.

Created during the heyday of the feminist movement, the resource
center was developed by female volunteers responding to gender
discrimination in 1972, says Kathy Rose-Mockry, the director of the
center.

For those who came to celebrate, the beginnings of the center
still bring to mind a vivid image.

"We got an unauthorized room at Powell," began Sheila Kuehl,
co-founder of the center and speaker pro tem of the state Assembly,
describing the inception of the center.

Her rebellious memory is interpreted slightly differently by
another woman involved in the start of the center.

"We made a perfect space at Powell Library, then went to the
chancellor and said, ‘We have a great space,’" said Tina Oakland,
the former director of the center.

When the unofficial construction of knocking down and putting up
new walls ended in their room at the library, Kuehl went to work
with her father and others painting and finishing up the area.

The notorious orange crates and lawn chairs became the furniture
of the center, and remained so until the late 1970s when the center
moved to its current home in Dodd Hall.

Even in its new site, the center relied on old furniture and has
waited until this year to get heating and cooling for the
facility.

Aside from the construction involved in building a new
organization, the center developed a communication link between
women never before explored.

"It was a hopeless situation we were in as women. We didn’t even
know how to talk to one another," Kuehl said. "We had never talked
about our lives before."

For Kuehl, the center was started by a troubling, yet energized
time in history that resulted in a growing awareness among women.
For herself and others at the level of middle management, it seemed
thatwomen were not receiving the leadership roles they
deserved.

"You get the coffee, I’ll plan the revolution," she jokes,
describing the submissive role that women occupied for so long.

While it seems that in 25 years the center would see a
transformation of the problems it addresses, Rose-Mockry insists
that current issues are really quite similar to what the center
began with.

The most common problems continue to be sexual violence issues,
which have remained steady over the years — if they haven’t
increased, said Rose-Mockry. However, she believes that media
coverage on the subject has been helpful.

Student parents, relationships, eating disorders and other
health issues are also common problems that the center has
continued to deal with, relates Rose-Mockry.

"As they change, they stay the same," she said of the problems
that the center has been faced with during its 25 years at
UCLA.

Besides the one-on-one intake counseling the center provides,
rape prevention and self-defense workshops are offered, in addition
to general education programs and a small library.

The center’s past turned into its present Tuesday as many panel
speakers started to arrive for the workshops.

The second room of Dodd – which usually provides the center’s
base of operations – furnished the area for four workshops held
alternately throughout the day.

"(The workshops) encapsulate and reflect critical issues now,"
Rose-Mockry said of the workshop topics. "The problems are still
occurring even if they are not visible."

Although women still have topics to fully develop and explore,
the goals of the resource center remain the same.

The mission statement continues to be the rock from which the
resource center draws its strength. The main goal — making the
campus a better place for women — is a concept that will forever
be a goal for the center.

"We need to address needs that are going to arise in changes in
access for women," Rose-Mockry adds as a goal for the center’s
future.

Health

By Eleni Hioureas

Daily Bruin Contributor

Ranging from health care to women in politics, female doctors
and professors discussed pertinent issues regarding the rights of
women.

Women are becoming increasing visible as health care
professionals, as are differences in women’s health. Domestic
violence has become an issue in the last few years, as the 25th
anniversary of the Womens’ Resource Center highlighted.

In focusing on women’s health care over the past 25 years, Jo
Ann Dawson, director of primary care at UCLA Student Health
Services, touched upon various aspects of the field of health. As
health policy issues gain more publicity and media scrutiny, so do
health education, care and training, Dawson said. A correlate to
that, is the expansion of an understanding of women’s health care
components.

She also claimed that women now take themselves more seriously,
and don’t let people get away with making crude and false
statements about them.

"Today there is a prominence of health issues specific to women
that takes women more seriously," she said. She holds that this is
a great contrast to how women and their health issues were viewed
25 years ago.

Dr. Janet Pregler, director of the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s
Health Clinic, agreed that the general attitude toward women has
changed for the better, but cautioned what could be going on behind
closed doors. "We still have to be careful about what may still be
going on privately," she said. "We can’t assume that the battle has
been won."

In support of her statement, she pointed to the diffusion of
information on women’s health. She noted that there is still
research needed for women with unisex diseases and women of color.
She also added that more research should be done on the health
needs of aging women.

Susan Sorenson, professor in the School of Public Health and
member of the Violence Prevention Research Group continued the
discussion on women’s health, focusing on violence prevention.

"(A woman) is most likely to be killed by a man she either loves
or once loved," she said. "There is no longer so much worry about
stranger danger. Now, the person most likely to assult a woman is
the person who already has a key to her house."

The public’s increased knowledge about domestic violence is a
big step in prevention, she said. However, more emphasis still
needs to be placed on trying to get to the root of the problem.

"The Public Health Services are now focusing on prevention," she
concluded. "Violence against women is now more of a public health
issue rather than a law enforcement issue."

Come three o’clock, the subject changed from women and health to
public policy, law, and women.

"What were once women’s issues are now everybody’s issues," said
Sheila Kuehl, co-founder of the center and pro tempore for the
state Assembly

The number of women in politics and law have gradually increased
over the past 25 years, Kuehl said, resulting in an increase of
awareness concerning women’s issues.

In agreement, Constance Rice, a member of the Western Regional
Councel of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP), said that the laws made to fight women’s rights
were "hanging by a thread."

"Women have to continue to figure out strategies to keep these
pathetic laws on the books," she said. She urged the audience to
never feel safe, because trends and politicians tend to change laws
to the disadvantage of women.

Christine Littleton, UCLA Professor of Law and Women’s Studies,
looks to Title IX, a law that protectswomen in education.

"Without this law, there isn’t a chance for equality, and half
of it hasn’t even been enforced yet," she said.

Although Littleton revealed many political injustices, she
maintains a positive outlook.

"We celebrate every step forward," she concluded, "but for every
step backward, we need to be prepared for the next step
forward."

Leadership

By Rachel Munoz

Daily Bruin Contributor

Women helped women on Tuesday by enlightening them with the
knowledge of their experiences.

For three women actively involved at UCLA, their expertise in
experience extends through the realm of leadership. These female
leaders presented their experiences in the first workshop in
celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Women’s Resource
Center.

Jane S. Permaul, assistant vice chancellor for Student Affairs
and Administration, was the first to shed light on her experience
as a female leader.

"You hear about ‘we must work as a team’ and those words are
never argued or challenged, but behaving that way is a different
concept," she says of the different ways men and women work.

She admits that it has taken a lot of work to come together, but
the three assistant vice chancellors and the vice chancellor, all
male, with whom she works, have worked together more closely than
ever before during her seven years in the position.

"You hear about power, not collaboration and partnership," she
said of the working force today. Without a territorial instinct,
but a true interest, she believes she is more apt to bring those
qualities into the work force as a female leader.

Law school Dean Susan Prager continued to address female
leadership, but started on a different note. Besides being one of
the first female deans on campus, she prides herself on being the
first dean on campus to have a baby.

"This was a real question for me – to have a baby while being
dean," she said. "I do stand as one of many examples that this can
be done."

Her advice for women pursuing leadership positions is "to have
to make your own way and have trade-offs. Get comfortable with
whatever choice you’re going to make."

She adds that no change will happen unless women push harder,
but the most important step is to be straight with people.

As a UCLA student in a leadership role, USAC President Kandea
Mosley was asked to speak about her experience with leadership.

"I really do need to struggle with the men I work with," she
said. But she reminds the audience to remember that people really
do respect women.

She focused on political issues, an area she believes all women
should be concerned with.

"Political progress has to have room for all women," she said.
"It’s amazing how many issues we have in common. We should look at
all the issues, not just what fits neatly in our lives."

The common thread running through all the speeches, as noted by
Sheila Kuehl, speaker pro tempore for the state Assembly, is that
women need to trust their own instincts. She believes that that
kind of energy will help save the world.

Only minutes after the panel of speakers for the leadership
workshop began to depart, a new set of faces entered the room
prepared to speak about their experience in grassroots
organizing.

After relaying lessons learned from her grandmother and mother
as a little girl in Mexico, Beatrice Olvera-Stotzer, the executive
director for New Economics for Women, began a detailed account of
her beginning with a different organization, Comision Femenil.

What was taught, and perhaps learned,during her time with
Comision Femenil was that the first step of empowerment is
self-respect.

This concept was presented to the many poverty-stricken women
and children that the organization worked with.

"The poverty cycle is based on the image of the mother … and
we wanted to break that," she said. Olvera-Stotzer strived to give
housing that provided a conducive environment to women and
children.

Her work with New Economics proves to be just as challenging as
she continues to establish and provide family housing. Her idea of
empowerment has developed into giving information and making the
people respect their choices.

"We help families learn about what the future is by teaching
what the future can mean," she ends.

Kerry Lobel, executive director for the National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force, introduced herself as a potential walking commercial
for the center. She has learned so many lessons at the center over
and over again that it has been an essential element in her
life.

Starting a grassroots organization "always takes a person to
take a risk," she said. "There is something about being passionate
for an issue that creates charisma," she said.

In addition, she has learned from working with these kinds of
organizations that feeling passionate about an issue is not a bad
thing.

Outside of passion, Lobel suggests three commitments that help
in a grassroots organization: one-on-one mentorship, patience in
the process of development, and working across the board. However,
she insists that you only learn as you go.

"The most important thing we can do is support people to have a
voice," she concludes. "It is not easy work, the joy is in the
struggle."

As the second workshop came to a close, Kuehl managed to draw
the first two workshops of the day together.

"It takes leadership to do organizing," she said.