Indiana NOW: From the Desk of the President

From Exiting Indiana NOW President, Marion Wagner
September 1, 2010

As I prepare to step aside as Indiana NOW‘s President on September 25, I have been thinking about the ever changing, yet seemingly everlasting feminist agenda. We feminists have made many positive changes in American society, laws, and processes since the inception of the National Organization for Women in 1966. Every time I attend an Indiana Fever game and watch those strong, young women playing basketball, I am reminded of my own basketball “career” in high school when girls did not have an opportunity to play except within their own school and even then we were limited to two dribbles before we had to shoot or pass. Women now attend college on basketball scholarships and play professional ball around the world. This is one of the many changes the women’s movement has produced.

Feminists of my generation have generally been successful in sending forward a political feminist agenda to those who are in the leadership. However, I am less sure if we have worked to pass on a cultural feminist agenda. What do I mean by this? The political agenda encompasses the legislative and societal agendas that work to bring women to equal rights and status throughout our society as well as throughout societies world-wide. We know we have accomplished much and that we have so much more to do.

What I think of as the “cultural” feminist agenda is less about goals and more about process. Those of you who have been active in Indiana NOW through the years know that we continually work on our processes. The “worker theory” – those who do the work make the decisions – has been part of our processes since the ERA campaign, starting in 1975. At that time, many of us consciously talked about feminist process, focusing on consensus, non-hierarchical decision making, equal status regardless of position, and basic respect for each other. I think we did not work to pass these messages on. The outcome means that as women break barriers into various segments of society they often do not bring feminist ways of functioning along with them. The hierarchy remains the same.

I hope as we continue to work to change the laws and enhance our rights in American society we also work to change our processes to make them more culturally feminist. This would mean much less focus on hierarchy and much more on process and ability. I know, I know, it is hard to function in a feminist manner within a hierarchical structure. I worked in such structures throughout my career. Although it may be impossible to function with total consensus in such structures, we can work to make decisions as inclusive and consensus-focused as possible. We certainly can work to change the status differences within organizations. Front line clerical staff members are as essential to the effective operation of organizations as are top level executives, maybe even more. Why should we tolerate major differential treatment such as benefit structures? Breaking the glass ceiling is easiest from above.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve Indiana NOW as president these last two years.

Marion Wagner