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Wednesday, July 3, 2013

ALECs War on Women Started on Day 1

It's important to remember while reading this entry that the American Legislative Exchange Council is an extremist, ultra-conservative organization.  With that being said - - -

From a 401 page report "The Feminist Chronicles"

Wow - I would love to see their source on this:
ALEC,   ...  was set up with funds from the Scaife Foundation. The foundation's funds came from the Mellon family. ALEC opposed ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. (1974)
ALEC was founded in September of 1973 
 
And then you need to consider this from later in the 1970's:

She became the first woman to chair the American Legislative Exchange Council
One of her first acts as a state legislator was to introduce a bill “requiring women to use their husbands’ names on all public documents”
She was steadfast in her opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment and abortion rights.
Carlson was known as the "Phyllis Schlafly of the West"
Carlson was the first woman chair of ALEC.
Chew on that folks ~ ~ ~ ~ it is important!

"She was steadfast in her opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment and abortion rights"
Carlson was the first woman chair of ALEC.
Chew on that folks ~ ~ ~ ~ it is importan

And then the 1980's came around and you have this.
ALEC "had to"  provide information on the conservative move to delay the nomination of Sandra O’Connor as Supreme Court Justice based on her stance on abortion.
The information we have on her abortion record, when compared to information contained in a memorandum by Kenneth W. Starr for the attorney general on July 7, 1981, shoes an apparent coverup on the part of Mrs. O’Connor or on the part of the attorney general’s office or both, of her voting record on abortion,” said Kathleen Teague, executive director of the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Ms. Teague said her group was only providing information on the nomination, without taking a stand on it.
Now – think about it!
“The information we have on her abortion record”
“The information we have”
Means that ALEC was active in this area – if not – why would ALEC “have information”.

Just because there was woman at the helm of ALEC - does not suggest or indicate anything "progressive".
To better educate you a little about Kathleen Teague’s views – they weren't’ what you would call “progressive” 

from the mid 1980’s
Kathleen Teague, a leader in Phyllis Schlafly’s STOP-ERA campaign and director of the New Right’s American Legislative Exchange Council, wants to see women make more of an effort attract husbands:  The only reason aren’t remarrying is that they don’t have the right strategy    Some single women are trying to be martyrs, to prove they can be independent, that they can do anything.  It would be better to say, ‘How much I’d like to find a nice man!’  Many men tell me how turned off theya re by women who are trying so hard to be independent.

To which Kathleen Teague, representing the Eagle forum in the absence of Phyllis Schlafly, replied,” The purpose of the military, of course, is the defense of our country.  It is not to provide upward mobility or career opportunities for women”

Teague was an effective voice for the opposition, catching all its ambivalence as well.  The thirty-year-old president of the Virginia STOP-ERA headed her own public relations firm.  She was also the executive director of the American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC, an association of conservative legislators.    Teague wanted to know they would get for giving up their “constitutional right to be treated like American ladies.”
to 2001
As Kathleen Teague of Virginia Stop-ERA and the American Legislative Exchange Council explained to me:
`If a man doesn't feel needed by his wife, he'll go out and find another woman who does need him. Take the case of a woman who's been a housewife, then she gets women-libberized and goes into the work force. No matter what, her husband isn't going to feel he's number one in her life anymore. So she will lose him to a more conservative woman.'
"What a more conservative woman will offer is explained by Phyllis Schlafly in The Power of the Positive Woman. `A wife must appreciate and admire her husband', for the marriage will not last unless `she is willing to give him the appreciation and admiration his manhood craves'. Fortunately, women themselves have no such cravings, for she tells us, `Whereas a woman's chief emotional need is active (i.e., to love), a man's prime emotional need is passive (i.e., to be appreciated or admired).'
So I continued on my search - - - - -

When I did a search on Equal Rights Amendment and ALEC the infamous 2002 report on ALEC (which everyone, at the time, chose to ignore WOE is US) - came up with this
Throughout most of its first decade, ALEC focused on such hot-button social issues as abortion rights, ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, and the drive to give the District of Columbia full voting rights in Congress.
Wow - I would love to see their source on that

 And the you have this from the National Organization on Women

THE WAR ON WOMEN IN STATE LEGISLATURES
2012

WHEREAS, opponents of women's rights, workers' rights, LGBT rights, immigrant rights, disability rights, voting rights and civil rights, most notably Americans United for Life (AUL), National Right to Life Committee, ALEC, Federation for American Immigration Reform, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and others, have analyzed state laws, set long-term legislative goals on a state-by-state basis, and publicized their analyses and goals on the web; and

SNIP

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that NOW work to raise awareness within NOW of this organized assault on women's rights and work with state organizations to create strategies and a plan of action to defeat these efforts.
Wow - I would love to see what they are actually doing.

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