California NOW

Help Us Continue Fighting for Women!

We're proud that our work is moving California closer towards achieving women's equality and empowerment, even if our leaders continue to kick and scream along the way.

When the governor proposed eliminating the Commission on the Status of Women, we not only held a fundraiser to keep the Commission going, we made it our business to ensure the Commission and gender equity continued to be part of state government.  When the Governor eliminated the office of Women’s Health and tried to implement Health in All Policies without women, we were there to ensure all women were counted by the state in eliminating health disparities.

Right now we’re fighting to ensure women’s employment and women workers are part of California’s Strategic Plan for Economic Development & Jobs and we’re fighting to ensure domestic violence and rape law enforcement mandates remain and are finally paid for by all levels of government.

We’re also working with the Attorney General’s office to ensure that women across the state have access to full reproductive healthcare and that end of life directives are respected as Catholic healthcare corporations seek to expand their market share.  You can count on us to ensure that women and men will have the information they need to be an informed healthcare consumer.

The reason we can fight for all of these important issues is because we aren't financially dependent upon any of the special interest groups that run Sacramento.

Unfortunately, the down economy has hit our supporters hard which, in turn, has hit us hard. Even though we work on a shoestring budget, we're finding it more difficult to get by each month.

That's why we're holding a fundraiser. We know the ticket price is high and may be cost prohibitive for some of you but if you can afford to attend, we assure you that your TAX-DEDUCTIBLE donation will be spent wisely. And please forward this to anyone you know in the LA area. If you cannot attend the event but would like to make a tax-deductible donation NOW, click here.

No other organization works on as many issues impacting women and girls as we do. And no other organization is as independent as we are. We hope you'll support our work by attending this fundraiser. It's a good tax deduction and a great investment in our daughters' future.

Governor Brown Attempts to Change Penal Code for Domestic Violence

 The California Chapter of the National Organization for Women (California NOW) announced today that they will be waging a very public campaign to call on Governor Brown to remove the provision in the budget bill that eliminates domestic violence enforcement mandates from police officers and departments.

Current law requires mandatory response to domestic abuse calls, mandatory recording of those calls to emergency personnel, mandatory maintenance records of protection orders and mandatory incident reports. Governor Brown obviously believes domestic violence isn’t important enough to warrant mandates to ensure enforcement of those laws. That’s why, in the middle of night, he changed all of those acts from mandatory to optional, by changing the word in the penal code from “shall” to “may.”

California NOW President, Patricia Bellasalma stated, “California NOW has been fighting the governor’s office for more than two years and it’s getting old. We’ve been told repeatedly that he doesn’t like waiting, that democratic processes which are open and transparent are a waste of time and that he admires the autocratic Chinese government because they “get shit done.” Well what the Governor seems incapable of understanding is when there is no process, “shit” is exactly what gets done.”

Bellasalma continued, “This isn’t the first time we’ve had issues with the governor trying to change laws impacting women in this state through the use of rushed legislation. During the last budget cycle, a trailer bill sought to eliminate sex/gender from outcome measures tied to health inequities. That’s right - he didn’t care about unequal health outcomes for women, but we fought back and won.”

This latest attempt to destroy police mandates demonstrates a fundamental lack of a moral compass that no amount of philosophical reading can cure.  California NOW has been calling for transparency and accountability in state government for exactly this reason.  Governor Brown cannot be trusted to protect women’s health and safety.  The Legislature and Governor Brown must do more than just restore the Domestic Violence statutes; they must prove they deserve women’s trust by - at a minimum - enacting a three day delay before a vote statute that includes the budget.”

As Sacramento County District Attorney, Jan Scully, made clear in her statement yesterday regarding this issue, “These amendments undermining domestic violence laws and victims’ rights have been buried in this collection of mismatched laws because these changes would not survive if exposed to the light of public debate.”

California NOW will be calling on women across the state to contact Governor Brown’s office to demand that he veto AB 76 so that he isn’t responsible for taking California back more than two decades in the fight to break the cycle of domestic violence.

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Help Us Make Women are Visible!

California is the eighth largest economy in the world and the third largest oil producing state. We lead the nation in farm income and Silicon Valley accounts for one-third of all of the venture capital investment in the U.S.

But that's only side of California. You know, the side that is most often talked about.

But there's another side. For example, we also have the highest poverty rate in the nation, the fourth highest uninsured healthcare rate in the country (almost 25%) and our farm workers are not granted the same shade and water that animals receive. And while our most vulnerable communities have been pushed further into poverty as a result of the budget cuts, California tech companies have been skipping out on taxes for years, with Apple reporting $3.2 billion and Google reporting $2.07 billion in unrecognized tax benefits.

The truth is, California isn't golden for everyone.

That's why California NOW works every single day to push legislators in Sacramento to follow through with their campaign rhetoric of moving us in a better direction. We aren't sure yet if leaders will really fight for increased revenues and for passage of the minimum wage increase. We also aren't sure if they'll use their super majority to override the governor if he once again vetoes the domestic workers bill of rights. These decisions are critical to women (who have taken the brunt of the budget cuts). Two-thirds of minimum wage earners are female and domestic workers are predominately women. We can't allow women and girls to be virtually invisible this legislative cycle.

California NOW is working to make women visible – but we need your help!

We're the only feminist organization that consistently fights to ensure women are not left out of legislative and policy decisions. Maybe it's because we aren't funded by million dollar grants and we're not tied to any corporate or political interests. We're independently funded by YOU!

And even though we work with a very limited budget, we don't ask for donations often. But we're asking NOW.

Please click here to donate $5, $10 - or whatever you can afford - to make sure that we have the resources necessary to continue standing up for California's almost 19 million women and girls. They need us NOW more than ever!

Huffington Post isn't exactly cutting edge when it comes to women

California NOW Action VP, Linda Long

Ok Huff Post…you really need to “lean in” on women’s issues!

Why does nearly every article on the Women’s Voices page have to do with relationships, beauty, weight or “Girls”? Really? I get that women will only eat Haagen-Das if that is all that is offered, but it doesn’t mean that is all we want or need!

The Black Voices page offers articles on the politics of being black, the problems of being black in America, and solutions to the problems. The Latino Voices page more of the same. But, holy cow, if you believe the voices on the Women’s page, we are a shallow bunch of white 1%ers.

There’s nothing on the UN Commission on the Status of Women and the problems with passing the Violence Against Women resolution because of the Vatican’s opposition citing tradition and religion? Considering how the issue of rape has been on every woman’s Facebook page every day this week, seems like someone would have mentioned that the Vatican is more worried about controlling women than protecting them.

There’s nothing on the ongoing problems with health care implementation in states which are doing everything to exclude women because we are “expensive.” I mean, really - those darn women who want to have the children to guarantee our future. The gall of them!

There’s nothing on raising the minimum wage (that was on the Latino Voices page) even though the majority of minimum wage earners are women and a huge bunch of them are home health care workers, none of whom is protected under National Labor Relations Act! No, just the stupid “Lean In” crap which probably makes the majority of women who struggle every day to afford child care and food on their tables want to “LEAN ON” a few of the 1%er women who don’t pay their fair share of taxes, or offer their child care workers a decent salary, overtime or even health care.

Frankly, I can’t imagine how much more leaning without falling over a woman for whom one sick day can make the difference between eating at the end of the week or not can do!

There are lots of articles on makeup…most of which is toxic and can’t even be sold in Europe where the standards are much higher than in America (darn those socialists…always thinking of women’s health)!

There are articles on stay-at-home moms which fail to talk about advocating for social security to be paid into the system by the society which supposedly “values” them so much. We forget to tell those stay-at-home moms that they will get nothing for their retirement. Their work has so much “value” it’s free! Bet that is going to help them eat in 50 years.

Let’s face it, women are complex. We do care about relationships and the way we look but all of that is the Haagen Das and we only eat that after getting out of a really bad relationship. What we need is a real meal (steak, vegetables, salad and maybe some wine) and we want the media to stop trying to make us only eat the ice cream and, instead, offer us up some nutrition because that is something we can “lean in” to.

International Women's Day!

Today is International Women's Day.  In commemoration, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet spoke today at the United Nations.

Here is a portion of what she said....

"We cannot move backwards, we must keep moving forward. It is what we owe to millions of women fighting for their rights around the world.

We find ourselves at a tipping point in history. Never before have we witnessed such global momentum and mobilization by men and women, girls and boys, demanding an end to violence against women and girls.

Never before have we witnessed such open, widespread public outrage and calls for change and action.

Never before have we had the instant and global outreach that new technologies afford—to record in mere seconds, and communicate in real time, the atrocities and horrors of violence committed against women and girls.

Violence against women is pervasive and knows no borders. It does not discriminate according to nationality, ethnicity, social class, culture or religion.

This is why women, men and young people have raised their voices in every region to say one thing: enough is enough.

People demand an immediate end to impunity. They insist on the protection of the rights of women and girls to live in dignity, free of violence and discrimination.

And let me say this: There can be no peace, no progress, no equality without women’s full and equal rights and participation. And there can be no gender equality without women’s realization. Women’s realization of their full reproductive rights, their right to sexual and reproductive health, are essential to the empowerment of women and to gender equality.

As social transformations in attitudes, beliefs, and values are happening, we must keep pace with the aspirations of people everywhere in the world. Their hope, our hope is to see gender equality become reality in this, our 21st century."

Click here to read Michelle Bachelet's full remarks.