Some of us may just, in one-on-one conversations with our family, with our friends, over the back fence with our neighbors, talk about the reality of our lives and realize that we're not alone, that we have a right to be physically safe and emotionally safe in our own homes.
Patricia Ireland
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Patricia Ireland quotes
A judge out in Baltimore sentenced Ken Peacock to 18 month's work release after the cold-blooded murder of his wife. I think that we have a structure, a culture that is based on the dominant dad whether it's in a family or in the politics.
A woman named Feinstra brought her husband to trial for childhood sexual abuse against their daughter. They won that trial. He went to jail. She and her daughter lost their home because he had mortgaged their house for his lawyer's fees.
Advice and consent does not mean rubber stamp in the Senate.
And of course we are familiar with the English common law rule of thumb that said a man could in fact use a stick no bigger than his thumb to discipline his wife and family.
Both Justice O'Connor and Justice Bader-Ginsberg have told women lawyers and women judges that it makes a difference to have women in the courtroom.
Bush's choice of Dick Cheney as his running mate is clear confirmation of the policies he would promote and the nominations he would make to an already closely divided U.S. Supreme Court.
Extremely strong, effective, tenacious, and powerful political networks can be built when you fight losing battles as well as when you win.
For most of us, this is not a pro-Gore rally. This is a protest against the extralegal actions, actions outside the law, by the Bush-Cheney campaign.
Frankly, the Court is not a particularly pleasant place to be these days. Justice Scalia has been excoriating his colleagues when they disagree with him, and I don't think there is any kind of intellectual collegiality where they can disagree anjd still remain respectful of each other.
I certainly like the Woman from Tennessee who is going to be speaking here-Martha Daughtry. I have heard very good things about her.
I come from a Christian faith. I am not going to give you insight into my particular beliefs.
I don't think Bush has any intention of being accomodating. He is one of these aren't I great kind of guys, and in some sense that is what you get to do when you are President.
I don't think you lead by pessimism and cynicism. I think you lead by optimism and enthusiasm and energy.
I have a very personal interest. I am a Miami-Dade voter. One of the issues is that my vote and so many other votes of women and African Americans in Florida are being discounted or discarded. I want my vote to count.
I just have that sense this is the reason we got Sandra Day O'Connor on the Court in the first place is because Ronald Reagan was running for President.
I know that Bush, for political reasons, is going to nominate a minority, a Hispanic man or someone where it will be harder for people on the progressive side to oppose and split some of the traditionally progressive or democratic constituents.
I know that it isn't just violence against women, it's how do we support ourselves and our families, how do we deal with health care for ourselves and our families? It's a bigger picture.
I think of Katie, a woman who I was arrested with, in the Capital Rotunda, just a week ago, who was herself fleeing an 11-year marriage to an abusive man who beat her for 11 years and when she fled, she fell into poverty.
I think the YWCA should be a model for faith-based organizations providing services. They don't discriminate based on religion in hiring or in provision of services. And they do a really good job on battered women's shelters. They're the largest providers in the country.
I want to organize so that women see ourselves as people who are entitled to power, entitled to leadership.
I want to reach young women and to get them involved in the mission of the YWCA, economic empowerment of women and girls, and ending racism.
I want to see young women who come right out of school and start running for office or start moving into some positions where they will be able to shape the institutions that define our culture. And so if there are men who just don't get it, then they're just going to have to get it.
I was in a demonstration in Miami-Dade back in the 1980s opposing aid to the contras in Central America. We were surrounded by 2,000 screaming right wingers. They threw rocks at us.
I'm just incensed that the media discounts this incident. They know nothing about the atmosphere of political intimidation in Miami-Dade. People there get their legs blown off just for suggesting that there should be a dialogue with Cuba.
I've talked to law enforcement officials at the state and local level who say that violence against women is going up. In any case, we think that it's an important issue whether it's going up or not. And we are determined to stop it.
In any grass-roots campaign, building an ongoing base of support is as important as winning the ultimate goal.
Is a woman raped every three minutes or every six minutes? It is far too much, whatever it is.
It is nevertheless true that the personal is political and there's no area in which that is more true than violence.
Jesus never said anything about homosexuality.
Maybe some of the younger folks here will live to see the Court change again in a better direction, but I probably won't.
More than 10,000 ballots in Miami-Dade County have been rejected by some machine without any opportunity for a human being to take a look. That is just not right.
Most of us see Justice O'Connor as something of an icon, although we do not agree with all of her decisions.
My answer to those who oppose my appointment as CEO is that this is really a decision of the YWCA. They want to strengthen their grassroots to advocate on behalf of women's and children's empowerment and ending racism.
One of the advantages of being alomost 60 is that I can look back 35 or 40 years when I was first coming out of college and remember what it was like. I can see that when we fight back we make progress.
Patricia Ireland, the pillbox hat-wearing, scotch-pouring servant had taken on the big boys and come out ahead!
Some campaigns are not worth waging if you can't win; others have to be fought on grounds of principle regardless of the chances for success.
Some of those men in power, we just have to change their faces because we're not going to change their minds.
Some of us may just, in one-on-one conversations with our family, with our friends, over the back fence with our neighbors, talk about the reality of our lives and realize that we're not alone, that we have a right to be physically safe and emotionally safe in our own homes.
Stewardesses are still paid so little that in many cases, new hires qualify for food stamps.
The Contstitution only protects what a majority say it protects, other than that, kiss it goodbye.
The opposition has moved from a blaming the victim to blaming the victim's advocate's statistics. Irrespective of what the numbers are, it's far too many.
The Republican legislators appear ready to usurp our citizens' right to vote and simply anoint electors pledged to George W. Bush. These legislators present perhaps the gravest threat to the democratic process to date in this election.
The Violence Against Women Act is so important. It provides money to train the cop on the beat, to train the judges that this is a new day, that we won't tolerate this violence and to know how to deal with it.
The way to be a man if you're a little boy is to be willing to throw your weight around.
The Young Women's Christian Association is nourished by its roots in Christianity and, at the same time, over the years, it's been enriched by beliefs and values from all kinds of places, even, in fact, strengthened by our diversity.
There are a lot of people who worked extremely hard in the election who are still organized who know how to do door to door and phone canvassing, who know how to raise money.
They are saying that the election is being stolen from them by those of us who insist that every vote be counted.
They plan to ride into the White House on the Sweet Talk Express. Well, think again. Bush and Cheney are not compassionate conservatives. They are ruthless reactionaries.
Violence may be a good focus to organize around, but we have to look at women's lives in our entirety.
We always knew when we took on the issue of violence against women that somehow our opposition would come after us.
We have to stop this violence. We have to make the political nature of the violence clear, that the violence we experience in our own homes is not a personal family matter, it's a public and political problem. It's a way that women are kept in line, kept in our places.
We may be in a tough time right now, but when we are in a tough time is when our movement gets really strong.
We need more conflict resolution skills taught in the schools and more emphasis on non-violent means of resolving conflict.
When I hear traditional family values raised, I hear that effort once again to re-establish the man as head and master of his family. Who had the, not only the right, but the obligation to discipline his wife and children to keep them in line?
When I started law school I was shocked to learn that our legal system traditionally had the man as the head and master of the family. As late as the '70s and '80s when we were fighting for the Equal Rights Amendment, states like Louisiana still had a head and master law.
While the Senate remains overwhelmingly male and without a single African-American member, we are confident we will be able to focus public pressure on the Senate to be mindful of the popular vote-no matter who sits in the White House.
With Bush naming Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas as justices he most respects, I shudder to think what would happen to the fragile balance on the court.
Women are called upon to defend every bit of progress we have made against particularly virulent attack. But we must also hold out a vision, put forth a positive agenda of what women need and want and then move forward toward that dream.
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