President of NOW joins campus debate

Affirmative action and the yearlong Equality Countdown Campaign were just a few topics National Organization for Women President Patricia Ireland spoke about in a conference at the University Student Union Thursday.

A graduate from the University of Miami Law School in 1975, Ireland leads the largest, most successful women's organization in the nation.

She has been NOW's president since 1991 and will stay in office until 1997.

"I am a feminist, I am an activist," she said.

Ireland credited her experiences as a stewardess - not a flight attendant, as such workers are properly referred to today - with providing her strong views on feminism.

Ireland said affirmative action opens doors to minorities who are faced with fighting the fact that 95 to 97 percent of the top positions are held by white males, and that women earn 79 cents for every dollar earned by men.

To some affirmative action means that under-qualified people get jobs based on their race or gender. And those in power want us to look at the nation's economic problems and blame affirmative action, Ireland said.

The president stressed that affirmative action also helps men with families by providing extra income from wives and sisters.

With an election coming up, she mentioned that NOW is looking for volunteers to help staff phone banks and perform other duties.

Citing the fact that this year is the 75th anniversary of women's right to vote, Ireland said that that right was not given to women, but was won.

And she added that the fight is still going on.

"Active, if not unconscious discrimination is going on," Ireland said. "It's going to be a fight, a large fight.

"I know we can make change, I know we can make progress," she added.

Ireland was also one of seven panelists at a live national teleconference Wednesday, sponsored by Cal State Long Beach's Student Services and the Office of Affirmative Action.