The 17-member Commission on the Status of Women is an independent agency that promotes equality and justice for women by advocating on their behalf with the governor, the Legislature and other public policymakers. It educates the public about issues concerning economic equity, including educational equality, access to health care (including reproductive choice), violence against women and other key issue areas. Throughout its history, the commission has focused on the working poor, those with limited English language ability, incarcerated women  and those with least access to state government and services. The commission accomplishes its tasks through public hearings, educational forums, research and recommendations, legislative advocacy, and collaborating with other state and local agencies and women’s organizations. After Governor Jerry Brown announced in 2011 his intention to eliminate the commission for fiscal reasons, the Assembly shifted $150,000 from its operating budget in April 2012 to keep the commission operational for the year.

About the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW website)

The commission was established in 1965 as an advisory body under Governor Gerald “Pat” Brown and signed into law as an independent entity in 1971 by Governor Ronald Reagan. The advisory commission’s first report in 1967 addressed employment; civil and political rights, including marriage and divorce; education, with emphasis on older women; and the effect of social attitudes and economic considerations on women’s role in society.  Its issues and focus have changed as societal needs evolved.

In 1965 – 1975, the commission:

·    Administered the Equal Rights Amendment Project;

·    Issued reports on women and insurance;

·    Focused on child care issues;

·    Co-sponsored conferences with Women’s Justice Forum on Women and the Justice System;

·    Examined women in the media;

·    Developed projects aimed at counseling strategies for motivating low-income girls.

In 1976 – 1985, the commission:

·    Focused on implementation of Title IX and elimination of sex bias in schools and vocational education;

·    Held public hearings on violence against women;

·    Issued the Campesina Report on women field workers;

·    Held statewide hearings on comparable worth and feminization of poverty;

·    Implemented the Sexual Harassment in Employment Project.

In 1986 – 1995, the commission:

·    Administered the Displaced Homemaker Emergency Loan program;

·    Co-sponsored a legislative oversight hearing on sex equity in education;

·    Held conferences on child care;

·    Issued reports on pay inequities for women workers and women in politics;

·    Issued a manual for dealing with sexual harassment;

·    Adopted reproductive rights as a priority issue;

·    Sponsored hearings on adolescent health.

In 1996 – 2005, the commission:

·    Held forums and issued reports on the Domestic Violence Mandatory Reporting Law and child support collection;

·    Conducted a welfare reform hearing on Six Strategies to Self-Sufficiency;

·    Held a forum on gender equity in education;

·    Advocated for women in prison, access to health care and economic security;

·    Held hearings on human trafficking.

In 2004, the California Performance Review established by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recommended that the commission be eliminated, but it was removed from the list of potentially doomed agencies in 2005.

The commission was back on the chopping block in 2011. Facing an April 2012 closure by Governor Jerry Brown, it began searching for alternative funds to get it through the fiscal year. It would have closed up shop in February if longtime Executive Director Mary Wiberg hadn’t retired, freeing up a few dollars.

Actress Geena Davis was elected commission chair in March 2012 and the next month Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez announced that $150,000 would be moved from the Assembly’s operating budget to the commission, keeping it alive until the end of the year.

Commission on the Status of Women Saved From Elimination (American Association of University Women)

40 Years of Commission Action (Status of Women website) (pdf)

Women’s Commission Gets the Budget Ax (by Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle)

Academy Award-Winner Geena Davis Elected New Chair of the California Commission on the Status of Women (Commission website)

California Panel Led by Geena Davis Gets New Life (by Juliet Williams, Mercury News)

Geena Davis Says State Women's Panel to Get an Extended Run (by Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times)

The California Commission on the Status of Women was established to protect the interests of California women and girls. As an independent, nonpartisan state agency, the department focuses on determining inequities in laws, practices and conditions facing this group.

The commission is comprised of 17 members – nine public members, six legislative members and two statutory members. The governor appoints seven public members on a staggered basis. The Senate Rules Committee appoints three legislative members and one public member. The Speaker of the Assembly appoints three legislative members and one public member.

The commission holds hearings and legislative briefings. It also conducts research and advises the governor, the Legislature and the public on legislation and issues of policy about the status of women. The commission holds public hearings every two years to recognize the needs of women and girls.

The commission lists 13 priorities:

Budget – The current economic crisis especially affects low-income women and their families.

Child Care – Increase availability of high-quality child care to families.

Civil Rights – Better data collection by gender, disability, ethnicity and work to improve services in health care, education and employment to specific groups, including Native American, LGBTQ and immigrants.

Economic Security – Improvement in the economic security outcomes for California women.

Education – Provision of California students with a fair and equal education at both the K-12 and postsecondary levels to prepare them with skills that lead to high-wage jobs.

Employment – Improvement of pay equity, family friendly workplaces and the elimination of discrimination and harassment in the workplace.

Family Law – Improvement of outcomes for family members.

Health – Improvement of access for women and girls to all the health services.

Long Term Care and Aging Issues – Improvement in the growing needs of an aging population and the caregivers who serve them.

Reproductive Health – Assurance of adequate funding of health care services.

Violence – Prevention of domestic violence and education of women on the topic.

Women and Girls in the Criminal Justice System – Reduction of the number of girls and women who are incarcerated. The commission calls for a public policy on crime, preventive programs and greater access to treatment programs addressing mental health and substance abuse programs.

Women Veterans – Improvement of access to services that are gender specific.

The commission considers the impact of budget cuts in the lagging California economy  as its greatest policy concern. Its 12 priorities for the 2011-2012 fiscal year include:

Child Care – Increase funding for child care for children from birth to age 5 in low-income families.

Economic Security – Fund safety net programs that serve women and their families.

Employment – Expand eligibility for job-protected family and medical leave to a larger number of workers.

Employment – Require employer-provided health insurance coverage to be fully protected for all workers on leave for pregnancy-related conditions.

Employment – Increase education of the Paid Family Leave program.

Health – Ensure that state legislation meets the needs of women and girls in the implementation of federal health care reform.

Reproductive Health – Enforce the Anti-Reproductive Rights Crimes Act to reduce harassment.

Reproductive Health – Require health insurance plans to cover maternity services and fertility treatment.

Violence – Increase funding for sexual assault and domestic violence programs.

Women and Girls in the Criminal Justice System – Assure that Gender Responsiveness in female prisons is implemented. Gender Responsiveness is creation of an understanding of the realities of the lives of women and girls and that addresses and responds to their strengths and challenges.

Women and Girls in the Criminal Justice System – Require that pregnant prison inmates be restrained in the least restrictive way possible and be provided pre-natal care during and following pregnancy.

Women Veterans – Educate women veterans throughout the state of their eligibility for services and the care available.

Issues: The Commission on the Status of Women (Commission website)

Public Policy Agenda and Proposals  (Commission website)

Commissioners and Staff  (Commission website)

How to Become a Commissioner (Commission website)

All but $2,000 of the commission’s projected 2011-2012 budget of $267,000 comes from the state’s General Fund. Nearly 89% of those funds are spent on salaries and benefits; the rest goes for operating expenses and equipment.

The proposed budget for 2012-13 was zeroed out after Governor Jerry Brown called for the commission’s elimination. The state Assembly announced in April 2012 that it was transferring $150,000 from its operating budget to the commission to fund it until the end of the year.

3-Year Budget (pdf)

Gender Equity

The passage of Title IX in 1972 by the federal government provided the basis for gender equity laws across the country and underpins anti-discriminatory efforts by the California Commission on the Status of Women. Title IX states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

The commission cites these national figures as evidence of Title IX’s success: the percentage of women high school graduates who enrolled in college increased from 43% to 63% between 1973 and 1994. In 1971, 1 in 27 girls participated in high school athletics, compared with 1 in 3 in 1994. But it also cites a host of figures showing gender equity is an ongoing problem.

But not everyone is happy with how gender equity laws have been applied. “When Title IX was passed in 1972 to bar sex discrimination in programs receiving federal funds, it was a huge and laudable gain for the feminist movement,” wrote blogger Glenn Sacks, before complaining, “It was never meant to be a sword wielded to cut down the dreams and hopes of 19-year-old boys.” Sacks said that men's sports in the California State University system “are under assault from feminist organizations that are pursuing a course which both ignores the desires of female college students and victimizes male college athletes.”

s colleges wrestled with Title IX and its impact on athletics, some resorted to subterfuge to pass muster. In the 40 years since the law was passed, the number of women competing in college sports has soared by more than 500% — to 186,000 a year from fewer than 30,000 in 1972. Still, as female college enrollment has climbed to 57%, schools have been hard-pressed to field a proportional number of female athletes. A New York Times study in 2011 found widespread cheating. 

Former Olympic champion swimmer and official at the Women’s Sports Foundation Nancy Hogshead-Makar said, “The fraud is disheartening. … When an athletic department engineers itself to produce only the appearance of fairness, they flout the law and cheat women.”

Others take a slightly more charitable view of universities’ fraudulent behavior. “To Hell With Gender Equity,” is the headline on a blog response to the 2011 New York Times study. “Americans have for too long been tortured on the Procrustean bed of ‘equality,’ which aims to destroy all custom and tradition – indeed, to destroy liberty itself — in order to render individuals as atomized and interchangeable units in a one-size-fits-all regime.”

California Men's College Sports Under Assault from NOW (Glenn Sacks blog)

Gender Equity Facts and Figures (Commission website)

Facing Title IX Pressure, Cal May Restore the Teams It Cut (by Katie Thomas, New York Times)

College Teams, Relying on Deception, Undermine Gender Equity (by Katie Thomas, New York Times)

Is Title IX Hurting Men? (Title IX Blog)

To Hell With Gender Equity (The Other McCain blog)

Critics Within the Commission

The commission was charged with promoting "radical feminism" after its support of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1976, but won a legal challenge that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1984. However, after the election of Republican Governor George Deukmejian in 1983, the political makeup of the commission changed and it came under fire from former liberal Democratic allies in the Legislature. 

Democratic Assemblywoman Maxine Waters and her Ways and Means subcommittee slashed the commission's proposed $700,000 budget, reduced the commission's 11-member staff to four and eliminated the travel and lodging expenses after clashing with  Republican Executive Director Margaret Almada over its change in agenda. She was joined by state Senator Diane Watson, who claimed the commission had become ineffective in espousing women's issues. Both Republican and Democratic legislators claimed the proposed budget cuts were purely political, triggered by a growing Republican influence on the commission.

Commissioner Phyllis Cheng, a Republican appointed by Deukmejian, said, "I think this is worse than anything that ever happened in the history of the commission. Before, we were able to vanquish our enemies from outside, but now we're having civil war within the commission from people who are supposed to support women's issues."

State's Panel on Women Faces Critics From Within (by Rebecca LaVally, Los Angeles Times)

State Senate OKs a Budget It Knows Must Be Cut Back (by Douglas Shuitt, Los Angeles Times)

Create a National Commission

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo) introduced legislation in 2009 to create the Presidential Commission on Women. A similar commission was established by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, but only operated for two years.

Speier wanted to create a commission that would conduct research, take testimony and make reports and recommendations to the President, Congress and federal agencies. Speier wanted that the commission to have an annual budget of $2 million.

But Speier’s legislation caused debate even in feminist circles as people in opposition suggested that rather than creating a new commission, federal support should go directly to the National Association of Commissions for Women.

As of 2011, the new federal commission proposed by Speier didn’t become a reality. And with Governor Jerry Brown’s new revised state budget released on May 16, 2011, which calls for the elimination of the Commission on the Status of Women, it’s possible that neither agency will exist.

Why New Women's Commission Is Needed (by Susan Rose, Calbuzz)

Does California Need a Commission on the Status of Women?

In 1985, the commission sweated out a decision by Governor George Deukmejian on the budget as its existence hung in the balance. Republican state Assemblyman Tom McClintock led the charge to have the commission abolished in 1992 and its funding redirected to state prisons. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California Performance Review in 2004 put the commission on its list of state agencies California could do without. Five years later the independent Office of the Legislative Analyst recommended its elimination and in May 2011 Governor Jerry Brown put it on his list of 43 state entities that should be dispatched. Should the commission have been created in the first place? Have societal changes made it less relevant in the 45 years since its creation? Do California women need an advocate devoted solely to their issues?

Keep the Commission

Supporters of the commission argue that it is as relevant and necessary today as the day it was created. It is the only state agency that directly deals with issues impacting women. The commission establishes a link between communities and government that would not otherwise exist and provides a vehicle for addressing issues of the working poor and their families, incarcerated women, those with limited English language skills, and those with less access to government services. The commission would be disappearing during bad economic times, when the women and families it advocates for are suffering their worst hardship. 

Susan Rose, former executive director of the Los Angeles Commission on the Status of Women, while making an argument for a national commission on women in 2009, said that discrimination was still alive and well in the country. “We are underrepresented in elective office (only 17% of members of Congress are women); earn 77 cents on the dollar compared to men; and represent at least 85% of the victims of domestic violence.” 

Shifting to the local scene, Rose pointed out that in California, “68% of minimum wage workers are women. Nearly 37% of families headed by single women in California live in poverty and many working women have no health insurance. Women of color suffer all these inequities in greater numbers.”

Rose has warned of an ongoing “war against women” being waged by Republicans and cites attacks on Planned Parenthood and legislative attempts to redefine rape. MoveOn.org includes those two items on its Top 10 attacks on women by the GOP in addition to anti-abortion legislation and budget cuts targeted at senior citizens, children and the poor.

The state commission interacts with a network of 27 local commissions that focus on women’s issues across California. It brings their issues from across the state directly to the governor and the Legislature. It participates in the legislative process and educates the public. And it is cheap. Less than half a million dollars a year. Hardly a budget buster.

Carolyn Heine, the first executive director of the commission, credits it with helping state legislation get passed in 1970 that outlawed sex discrimination in employment. The commission also played an active role in promoting the study of women’s history, and passage of the state’s 2002 paid family leave law and the 2005 law that made human trafficking a felony.

Abolish the Commission

The commission’s mission statement clearly states it is “non-partisan,” but critics say it is anything but. The commission aims to be “culturally inclusive,” and supports reproductive choice, universal health care and a host of social programs that benefit the old, sick and poor. These are generally issues associated with the Democratic Party.    

Sally C. Pipes, president and CEO of Pacific Research Institute, thinks the commission has outlived its purpose, if it ever had one, and makes an argument against the commission that has been leveled at many social programs: “I fail to understand how it’s a valuable function to portray women as a caste of permanent victims and essentially helpless without a government bureaucracy to speak for them. I don’t see much value in linking women’s achievements to the helping hand of Big Brother.”

Pipes, in a 2009 article, also accused the commission of not living up to its claim of non-partisanship. She argued that it had been a staunch supporter of the California Universal Health Care Act in 2008 that was championed by progressive Democratic state Senator Sheila Kuehl (and former commission member) and liberal “economic security” policies rather than conservative pro-growth policies. The commission did not formally endorse the health care legislation.

Pipes cast aspersions on the Legislature’s claim in 1965 when the commission was created in its original advisory form that, although “women apparently have greater equality in California than in many states, they still are not able to contribute to society according to their full potential.”  She asked, “Forty-four years have passed since the Commission’s founding;  are women still unable to contribute according to their full potential?”

She pointed to the success of businesswoman Meg Whitman, who later ran for governor of California; the state’s U.S. Senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein; and  University of California, Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, who earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from UCLA and holds 16 patents.

McClintock Plan Angers Women's Commission (by Patrick McCartney, Los Angeles Times)

CA Commission on the Status of Women Makes it Through (CA NOW)

Does CA Need a Commission on the Status of Women? (Pacific Research Institute)

Why New Women's Commission Is Needed (Calbuzz)

Top 10 Shocking Attacks from the GOP's War on Women (MoveOn.org)

Alexandra (Sandy) Gleysteen, 2010-2012

Elaine Suranie, 2009-2010

Lindy DeKoven, 2008 – 2010

Elmy Bermejo, 2002-2007

Cheryl Kendrick, 1998

Marjorie Hansen Shaevitz, 1993

Verna B. Dauterive, 1986 - 1992

Dorothy Jonas, 1985

Carole Ward Allen, 1983- 1985

Hannah-Beth Jackson, 1981-1983

Anita Miller, 1972-1978