Different But Important -- Notes

Reserve Reading
Barbara Mikulski

-old senate chamber, old architecture, then became supreme court room
-1992, year of wman, lots of new women, democratic majority in senate again
-"I was by myself, but I was never alone" -Mikulski (was only dem woman in congress before 92)
-Mikulski first elected 1986, first woman to be elected in her own right
-didn't want to be one of the boys, wanted to be part of the gang
-wasn't afraid of asking people for help and she did all her work
-got put on Appropriation and Education and Labor
-took a different route to politics, through community need not through a law firm
-convinced Barbara Boxer of CA to run because she could do more in Senate then house of reps
-Mikulski also wrote book with Oates about a woman in Senate
-provided new wmn with training sessions and even manuals for Senate, "wouldn't be every woman for herself"
-Told women to have defined principles, she had her own on a notecard that all her staff carried
-1996 Senate back Republican and Mikulski worked with women from both parties to ensure civility, all women were invited to her seminar
-Mikulski's supportive work was to help the women form their own ideas, not to make them conform to hers
-Olympia Snowe worked on getting helath care passed for women, Women's Helath Equity Act
-1997 National Cancer Institute decided that it was unnessecary for women under 50 to get mamograms based on a study from Canda which many experts discredited
-Snowe worked with Mikulski and other women to get the NCI to support screenings for under forty and it passed 98-0
-Mikulski worked with Repudblican Hutchinson on the Homemaker IRA to make the tax deductions for stay at home spouses the same $2,000 as it was for working spouses instead of the $250 they were getting
-Hutchinson-Mikulski Bill had huge support from all the Senate women and a number of organizations
-Women worked together on all types of things that weren't gender specific as well, they worked for agendas
-Mikulski worked with Susan Collins in making a petition drive to stop the Congress from adjourning on a plan with more healthcare cuts
-Snowe: "the success of women in Senate is often a result of collaborative work, which comes more naturally to them"
-make it very clear that women aren't homogenous
-many senators served in the house of reps together so they already had relationships that could help stop or pass a bill
-Blanche Lincoln: you gain respect by being respectful, gain colleagues by acting like colleagues
-Patty Murray: knew to pick which fights to get into and that giong with your conscience could hurt your politics
-Her soncience this tim elinked to Tailhook scandal: 1991 Tailhook Annual Symposium party 83 women and 7 men assaulted. Women had their clothes torn off by drunken, groping men
-After investigation: 119 navy + 21 marine officers referred for possible disciplinary action, but nothing ever happened, many of them promoted + allowed to retire
-women got together and challenged it as a group so she wasn't labeled by herself as a flamethrower, they didn't win but they were heard.