BITS &

PIECES Doctors Try to Obstruct Midwives

(HerSay)-The American Medical Association doesn't want midwives competing with doctors for . .... hospital delivery rooms, and it's willing to cut the powers of the Federal Trade Commission to keep them out.

The FTC is currently looking at a number of cases in which nurse-midwives have been denied hospital delivery room privileges. According to The Washington Post, nurse-midwives charge less than doctors and spend more time with patients, but their practices are frequently limited to home births because hospitals will not accept their patients. The FTC is reportedly looking into such restrictions as possible restraints of trade.

The Post reports that the AMA and the American Dental Association have raised almost $2.5 million to

back legislation that would limit the powers of the FTC to pursue this kind of investigation.

Fortunately midwives are more appreciated in Great Britain, where they have helped deliver threefourths of the babies born. That's according to British obstetrician Denys Fairweather, who says midwives and physicians are "not in competition" in England. Instead, a family doctor typically confirms a woman's pregnancy, then refers her to a midwife. The midwife then oversees the pregnancy, advising the woman and her family on the physical and psychological aspects of having a child. Fairweather says this partnership between midwife and doctor results in a more efficient and perhaps less expensive use of medical personnel.

Fairweather notes that British midwives are certified by a special panel and are required to have three years of specialized training, or 18 months if

Equal Pay in Church? they are already nurses.

(HerSay)-Equal pay for nuns? That could be the

result of newly revised religious laws being considered by the Roman Catholic Church.

Within the next few months, Pope John Paul II will issue the church's new Code of Canon Law. Under the proposed code, The Washington Post reports, churches will be obliged to obey the civil laws on wages and employment which apply to the countries where they operate. Employees of a Catholic institution who think their employer is violating the laws of the land in matters of equal pay will then be able to seek redress in church courts.

.. Women's role in the church will also expand under the new laws. The church of the future will likely feature altar girls as well as boys assisting at services.

A Slap on the Wrist

(HerSay)-A U.S. official who threatened to axe an Indian jobs program unless its director slept with him has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor offense. Glendon Whitman, a U.S. manpower development specialist, reportedly told Kathryn Defoe Leimer he would withdraw CETA jobs funds from the Fond Du Lac Indian Reservation unless she complied with his demands. Leimer refused, and was fired in 1979, after Whitman told her supervisors he would terminate funds to the project unless she was dismissed. Now Whitman, who has admitted it happened, faces a possible maximum sentence of a $500 fine and up to a year in prison. Litterers in many states face similar penalties.

TV Ignores Latinas

(HerSay)-The nation's largest group representing citizens from Hispanic backgrounds is charging that America's airwaves are almost empty of HispanicAmericans. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) has filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employmet Opportunity Commission charging that the major networks, four Hollywood studios and two major advertising firms discriminate against America's twenty million Hispanic Americans by failing to represent them on the air.

LULAC's President Tony Bonilla says there are only four Hispanics on starring roles on prime time television, and three of them don't even play Hispanics. Of those four actors, only one, Rita Moreno, is a woman..

Women's Art Museum

A museum devoted to art by women, believed to be the first of its kind, is currently setting up in the United States' capital. The National Museum of Women's Art is scheduled to open within the next three to four years in downtown Washington, D.C. The museum already has $1.5 million in unconditional pledges, and another $1 million a year for four years coming from other donors, said museum founder Wilhelmina Holladay. The museum is intended to fill "a gap" in the history of art. According to Holladay, the museum will not compare men's and women's work or show that women artists are "lesser or greater, but that they are, they exist”.

The future home of the museum is at the 1907 Masonic Temple, located at 801 13th St., N.W., at New York Avenue in Washington, D.C.

Women Speak Out (continued from page 6)

of issues they are concerned with is almost limitless. According to Daisy Ford, past President of Women Speak Out and current chair of the STAR Campaign,

On December 10, 1982, Alva Reimer Myrdal will receive her award as co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. The award is one of several which have acknowledged her leadership in peace efforts. In 1970 she shared the West German Peace Prize with her husband Gunnar Myrdal; two years ago she was awarded the Albert Einstein Peace Prize; and last February she traveled to Oslo to collect the People's Peace Prize. Alva Myrdal was born in 1902, and after a long career in teaching held a number of positions in the Swedish government, including 11 years as Sweden's disarmament negotiator, in Geneva and 7 years as a cabinet minister in charge of disarmament and church affairs. She gave up her government post in 1973 and has continued to write and lecture. Before she focused on disarmament in the early 1960's, she was involved in such causes as women's rights, child care and population control.... -Information from The New York Times

the group's expansion into other issues was a natural evolution. "You think you are a single issue

Page 12/What She Wants/December, 1982

organization, but as you learn more, you find that the problem is much broader. For example, Women. Speak Out is for peace and justice. You start by . working for peace, but when you realize the extent of the problem you realize you can't have peace without justice."' !

Among the priorities of the group are support of the Freeze, military budget cuts, economic justice, a just energy policy, national health care, desegregation of schools and quality education, and the ERA. Currently Women Speak Out's greatest effort is in their Stop the Arms Race, or STAR, Campaign. The STAR, Campaign was launched on International Women's Day at the same time the Freeze came into being. It goes beyond the Freeze, however, in demanding broader cuts in military expenditures and restoring funds to human services and support for U.N. disarmament efforts.

Women Speak Out does not devote much energy to feminist theorizing. Ford explains that this is partially because feminism has been assumed throughout the League's long history through its suffragist roots. She decribes their relationship to feminist organizations as one of a coalition type of bonding: "[Feminist] organizations will support our efforts, but their involvement in their own issues is so very strong and they need to carry on their own work. We won't initiate action in their areas, but will back them up. I think it works very well."

What She Wants Notes:

The deadline for the January/February issue will be January 2, 1983.

Ever heard of a newspaper office without a typewriter? What She Wants is now accepting taxdeductible contributions of typewriters. Electric with elite type preferred.

Moving? Please send us your change of address at least 6 weeks in advance so that you don't miss. any issues.

Managers (continued from page 2)

time." Remaining unemployed longer "wasn't a gamble I wanted to take."

Here in Cleveland, there are options for womenmanagers who have gotten the axe. Resource Women-The Untapped Resource is a firm that specializes in outplacement and career counseling. A. large portion of Resource's work involves helping women who are laid off by companies that have membership in the group. Other women can take ad-.. vantage of Resource's programs for a $75 fee. Services include counseling on job search strategies, learning to deal with the emotional impact of unemployment, and a support group that meets monthly.