I Am Woman, Hear Me File a Formal Complaint

I’m beginning to think that the National Organization for Women might want to rename themselves to something more appropriate—perhaps something like the National Organization for Emasculation.

...I thought that it was an early April Fool’s Day joke from the Washington Post, but it’s not: NOW wants access to money that is allotted for a program called the Promoting Responsible Fatherhood Initiative, which is designed to build job skills in men and help fathers connect better with their children. The women’s organization is saying that it’s discriminatory to fund such a program, since a program for fathers focuses on men only.

...Post reporter Christopher Lee writes:

NOW and Legal Momentum, another advocacy group, filed complaints yesterday with the Department of Health and Human Services alleging sex discrimination in the initiative that is funding about 100 programs this year.

[…]

“What we’re asking them to do is to make sure that the grantees provide equal services to women and men,” said Kathy Rodgers, president of Legal Momentum. “It should be a parenthood initiative.”

Administration officials and grant recipients say the challenge is misguided. The programs may target men, they say, but helping men become better fathers will benefit women and children, too. Moreover, HHS officials say they have told grant recipients they must open their fatherhood programs to women.

“If a woman says she wants to apply and it’s not happening, we want to know about it,” said Tara Wall, at the Administration for Children and Families, the HHS agency that oversees the grants. “Yes, fathers are the target group, but at the same time allowing equal access is required.”

[…]

One of the grants NOW objects to is a five-year, $2 million-a-year award to the D.C. Department of Human Services. It expects to help as many as 2,500 low-income fathers with parenting skills, substance-abuse prevention and treatment, job training and educational development, said Debra Daniels, a D.C. spokeswoman.

...Shouldn’t a women’s organization be supportive of giving men parenting skills, substance-abuse prevention and treatment, job training, and educational development? Maybe not, since there are more programs in NOW’s crosshairs:

Another group under fire is the Latin American Youth Center in the District, which got a $250,000 annual grant to provide 30 young fathers a year with job training, language classes and parenting skills. But women can enroll, too, said Lori Kaplan, the executive director.

“It doesn’t mean that anywhere along the line our moms are getting excluded,” she said.

...Wouldn’t fathers who act like fathers be beneficial to women? Perhaps only a few people think so. That aside, since Ms. Rodgers of Legal Momentum suggested that this program should be a “parenthood initiative” instead of a “fatherhood initiative,” why isn’t Legal Momentum urging NOW to rename themselves the National Organization for People?

...Having an organization dedicated to one sex doesn’t seem very equal, does it?

Reference
▪ Washington Post