Women to rally for national domestic issues

Women will gather Saturday in Juneau for a rally to speak out about domestic issues that they say are virtually ignored on the national political scene.

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They won't be out on the street shouting and waving signs. But they still plan to have their voices heard at the Travelodge Hotel in the Mendenhall Valley.

"Women's issues are human issues," said event co-organizer Brittany Kasselder. "They're the central issues of our time."

The Juneau Rally for Women's Issues could lead to women forming an organization that lobbies for changes to public policy and political financial priorities for domestic issues, co-organizer Andrea Doll said.

Those issues include pay equity, affordable housing, education, access to emergency contraceptives, child care and health care. Some statistics they want to change include: women being paid 76 cents to every $1 a man makes; 300,000 rapes resulting in 32,000 pregnancies annually; and 19 percent of single parents' income going toward child care.

Doll and Kasselder said politicians are focused more on international issues, such as the war in Iraq, instead of problems at home. Some women have been working individually on causes, Kasselder said, but the rally marks a collective forum.

The event opens with women addressing the crowd. Nicole Hallingstad, vice president and corporate secretary at Sealaska Corp., will be the keynote speaker. Six women will tell personal stories.

Amalia McCarthy, a social worker and child and family counselor with Tlingit-Haida Central Council, will talk about the nature of women's voices.

The League of Women Voters will be on hand registering people to vote.

In the afternoon, women will network by visiting various stations that address domestic issues. Tables will be set up where people can get more information about education, the environment, health care, women and work, and women empowerment.

Doll got the idea for the rally after attending women's forums earlier this year, she said.

Carol Anderson said she is going Saturday to hear what women have to say and what needs they want addressed, she said.

"I think peace is really important to me - ending the war in Iraq" Anderson said. "I think that's important as women, mothers and just as human beings."

No political candidates are invited and the event is nonpartisan, Doll said.

"It's important to me that we fill this place with women," she said. "I want to hear their voices loudly and clearly."