Meeting Information

CEDAW

United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination AGAINST Women

1. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL

Latika Malkani called the meeting to order.

Ken Theisen Latika Malkani Bonita Banducci, Focus group consultant

2. ADOPTION OF AGENDA & ADOPTION OF MINUTES:

Ken Theisen moved and Dorothy Yee second and the Task Force unanimously passed the agenda and following minutes: Minutes of meetings on July 20, October 3, and October 25, 2000.

3. NEW BUSINESS

• ACTION ITEM: ADOPTION OF CEDAW TASK FORCE FIFTH PROGRESS REPORT. Ken Theisen moved and Dorothy Yee second and the Task Force unanimously passed the progress report (see attached). Staff explained that COSW commissioners would be presenting the report to Supervisors when they met with them to review COSW’s priorities.

• ACTION ITEM/DISCUSSION ITEM: Adoption of protocols for review of each department’s gender analysis (Rent Board, Art Commission, Adult Probation, and Environment) and monitoring of action plans (DPW and Juvenile Probation). Ken Theisen moved and Dorothy Yee second and the Task Force unanimously passed the following protocol:

• ACTION ITEM/DISCUSSION ITEM: Schedule of meetings for 2001.

• ACTION ITEM/DISCUSSION ITEM: Report from CEDAW liaison from the Rent Board on their gender analysis report and discussion of Task Force recommendations.

• Task Force members raised issues concerning the lack of data affected the analysis. There is no or very little data on who uses the Rent Board services, other than whether that person is a landlord or tenant. One of the Rent Board’s own recommendations was to collect more voluntary data on their evaluation forms regarding sex and race. Other data collection discussed was voluntary form for petitioners, staff tracking of customer’s sex, form on desk for voluntary information while waiting for assistance.
• Rent board staff’s unofficial sense is that slightly more than half the users are women, particularly elderly woman or women with families.
• Task Force members pointed out that young women, women with children, low income women or women in domestic violence situations are the most likely to move around a lot and thus can be able to take advantage or the rent control provisions. (Query can the Rent Control provisions be changed to address this issue? Is this being looked at in the current study?)
• Workplace safety plans were discussed (do they include a provision on DV?).
• Language is an issue, most materials are in Chinese and Spanish but there is a shortage of interpreters.
• Very few employees took part in the focus group, perhaps due to a lack of training in human rights or because the Rent Board offers a lot of workplace flexibility making staff feel satisfied with their jobs.
• Liaison stated that in most of the area’s the Rent Board focuses, it was her impression that gender is not as glaring an issue as "class standing," which made the gender analysis difficult.

2. OLD BUSINESS

• DISCUSSION ITEM: Staff progress report on citywide work-life survey.

• DISCUSSION ITEM: Report on Public Awareness Campaign.

• Staff was a featured speaker by the American Association of University Women on a cable television discussion on CEDAW’s international and local implementation. (December, 2000)

• Staff was a featured speaker on San Francisco’s CEDAW experience at Women’s & Girls 2000, Strategies for Success, San Jose’s county-wide strategic planning conference for girls (November, 2000)
• Staff counseled Contra Costa Commission on the Status of Women regarding the adoption of CEDAW locally (November, 2000)
• Staff has also been asked to present at the Santa Cruz Commission on the Status of Women in March. Santa Cruz is close to introducing legislation similar to San Francisco’s CEDAW.

5. PUBLIC COMMENT

Included in discussions above.

6. ANNOUNCEMENTS