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City and County of San FranciscoDepartment on the Status of Women

Meeting Information



CEDAW

2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 

CEDAW TASK FORCE

City and County of San Francisco Task Force for the Local Implementation of the

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

 

Minutes July 20, 2000

  1. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL

    2. Chair Murase called the meeting to order and introductions were made.

    Task Force Members COSW Staff Public

    Ken Theisen Ann Lehman Bonita Banducci

    Myrna Lopez Latika Malkani Holly Friel, Aide to Supervisor Kaufman

    Emily Moto Murase Sadhana Maya Cardozo

    Robin Levi

    Mary Gin Starkweather, representing the Human Rights Commission

  2. ADOPTION OF AGENDA & ADOPTION OF MINUTES:

    3. A motion by Ken Theisen, with 2nd by Robin Levi, passed unanimously to adopt the agenda, and to approve the minutes of meetings on May 24 & June 22, 2000.

  3. NEW BUSINESS
  • DISCUSSION ITEM: Presentation by Task Force member Robin Levi on the History of CEDAW. Robin Levi of the Women’s Institute for Leadership Development (WILD) gave a thorough historical review of CEDAW. A videotape and audiotape of this presentation is available at the Department on the Status of Women.
  1. OLD BUSINESS
  • DISCUSSION ITEM: Update on departments’ gender analysis progress. The Arts Commission and Rent Board have completed Step 1 (data collection) and are working on Steps 2 & 3 (analysis and recommendations). Both the Arts Commission and the Rent Board have received the draft reports of focus groups conducted in late May and in early June with employees and community members. Adult Probation is collecting data, and has completed the focus groups for their employees and clients, but its written report is still in progress. The Commission on the Environment is scheduled to begin its analysis in September.
  • DISCUSSION ITEM/ACTION ITEM: Public Awareness Campaign. The Campaign is off to a good start. Task Force Chair Emily Moto Murase, member Ken Theisen and staff Ann Lehman drafted an Opinion Editorial article on the twentieth anniversary of CEDAW’s signing. The article emphasized local implementation of CEDAW. The Chronicle chose to use part of the article as the basis of an editorial on July 14, 2000, and the Daily Journal will run the full article on July 26, 2000 in both San Francisco and Los Angeles. Staff is also preparing a response to a SF Weekly article on girls in the juvenile justice system. The Task Force discussed continuing the campaign as part of our ongoing CEDAW work.
  • ACTION ITEM: Take action on prioritizing work for new fiscal year 2000-2001. The Task Force discussed the following work areas, with each member presenting her or his concerns and priorities:
    1. SIX GENDER ANALYSES IN VARIOUS STAGES & TRAINING

Completing, following up, and monitoring implementation for all six department gender analyses will take time and focus. Not all the members of the six departments have been trained in CEDAW’s human rights approach with a gender perspective.

(The agenda item #2 Public Relations Campaign and #3 Training were folded into this #1 priority area.)

This will be our top priority.
    1. BUDGET GENDER ANALYSIS OF CITY CONTRACTS

      2. The City gives out millions of dollars each year in City contracts. Many are for large construction projects, others for a variety of social services, and some for personal services. For years, staff has noted a large disparity in amounts, depending on the department giving the contract, for what appear to be similar services. For instance, when COSW does a needs assessment for the entire city violence against women prevention programs it gets $50,000. When the Airport does a needs assessment for a new runway it gets $2,000,000. These examples may or may not be different but such an analysis has never been done.

      It was agreed to do some initial investigation to see if this type of comparison were possible, i.e., would we be comparing apples to apples or apples to oranges?

    2. FAMILY FRIENDLY POLICIES

      3. The City falls behind the more progressive private sector concerning family friendly policies. Even where family friendly policies exist on paper, work culture is often hostile towards the implementation of these policies. Staff will (1) research best practices, and (2) draft a survey containing questions for a possible citywide gender analysis of family friendly employment policies.

      This will be a priority area, especially since it has arisen in each gender analysis and would affect all city workers. A particular focus will be to ensure that both nonprofessional and professional workers have access to these policies.

    3. DATA COLLECTION

      4. For years, the City has collected data on its employees in a standardized manner that does not include disaggregated data (other than gender and race/ethnicity). The gender analyses, thus far, have all suffered from this lack of data. Some legal and political issues must be studied before data collection practices can change citywide. One way to begin is process for change is to convene a group to work closely with the Department of Human Resources and the Office of the City Attorney. In order to understand and meet the specific needs of all women and men, disaggregated data should include the following criteria: gender, race, immigration status, parental status, language, sexual orientation, disability, age, and other attributes.

      Given the complicated legal, practical and time consuming changes this would entail, the Task Force decided not to focus on this area for the year ’00-’01.

    4. RECRUITMENT & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

      5. The City should improve recruitment, education, and professional development efforts, especially for women and girls in nontraditional areas. This has been confirmed by the completed analyses. A citywide effort is needed.

      This area will be addressed within the monitoring activities and in the follow up with those departments that have completed their gender analysis.

    5. COORDINATION OF GIRLS SERVICES

      6. The CEDAW statute calls for the coordination of girls’ services. This would involve surveying City departments to summarize what services are provided to girls, and then setting up an interdepartmental working group to coordinate how best not to duplicate but rather compliment what is being provided.

      COSW staff and other departments are already doing some work in this area.

    6. REVISION & UPDATING OF CEDAW STATUTE

The CEDAW statute was drafted a number of years ago and is due to sunset in 2002. A number of issues have arisen as to membership, quorum and tasks that need revising.

This will be coordinated this year with the staff of Supervisor Barbara Kaufman, who was the original sponsor of the CEDAW legislation.
  1. PUBLIC COMMENT

    2. Included in discussions above.

  2. ANNOUNCEMENTS

Ann Lehman announced she would be attending two conferences in Sweden at the end of August, one with a focus on women and technology and one reporting on CEDAW implementation in San Francisco. Latika Malkani announced she would be returning from her family leave to work part-time at COSW.