The conception of the 15-member Mayor's Commission on Women follows the recent disbanding of the Lincoln-Lancaster Women's Commission, which had been funded by an interlocal agreement between the county and t
HILARY KINDSCHUH / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 7:00 pm
Mayor Chris Beutler announced Thursday the formation of a 15-member advisory committee on issues affecting women — a move that follows the disbanding of the Lincoln-Lancaster Women’s Commission.
“While the women’s commission has gone away, the needs have not,” Beutler said. “My new commission is a reflection of my commitment to a Lincoln that provides opportunity for all its citizens.”
The Lancaster County Board of Commissioners cut funding for the commission in July, and the City Council ended support in August.
The new Mayor’s Commission on Women won’t have the city’s financial resources behind it, but “the power of their ideas will help shape my administration’s policy,” the mayor said.
Beutler will appoint many former commission members — including former director Bonnie Coffey — to the committee.
A group like the women’s commission was absolutely necessary, Coffey said, “because women are disproportionately impacted by what’s going on in the community.”
Nebraska ranks third in the country for the percentage of women in the work force — but 49th for the percentage of women in managerial and professional jobs, and 41st for pay equity in women’s wages, Coffey said.
A lot of people were not supportive of the commission because they thought it should be privately funded, Coffey said.
“Now it is time for all those people to get their checkbooks out,” she said. “Everybody said what we did was great. So now they get to help us make that happen.”
Helen Boosalis, one of the women behind the original commission, was at City Hall when Beutler announced the committee.
Boosalis was mayor when she and then-County Commissioner Jan Gauger formed the commission in 1976.
At the time, Boosalis was not sure whether the city council would support a women’s commission, she said Thursday.
Back then, the council did not realize the problems women have always had, Boosalis said.
“And I assume the present council (assumes) women’s issues have been resolved, which obviously they have not,” she said.
Beutler said Boosalis and Gauger were “powerful, successful women who had to be twice as strong and determined as the men they competed against, largely because of the barriers that existed in society, both economically and politically.”
Boosalis turned to Beutler at the end of Thursday’s news conference.
“I’m glad you appointed a new commission,” she told him. “We need it.”
Reach Hilary Kindschuh at 473-7120 or hkindschuh@journalstar.com.