“What are your rights – really?” The focus of the Naperville Area AAUW’s most recent seminar rang true to the organization’s mission.
“We’re looking at our women’s rights,” said Co-President of AAUW Naperville Area Branch Elaine Fisher. “There have been a lot of changes lately and a lot of challenges are going on. So we want to know what our rights are and what things we need to be watching and monitoring and calling our legislators about. We really want to make an impact and raise our voice and to do that effectively you have to be informed.”
Ed Yohnka from the ACLU of Illinois spoke to the group about women’s constitutional rights, focusing on health care, birth control, pregnancy, and abortion rights.
“Whether it’s in the women’s marches, whether it’s in the activism that has grown up around the country, one of the things that we can take away is that none of this is going to happen if women stay silent,” said Yohnka, the director of communication and public policy for the ACLU of Illinois. “None of this is going to change if women don’t demand that it changes for themselves. Because it turns out that these kinds of powers are never going to be given back or given to you freely, that this is the kind of thing that simply has to be a part of it.”
Yohnka told stories of women who were denied health care, discussed the Roe vs Wade case, and ended with a Q & A.
The AAUW will host a work smart salary negotiation workshop for women on March 22.
Naperville News 17’s Christine Lena reports.
