Hollywood`s biggest female movie stars are taking leading roles in campaign financing. Barbra Steisand, Sally Field, Morgan Fairchild and Whoopi Goldberg–to name a few–are members of the Hollywood Women`s Political Committee, which this year was the town`s single largest contributor ($2 million) to Democratic Senate campaigns. That made it the leading political group where Ronald Reagan ”learned how to be president, how to use the camera,” according to Marilyn Bergman, HWPC policy committee member and three-time Academy Award-winning songwriter (”The Way We Were”).
The 72 members are women working in the industry–movie and television producers, directors, executives, lawyers, agents and actresses. At a time when liberals generally are dispirited and disorganized, the group is an indication of increasing liberal activity within the Hollywood community, where conservatism is barely audible.
The group was founded during the 1984 Democratic debacle, but the 1986 campaigns were its first concerted effort. Men cannot join, but they participate in its public forums. Bruce Springsteen contributed $5,000 to a
”Regain the Senate” concert headlined by Streisand in September, according to one organizer.
In December the group plans a retreat to assess its strategy for 1988. Two prospective Democratic presidential candidates–Sens. Gary Hart of Colorado and Joseph Biden of Delaware–have strong support among Hollywood women. But policy committee members say the group probably will not endorse anyone until after the primaries.
Says Susan A. Grode, an entertainment lawyer and HWPC policy committee member, ”This is not a group of ladies who have lunch.”
SOURCE: The Washington Post.
UNIQUE RX FOR PMS
A woman is suffering from fluid retention, which in turn causes abdominal pain, headaches and clumsiness from inner-ear pressure. She goes from specialist to specialist, each of whom prescribes a drug to treat each symptom.
No one–neither the doctors nor the women–realizes that the real problem may be premenstrual syndrome or that the best solution may be exercise and dietary changes.
In hopes of preventing such frustrating cases, a pharmacy in Madison, Wis., devotes its practice exclusively to PMS–a hormonal disorder that can cause various emotional and physical symptoms.
Madison Pharmacy Associates claims to be the only pharmacy in the U.S. with this speciality, and researchers there have developed treatments for the problem, ranging from nutrition programs to hormonal replacement therapy.
”There`s a great need to help explain to physicians that for women who suffer these symptoms, it`s not all in their heads,” says pharmacy cofounder Marla Ahlgrimm.
An estimated 40 percent of women between ages 15 and 40 suffer from PMS.
Ahlgrimm and pharmacist David Myers began the service after recognizing that Myers` wife suffered severely from the problem. At that time they worked in a general pharmacy.
”You can imagine what it`s like talking about your menstrual cycle with six other people lined up behind you,” Ahlgrimm says. In 1982 they opened the current ”PMS-only” pharmacy to offer privacy to patients.
The pharmacy also provides physician referrals and operates a toll-free line for information and distribution of books on PMS. The number is 1-800-558-7046; in Wisconsin, 1-800-792-3505, ext. 577.
SOURCE: By Susan Kaufman.
MANAGERS PLAY HARDBALL
Women are more willing to face the ”hard issues” of management than men, according to a new study. ”When it comes to making a decision to close that plant or to say, `Sam is dead wood,` or to say, `Suzanne is drinking again,` women are more likely to confront the issue than men,” says Jeanie Duck, a management consultant who interviewed 30 upper-middle to top female and male managers on the subject of ”Gender Issues in Organizations.”
That was just one of her surprising conclusions. Duck`s research also debunks the notion that ”women are not good team players–they just don`t have that football training.” A large majority of the men and women interviewed reported that women are often better team players than men because they pay attention to relationships and process as well as task. One high male executive said, ”A lot of men never knew what being on a team was until women showed them.”
But wait: The study revealed that women still don`t get the inside information necessary to reach the pinnacle of power because they`re excluded from the kinds of activities where men share personal insights about how things really get done.
Said one woman manager: ”It`s like a cellophane ceiling that I have hit. I can feel it, but I can`t see it, and nobody will acknowledge that it is there.”
SOURCE: By Susan Kaufman.
DRESSING KIDS CAN BE A SNAP
You`re late for work, your preschooler is still in pajamas and you run downstairs with the outfit you`ve selected for her to wear to nursery school. ”But, Mom,” she wails. ”I don`t want to wear tennis shoes; I want to wear sandals.” The temperature is 40 degrees and it`s raining. So may begin a struggle that produces frustration, tears–and tardiness for all.
That`s today. Tomorrow the problem may be the toddler`s aversion to the color red or to stripes or to a particular pair of pants (brand new, of course)–or to getting dressed period. Whatever the battle, the war is the same.
A new pamphlet for parents called ”Dressing Your Preschooler with Less Hassle”–and an activity book for the kids called ”Let`s Get Dressed”–
offers tips to help children develop greater self-reliance in dressing, the best method for coping with morning pressures, according to author and child development expert Joanne Oppenheim. The books are published by Levi Strauss & Co. Among the issues addressed:
— How to help smooth out the mechanics of dressing.
— How to deal with the child who dawdles.
— How to arrange a child-sized closet.
— How to react to a child`s attachment to one item of clothing.
For both books send 50 cents for postage and handling to ”Levi`s–Let`s Get Dressed!” Dept. A, P.O. Box 4170, Monticello, Minn. 55365.
SOURCE: By Susan Kaufman.
GREATER GRANTS, WITH PLEASURE
Good news for the international women`s movement. The Skaggs Foundation is so pleased with the results of projects it helped finance during the final year of the U.N. Decade for Women, that it has decided to double its allocation.
The L.J. and Mary C. Skaggs Foundation invested $200,000 in a variety of projects tied to the U.N. Decade for Women Conference in Nairobi in the summer of 1985.
Mary C. Skaggs, president of the foundation, says in a report on the foundation`s investments: ”In addition to our traditional grants in the field of health and hunger programs at the village level, one-half of the international grant category will be devoted to support of the women`s movements and programs throughout the world.”
Copies of the report are available by writing the foundation at 1330 Broadway, 17th Floor, Oakland, Calif. 94612-2557; telephone 415-451-3300. SOURCE: By Susan Kaufman.
