The Amherst Feminist Alliance sponsored a lecture last night on the Bush administration and the future of women's rights. Professor of Sociology and American Studies Jan Dizard, Professor of Political Science and Women's and Gender Studies Kristin Bumiller, and Marlene Fried, a professor of philosophy and the director of civil liberties and public policies at Hampshire College, discussed the issue from various angles.

"I thought it was interesting that each of the professors looked at it from a different perspective in a way that we could examine," said Anita Nabha '01, who is currently writing her thesis on women, reproduction, regulation and law.

Dizard focused on the prior division between the religious and economic conservatives and the current movement to a reconciliation between the two. Dizard pointed out that "family values" are relatively new in the economic sphere. Economic conservatives had previously wanted "a small state that wouldn't interfere" and the religious conservatives "were essentially non-political, interested in saving souls, not voter turnout."

However, a new right emerged "by 1980, when a leader was found in Ronald Reagan." The new right argued that a smaller government was needed "because it would force the American people to be more responsible in their own lives and less dependent on government," said Dizard.

This translates to added pressure "for conducting daily life on households, which has traditionally rested on the shoulders of women," Dizard added.

Bumiller discussed Bush's platform on welfare and poverty and how this relates to women.

"[The Bush platform] still contains Reagan's elements, warfare against welfare," Bumiller said. "Two basic components of the platform are the ideal of middle class standards for everyone, a hope that through tax breaks poor women will enter middle class status ... [and] faith-based programs, part of compassionate conservatism."

A different perspective was offered by Fried, who has done extensive work with women and reproductive rights. She quoted from a book entitled "From Abortion to Reproductive Freedom: Transforming a Movement" that she wrote 11 years ago, during the Reagan administration, and then suggested that we are in a similar predicament currently.

"Reproductive rights are threatened more now than at any other time since Roe v. Wade," she said. Fried added that "conservatives were very well-behaved during the elections, which willed people to think that Roe v. Wade could not be overturned. Since the election however, there has been a high profile and aggressive assault on abortion."