{"id":441,"date":"2013-07-26T16:17:43","date_gmt":"2013-07-26T20:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/fys\/?page_id=441"},"modified":"2013-07-26T16:17:43","modified_gmt":"2013-07-26T20:17:43","slug":"essay-on-place-portland","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/fys\/essay-on-place-portland\/","title":{"rendered":"Essay on place: Portland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Assignment: <\/b>Which city, Los Angeles or Portland, will serve best as a model for the future of American urbanism? Show this in a research paper (3-5 pages) by picking a specific topic for your city which is ecological, economic, political or cultural.<\/p>\n

F<\/b>YS 110<\/b><\/p>\n

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The Ladies of Portland<\/p>\n

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Portland, Oregon: a place of scenic beauty, profitable commerce, and a unique regional culture. \u00a0It is also a place where women can be just as politically active as men and have done so in numbers that have drawn the attention of the rest of the nation.\u00a0 \u201cIn 1993-94, for example, women served at the same time as governor, mayor of Portland, chair of the Multnomah County Commission, and Metro executive director\u201d (Abbott 82). The atmosphere and tradition in Portland make it one of the best cities for women\u2019s activism, and the organizations created by women have been a large factor in Portland\u2019s growth into the city it is today.<\/p>\n

In Portland, women became active outside the home long before the equal rights movements of the 1960\u2019s and 70\u2019s.\u00a0 \u201cExcluded from many male institutions, mid nineteenth- century middle- and upper-class women formed women\u2019s clubs and service organizations that allowed them to extend their activities and interests beyond the \u2018private sphere\u2019 of home and family and into the \u2018public sphere\u2019 of politics and economics\u201d (Dilg 103). \u00a0The groups that were created in the interests of women included The Portland\u2019s Woman\u2019s Club, Oregon Federation of Colored Women\u2019s Club, and Portland\u2019s Young Women\u2019s Christian Association or YWCA.\u00a0 The main focus of these organizations was to help young \u2018women adrift\u2019 who were living away from their families.\u00a0 They were given housing, safe socializing spaces, and vocational classes to help them better provide for themselves (Dilg).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Portland was one of the first cities to advocate for women\u2019s rights in the workforce. When looking for a place to push for a new minimum wage law that included women, the president of the American Association of the Labor Legislation Henry Seager thought Oregon would be an ideal place to introduce such a law. \u00a0Seager \u201cbelieved a \u2018favorable decision should this bill become a law\u2019\u201d and that any issues in the law would be more likely to \u201cbe challenged in court in Oregon than in other parts of the country\u201d (Dilg 110). \u00a0This is due to the success of the Muller v. Oregon <\/i>Supreme Court case, which set the standard that women were different from men rather than equal and that they were entitled to legal protection.\u00a0 Women were instrumental in collecting data and providing support on those legal issues.<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s civic activism began to grow in the 1950\u2019s and 60\u2019s.\u00a0 Women began raising \u201c\u2018funds from bake sales, rummage sales, or book sales with proceeds earmarked for hospitals, schools, nursing homes, or any of a thousand other places where there\u2019s a need\u2019\u201d (Johnson 104). This really helped build Portland\u2019s well-known sense of community.\u00a0 The women helped set the standard of helping others and being involved in public causes. \u00a0It could be said that the men of Portland pushed for progress in a vertical direction while the women moved horizontally, trying to better what was already there.<\/p>\n

The organizations that active women create are very instrumental as political forces. \u201cWomen\u2019s networks are major CDCs [Community Development Corporations] in Portland with long-standing community ties; they would have a positive effect on community development efforts and on the relationship between the CDCs and citywide intermediaries\u201d (Gittell 336-337). Women in general are very good at smoothing things over and networking between groups.\u00a0 The connections that these CDCs make help move the city towards progress and reduce friction<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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between the community and policymakers.\u00a0 Keeping constituents informed and involved is vital to any activist\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n

The breakthrough years for women in Portland politics came in the early 1970\u2019s.\u00a0 The activist group Politically Organized Women was formed and began lobbying for equal rights. Twelve women were elected to the Oregon legislature in 1973 and began making strides in<\/p>\n

passing equalizing legislation.\u00a0 \u00a0According to a study on female legislators in the 1970\u2019s and 80\u2019s, \u201cit appears Oregon’s female legislators were ahead of their national peers in experience, organizational competence, and effectiveness in passing feminist legislation\u201d (Rose and Watson). Much of this success has been attributed to the political atmosphere and prevalence of women\u2019s activist groups in Portland.<\/p>\n

Of course, some credit is due to the women themselves and their ability to work together. \u201cWith rare exception, all of the women in the legislature–Republican and Democrat, urban and rural, secular and religious, conservative and liberal–were united to pass the proposed feminist legislation\u201d (Rose and Watson). \u00a0In doing this, they formed a Women\u2019s Caucus in the legislative body to focus their ideals and organize support for the laws they were presenting.\u00a0 Their ability<\/p>\n

to overlook personal and party differences is one that men in government should admire and aspire to.<\/p>\n

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The great thing about activism in Portland is that one does not have to be the face of a cause to feel included and important.\u00a0 Portland resident Marjorie Gustafson reflects on her experience being involved in the 1960\u2019s.\u00a0 \u201cIt was just a wonderful time to be a young woman in Portland.\u00a0 When I talked to my friends in Washington [D.C.], it was clear that people of equal abilities in Washington were worried about nursery school whereas [my friends] and I were worried about the City of Portland\u201d (Abbott 141). \u00a0This kind of community spirit is what pushed<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Portland forward as a progressive city because it was the majority of the people forming an opinion on public issues and voting for a proposal, not just a privileged few.\u00a0 The women were instrumental in giving their perspective and using their social resources to improve communication.<\/p>\n

It is not only grown women who take on activist roles in Portland.\u00a0 Teenage girls are also prevalent on the scene.\u00a0 Parents play a large role in influencing their children to be active.\u00a0 Many teenagers have parents who are active in community groups.\u00a0 The Coalition of Student Activists was one such group that was created by teenagers and campaigned on public issues, though certain inconsistencies between the genders caused many of the girls to withdraw from the<\/p>\n

group. \u00a0\u201cThe contingent of girls who left CSA still had activist clubs at their schools, and opted to withdraw from larger community politics to focus their energies on school-based activism\u201d (Gordon 47).\u00a0 The important thing is many of the girls found other ways to be involved, and the strong community atmosphere of Portland gave them the confidence to continue.<\/p>\n

Portland and women\u2019s activism have been symbiotic forces over the course of the last century, each helping the other to become stronger.\u00a0 Former representative Barbara Roberts and mayor Vera Katz proved that women can be just as prominent in building their community as men.\u00a0 The strength of the community supporting women\u2019s activism is a large part of what makes Portland unique in American culture. \u00a0After all, Oregon\u2019s state motto reads \u201cShe flies with her own wings\u201d (Rose and Watson).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Works Cited<\/b><\/p>\n

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Abbott, Carl. Greater Portland: Urban Life and Landscape in the Pacific Northwest<\/i>.<\/p>\n

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Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2001. Print.<\/p>\n

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Dilg, Janice. “For Working Women in Oregon.” Oregon Historical Quarterly <\/i>110.1 (2009): 96-<\/p>\n

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129. Oregon Historical Society<\/i>. JSTOR, 2009. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.<\/p>\n

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Gittell, Marilyn, Ross J. Gittell, and Kathe Newman. “Women’s Leadership and Citywide Networking.” Activist Scholar: Selected Works of Marilyn Gittell<\/i>. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, 2012. 336-37. Print.<\/p>\n

Gordon, Hava R. “Gendered Paths to Teenage Political Participation.” Gender & Society <\/i>22.1 (2008): 31-55. SAGE Journals<\/i>. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.<\/p>\n

Johnson, Steven R. “The Myth and Reality of Portland’s Engaged Citizenry and Process-Oriented Governance.” The Portland Edge: Challenges in Growing Communities<\/i>. Ed. Connie P. Ozawa. Washington, DC: Island, 2004. 102-17. Print.<\/p>\n

Rose, Melody, and Tara Watson. “She flies with her own wings: women in the 1973 Oregon legislative session.” Oregon Historical Quarterly <\/i>Spring 2010: 38. U.S. History In Context<\/i>. Web. 30 Apr. 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Assignment: Which city, Los Angeles or Portland, will serve best as a model for the future of American urbanism? Show this in a research paper (3-5 pages) by picking a specific topic for your city which is ecological, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1509,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-441","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/fys\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/fys\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/fys\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/fys\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1509"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/fys\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/fys\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":442,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/fys\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/441\/revisions\/442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/fys\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}