The Fireside Room was overflowing with people as Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America, passionately gave her views on the strides women have made to acheive their goals.
Huerta discussed how women have been second to men in most areas and do not get the credit they deserve. Throughout her presentation, the crowd applauded and gave her several standing ovations.
“Unfortunately, history is his story and its often not her story and it’s often also not what people of color have contributed, but it’s also just mostly what the Anglo culture has contributed and not what other ethnic groups have contributed to our society,” said Huerta.
She spoke on how politics as a whole is not gender-balanced. There are more men than women in Congress, especially on the Republican side.
“When I happened to be in Washington, D.C., last year when our president did our State of the Union message, I was sitting up there in the gallery looking down at the floor of the Congress and when you look at the side where the Democrats were at it was very integrated, you had people of color, you had a lot of women. When you look at the other side where the Republicans were at you got snow-blinded, they were all guys, only a few women,” said Huerta.
According to Huerta, the state Legislature has more of an equal representation, with women making up 40 percent of elected officials.
Title IX was another issue Huerta discussed. The law requires colleges to have the same amount of money for women’s and men’s sports.
“Our president has commissioned a study because they’re saying women don’t care about sports, it’s just men who care about sports and therefore maybe that’s not very good that they should have equal amounts of money,” she said.
But she believes that sports are a good thing for everyone, especially young people.
She not only spoke about women’s issues but minority issues as well.
According to Huerta, California does not have enough teachers. “A lot of the kids of color are not getting an education,” she said.
California’s educational quality is poor, she maintained.
“The quality of education right now in California is so bad,” that a high school education is the equivalent of an eighth-grade education, she said.
After the event, she answered questions.
When asked if she thought there would ever be a woman or minority president of the United States, Huerta replied, “Absolutely, very soon, sooner than what we think.”
She also said the United States is going to war with Iraq over oil.
“How did our oil get under their sand? It is a question about the U.S. wanting to take other countries’ resources. It’s empire-building,” Huerta said.