Posted on 02/21/2005 3:14:20 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Could Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have another "woman problem" on his hands?
He has made headlines in recent months by deriding political opponents as "girlie men" and publicly ridiculing a group of nurses at a state women's conference.
His latest effort to paint the state's teachers as little more than a balky special interest group has angered many critics, who have begun to question why constituencies dominated by women have been singled out for such tough talk.
"He behaves like an arrogant patriarch with respect to women's occupations," said Rose Ann De Moro, executive director of the California Nurses Association. "Nurses, teachers, home health workers - it's vulgar how he's run roughshod over them. He's arrogant, and he's a bully."
As a candidate, Schwarzenegger was dogged by allegations that he had groped and humiliated women on movie sets. Since then, he's won over many skeptics by appointing women to key staff positions and relying on his wife, journalist and Democrat Maria Shriver, as his closest adviser.
But recently, as he has pressed for budget cuts and a broad package of government reform proposals, some of his turbocharged rhetoric has opened him to charges that his views on women are demeaning and macho.
The criticism began to grow in December, when a small group of nurses gathered at a state women's conference to protest Schwarzenegger's decision to side with hospitals and delay changes to the state's nurse-to-patient ratio.
With Shriver in the audience, Schwarzenegger responded to the protesters by saying, "The special interests don't like me in Sacramento because I am always kicking their butts."
The nurses union swiftly denounced his comment, and the verbal sparring has only escalated since.
"The arrogance of taking on teachers, nurses and other professions where women are underpaid, overworked and vital to society is beyond the pale," said Jamie Court, president of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights and a frequent Schwarzenegger critic.
"But Arnold is someone who treats women as objects, so it's natural for him to have a tendency to disregard and devalue professions that are made up of women."
The California Teachers Association and the California Nurses Association recently displayed a willingness to go toe-to-toe with the governor, staging high-profile protests and buying ads critical of his policies and proposals.
Schwarzenegger has denounced teachers for blocking improvements to education and has made merit-based pay for teachers a centerpiece of his government reform plan. While governors of both parties have long battled the powerful CTA, Schwarzenegger has suggested that individual teachers - not just their union - are responsible for failing schools.
The CTA is running radio commercials statewide criticizing the governor's education proposals. Top officials of the organization, as well as some school administrators, also have publicly accused Schwarzenegger of reneging on a promise to deliver $2 billion in unanticipated state revenue to schools.
The CNA has been even more vocal, taking out full-page newspaper ads suggesting Schwarzenegger's corporate campaign donors are the real special interests and are the influence behind his agenda.
Last week, some 300 nurses and their supporters disrupted a movie premiere in Sacramento, booing Schwarzenegger as he posed with film stars Vince Vaughn and The Rock.
"A mass movement is developing, and it's fascinating to see women coming together," the CNA's DeMoro said.
At the heart of the controversy lies Schwarzenegger's decision to target Democratic interests - including labor unions dominated by women - in his effort to change the way Sacramento does business.
Schwarzenegger supporters dismiss the notion that either his rhetoric or his reform efforts are overly harsh toward women or women's professions. Instead, they criticize unions for using the controversies to generate publicity.
"To say that women voters perceive Arnold Schwarzenegger as a bully because he's taking on a reform agenda belittles women," said Karen Hanretty, a spokeswoman for the California Republican Party.
"This is not about any individual profession. It's about exposing organized labor unions who have used their influence and set policies that have created multibillion dollar deficits both statewide and nationally."
Political analyst Tony Quinn said voters are probably ignoring the current controversies or dismissing them as normal political give and take. But he said the danger for Schwarzenegger lies in the widespread public fondness for teachers and nurses.
"Their strength lies in the fact that people genuinely like their teachers and like nurses, even if they don't necessarily like their union," Quinn said.
LOL!
I hope Arnold never needs a nurse.
Heaven help him, if he ever ends up in an ER or ICU...and the nice nurse has a very sharp needle to stick it to him...
Thank you for grasping the situation.
This isn't about men or women, higher or lower salaries.
This is about safe staffing ratios in hospitals which affects EVERY PERSON ON THIS THREAD and on this forum. Next time people b***h about low quality or absent care in the hospitals, thank Gov. Arnold. He shows little regard for public safety issues both inside and outside healthcare issues. I never thought I would say this, but in some respects we were better off with Davis.
I would assume you are employed in the health care profession.
Davis would likely give Kalifornians the ratio they'd ask for-at the expense of the taxpayer.
BUMP
I would assume you are a human being who may need hospitalization at some point in the future?
Good luck.
Absolutely. The danger of the high ratio of patient to RN has been on the edge for a very long time. People's lives are literally on the balance, and at the hands of the skilled nurse they are under.
And when you get into the more critical areas when some life threatening decisions have to be made literally within seconds, i.e ICU, CCU, ER...your life is literally in that nurse's (male or female) hands.
RN's are definitely the angels of mercy!
The special interest groups are the sexists here, not the Governor. They are the ones calling nurses, teachers, and aides "women's professions." What about all the men that are employed in those fields?
I would assume you are a human being who may need hospitalization at some point in the future?
Good luck.
I have in the past and likely will in the future. I don't get your point. During my 20 years in the military, I wanted more pay, less hours, more time with my family, more understanding from my leaders, et al, but you know what, it didn't happen. If you want one to one ratio, consider being a private duty nurse. Then again, call Davis back into office and he'll get it.
I would assume you are a human being who may need hospitalization at some point in the future?
Good luck.
I have in the past and likely will in the future. I don't get your point. During my 20 years in the military, I wanted more pay, less hours, more time with my family, more understanding from my leaders, et al, but you know what, it didn't happen. If you want one to one ratio, consider being a private duty nurse. Then again, call Davis back into office and he'll get it.
It's all about the money.
You nurses and teachers already make 5 times what the hardworking farmworker does. I assume you'll want to be eating sometime in the future. You would want some safe food, wouldn't you?
If you really cared about anybody else but yourselves -- you wouldn't be making these veiled threats of witholding services if you don't get your raises.
Why don't you people just slash a few IV tubes to make your point?
You are correct in that you have no idea what you are talking about.
Patient acuities in the hospitals are much higher today than they were in years past. Today's floor patients were in the ICUs several years ago. Add to that we are in the midst of a nursing shortage, the reason for that being another post all together. So while you project your personal hostilities and ignorance on to me and other nurses, you will find yourself without care if there are no nurses to take care of you. This is about providing the necessary care which patients require, not salaries or cushy jobs as you pretend. A normal ICU ratio to provide adequate care is 1:1 or 1:2. Anymore than that and lives are in danger. The next time you find yourself in the hospital you will consider yourself lucky IF you get all your medications and treatments on time, if at all. You are ignorant on this topic. Today's nurses hit the ground running for 13 hours. He or she barely has time to go to the bathroom or eat. If you and a few others spent less time talking and more time observing and listening to the problems within hospitals you would save yourself some embarrassment.
You are ignorant. I am embarrassed for you.
Why can't you union lobbyists play it straight and just pay off your legislators?
I understand the Democrats still control the assembly.
Guess I've had it wrong all along. The world revolves around nurses. No other profession in society does more for mankind than nurses. Forget about doctors, aides, orderlies etc. Nurses(and teachers) are relatively well paid for their professions.
Since you are so good at identifying ignorance, perhaps you should go back to school and become a teacher. Better yet, maybe you ought to go to a country where the family has to look after the patient, whether they're post-op, ICU, et al. Get a grip and realize that you are well compensated for what you do. If you are unable to do that, flip burgers for a living(there's a bit of stress in that job too). No need to reply.
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