Articles

Vivian Mason: Never Give Up | BY Martha Gagliardi -Virginia-Pilot Staff Writer
Virginia-Pilot, 24 September, 1971

NORFOLK- “Any governing body is better for having a woman on it, if only for the fact that she's closer to human problems,” Mrs. Vivian C. Mason, a member of the National Women's Political Caucus Council, said this week.

As a member of the 31-member policy council, an outgrowth of the national caucus held July 10 and 11 in Washington , D.C, Mrs. Mason travels three days a month to caucus meetings around the country.

Since July, she has been to two council meetings in New York City . Every 10 days, she goes to Washington , D.C, for NWPX operating committee meetings.

The major purpose of these meetings, Mrs. Mason explained, is to formulate qualifications for women candidates for public office, to issue statements on priorities the caucus feels legislative bodies should be concerned with, and to develop programs for future national, state, and local caucuses. Monday, the council sent a telegram to President Richard Nixon urging him to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court to replace Justice Hugo Black.

At the Sept. 10 council meeting, Mrs. Mason presided. The council has rotating presiding officers. “I found it thoroughly exhilarating and stimulating,” she said of her one day stint as head of council.

The operating committee, Mrs. Mason noted, is currently working on formulating qualifications for supporting women candidates in future elections.

The only qualifications settled so far is that the woman can't be a racist and must have nothing in her past showing bias against any group.

“We are not automatically going to support a woman just because she's a woman,” she said.

“We hope to give public support to every woman who qualifies. In this day and time of technical operation of governments, women candidates must have qualifications equal to, if not better than, men,” Mrs. Mason said.

“You have to have candidates who command instant respect and whose qualifications are the same as a man's and can't be challenged successfully. A woman candidate has to be amply qualified to cope with the vexing problems of our cities.

She stressed that the NWPC is interested in minority advancement and that this priority could affect the caucus support of candidates.

“If a black man and a white woman are running for the same office we'd support the man, even if both candidates have the same qualifications, simply because minority people have been shut out and we would recognize this as an obligation to support a black man who is working within the system,” she said.

Asked why the caucus would support the male candidate over a woman with the same qualifications, Mrs. Mason replied, “Just because he's black.”

The caucus is stressing the humanizing aspect women can bring to political bodies, Mrs. Mason said, adding that in the legislative process the needs of human beings should be considered first and other aspects of a problem second.

“How does this law or action affect people? Should be the fist question,” Mrs. Mason said, “Men think economically or about how their actions will reflect on their political future. I think of the men who rushed pell mell against busing to insure their political future but they were very short sighted.

“This (busing) is a longed-for chance for democracy, and integration of schools is an act of faith. The important thing to stress about children is how they are alike, not different,” she said.

Mrs. Mason, a member of the Norfolk School Board, feels that the educational system perpetuates the housewife, mother, and secretarial role for women. “The educational system that was adequate 30 years ago is not so now. We have to encourage young people to get involved in the local and national scene.

“We don't automatically say to a girl in her teens ‘What a wonder thing to be a surgeon?' Women aren't taught to yearn for the things a man does although there have been women in many fields who are successful,” Mrs. Mason said, noting President Nixon's nomination of Mrs. Ramona Banuelos for U.S Treasurer, a Mexican-American who is founder and president of a successful food company.

“We have to educate women to realize that they have a right to share in the legislative process,” she said.

The caucus is seeking to broaden its political base by urging the formation of local caucuses. She added that there may be a local caucus early next year.

The national caucus has already established many goals including:

•  Having a large number of women running for political offices in 1972.
•  Publishing the qualifications of all candidates in elections.
•  Repeal of abortion laws and making abortions more accessible of women in low-income groups.
•  Lifting of quotas for admitting women to all colleges and universities.
•  Abolition of discriminatory tax laws.
•  More day care facilities.
•  An end to the employing black men and women in the lowest paying jobs.
•  Passage of a guaranteed annual income bell based on what the National Welfare Rights Organization feels is adequate.
•  Appointment of women to policy making positions.
•  An end to the war in Vietnam .

“We also want more women as convention delegates in 1972, and the Democrats have already assured us of equitable female representation at their conventions,” Mrs. Mason said.

Locally, Mrs. Mason would like to see a woman run for city council next year.

Mrs. Mason's husband, an insurance executive, pays for her trips to caucus council meetings. The October meeting will be in Detroit . She said he doesn't mind paying for the trips.

“My husband is kind, generous, and indulging. All my activities are my expression of things he's interested in such as civil rights and human rights, of which women's rights are a part.”

In her caucus activities, Mrs. Mason said she plans to work by the same philosophy she carries to her civic activities: “You never give up. You fight it out to the end in hope that some little ray will come through.”