Even without a legal department, the national NOW Action Center is flooded with phone calls, letters, faxes and e-mails from women with legal problems, and numerous requests for urgent legal assistance. The most common concerns involve family law (divorce, custody, child support, property, domestic violence), sexual harassment and other employment discrimination (based on sex, sexual orientation, age, race or disability), and mistreatment of sexual assault survivors.

The local chapter also receives a steady number of calls from women in San Luis Obispo County, and from surrounding counties where there appear not to be any active NOW chapters. We cannot do much for these women, often facing drastic, devastating assaults to their psychological and financial well being, other than listen, but we are concerned. We have shared that concern with other women's groups. In the Women's Coalition meetings over the past year, the scarcity of family law resources for low and moderate income people is always mentioned as a problem which needs our combined attention. It also appears that the bias against women in the family court system is growing.

Not just in SLO County, but all over the country, there appears to be a growing gender bias in the courts against mothers. Although women have always encountered gender bias in the court system, it appears to have increased since the advent of so-called father's rights groups, especially in the area of custody decisions.

Despite the perception that mothers always win custody cases, studies show that fathers who contest custody win sole or joint custody in 40 to 70 percent of cases. Some judges assume that men who ask for custody must therefore be good fathers or even that the mothers must be unfit-effectively creating a presumption against the mother. And many judges have a double standard for mothers and fathers, such as giving fathers credit for doing even a minimal amount of parenting or homemaking tasks while criticizing mothers if they dare to take any time at all for themselves or work outside the home. Sad to say, it is not just male judges who make these rulings.

Despite laws in at least 38 states stipulating that judges must consider domestic violence when making custody decisions, NOW hears numerous stories of judges awarding custody to abusers. Worse, there seems to be a trend of judges awarding custody to fathers who have been reported as (and is some cases, convicted of being) child molesters of the very children of whom they are awarded custody.

NOW is trying to remedy this trend in several ways. National NOW facilitated a national working group on the subject in New Orleans, hoping to inspire continuing action by participants. NOW is assisting in writing and lobbying for the 1998 Violence Against Women Act (VAWAII), which includes several sections on custody issues and funding for judicial education programs. VAWAII which was initially introduced in the last Congress, has been reintroduced in the 106th Congress.

In addition to lobbying for public policy changes, many chapters have found court watches an effective tool for addressing the bias that women face in our legal system. NOW chapter activists are constantly frustrated that they do not have the resources to provide attorneys and, as non-attorneys, cannot and should not give legal advice. Court watches are a means for NOW activists to monitor, and eventually change, our legal system. By simply being a presence in the courtroom with NOW buttons or other designation, activists send the message to judges, attorneys and prosecutors that they are being watched specifically for how they treat women.

Kansas NOW State President Sharon Lockhart, founder of Citizens for Good Judges, knows their court watch program has made a difference: "People tell us when we are in the court room, they cannot believe it is the same judge."

"As an organization, we cannot be silent about the gender bias women face in the courts," said NOW Executive Vice President Kim Gandy. "We must hold judges accountable for rulings that impact women and their families."

Members of the SLO chapter of NOW have joined others to form the SLO County Women's Coalition Family Law Committee. The Committee has already set out a number of goals and has a number of actions in the works. One goal is to establish a courtwatch project for our family courts.

Four NOW members on that committee recently attended a conference in Fresno, organized by people who had attended the NOW facilitated meeting in New Orleans in January. The focus of the conference was the nuts and bolts of developing the evidence to clearly demonstrate the gender bias of the individuals named. Two general points were emphasized: take baby steps and don't say anything without documentation to back it up. We are now drafting forms and developing protocols for our courtwatch project.

The Family Law committee is also planning to print and distribute a booklet with the available public and pro bono resources for low and moderate income women seeking divorce, and information for pro per litigants to follow to handle their own divorce or custody hearings. We are seeking grant money for the production costs and a sympathetic family law attorney to review the information being provided.

We are also researching possible foundations to approach to seek a sizeable grant to expand the present dissolution clinic operated by the Women's Resource Center to provide more help to more clients with more specialized problems. After hearing the stories of the women who call the NOW number, and those who come to the Women's Resource Center, and the plight of women in the family courts here in SLO, we know how much the county needs more family law resources. While NOW as a chapter will be active participants, the Family Law committee is separate from NOW, and includes representatives of the County Commission on the Status of Women and the Women's Resource Center. Additional volunteers are always welcome. If you want to join us, please call the NOW number (542-8242) or email me at aking@slonet.org.