Remarks of Gov. Robert Scott made to Extension Homemakers Club members gathered at Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh to celebrate their organization’s 50th anniversary on Oct. 27, 1970.
Yes, you have come a long way. You are to be commended as an organization for your accomplishments over the past 50 years.
But we are still faced with many challenges that are of great importance to family life and to women. Let’s take a look together at some of them, starting with nutrition.
In spite of 50 years of progress we still have, in this state, some families who don’t have enough to eat. They don’t know how to make best use of foods donated by the Department of Agriculture or they don’t know how to use Food Stamps to best advantage.
These same families don’t have the kitchen equipment most of you take for granted—measuring cups, sauce pans, or fry pans. They don’t know how to conserve food. Or they don’t know how to protect what little they have from roaches or rats.
The Expanded Nutrition program that you women are lending a helping hand to, is making progress in these areas.
A vivid example of what I’m talking about occurred in Wayne County. A family there started with nothing and ended up with better food, better housing and better family relationships.
It didn’t happen overnight. It took a year of cooperation between the nutrition aide and the family.
The family of 12, with a 21-year-old sister as head of the house, was receiving commodity foods. The aide helped the girl make canisters from donated food cans to protect the foods from rats and bugs.
She gave the family recipes that called for donated foods and that suggested other low-cost foods that could be bought to insure well-balanced meals.
Next, she introduced the family to Food Stamps. She worked with them on meal planning and buying, so they could get the best value—nutrition-wise and money-wise—for their stamps.
The aide taught the girls how to can home-grown foods for later use.
The 21-year-old decided to improve the family’s living quarters, along with their food habits. So she painted the inside of the house and added inexpensive floor coverings and curtains.
One day she told the aide, “I can never forget the progress you helped me and my family achieve.”
There are many more stories like this one. In fact, more than 30,000 persons in 70 counties are being helped by the Expanded Nutrition program.
Let’s take a look at another challenge we have today—inadequate housing. It’s been estimated that four out of every 10 Tar Heel families live in substandard houses.
I suppose each of us has his own definition of what a substandard house is. Many of us no doubt feel that a substandard house is one that we wouldn’t want to live in. But, when I think of a substandard house, I think of one that is unpainted, or is without hot, running water, or is without a private, usable flush toilet, or is without a private bath or shower. A substandard house may also be unheated, or have a leaky roof, or a sagging floor, or a broken porch railing, or some broken window panes or no underpinning.
What does it mean to live in a substandard house? None of us would live in such a place if we could help it because we know that such housing is unhealthy, unsanitary, and quite uncomfortable.
Our problem of substandard housing is complex. It involves interest rates, water and sewer services, building codes, zoning ordinances, and a host of other factors. The tendency has been to postpone solving this problem.
I did not choose to postpone the job to another day or to leave it for another generation to solve. The 1969 General Assembly and I accepted the challenge by establishing the North Carolina Housing Corporation.
The women of this organization have accepted the challenge in their own way. Many of you have agreed to let your houses be demonstration houses—so that others in the area could get building and furnishings ideas. You have worked to decorate six-room houses and apartments in low-income developments on budgets of $1,000 or less.
Families with low- to moderate-incomes could visit these places to see for themselves that it is possible to have adequate housing on a shoestring.
You have helped organize county committees to sponsor better housing; you have encouraged persons in our communities to become familiar with laws and zoning codes.
But there is still a lot more work to be done. I believe we can work together, using your resources and ours, to do even more.
Let’s take a look at another real problem. At all levels of income, some North Carolina families are having trouble managing their resources. For many families, it’s a matter of stretching an inadequate income to cover the necessities of life.
For other families, even when money is adequate, there’s a problem of making the wisest choices for use of money.
The pressures of advertising and desire of getting or hanging on to social status can lead to overspending and excessive use of credit without regard to the costs involved.
The results: personal bankruptcies in this state are at an all-time high.
The type of educational materials you have available, the year-long emphasis you placed on consumer competence, and the “Consumerama” ’70 program in Winston-Salem that reached over 10,000 peolple, were all valiant attempts to share your know-how with others.
Another subject we are vitally interested in these days is a category I believe you Extension Homemakers call family relations.
It includes the population explosion, women working outside the home, parent-child relationships, divorce, aging, environment, mental health—the whole gamut. All of these areas of concern are most important.
But today I shall confine my remarks to two areas: the status of women and the protection of the environment.
First, the status of women. To delve into this subject you have to take a few minutes to look at some recent trends and projections and at some of the economic and social changes that are occurring.
For example, over the past 25 years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of women in paid employment and volunteer work.
Why?
Because today women live longer than ever before. Those who marry tend to have completed the child-rearing process at an earlier age than did their mothers and grandmothers. And, yes, women seem to be getting more independent.
This reminds me of the story of two suffragettes in England. One was a young woman. Both were jailed over their zealousness for the cause. They were put in adjoining cells.
The older woman, somewhat accustomed to the situation, heard the younger woman sobbing. She knocked on the wall that divided the two cells and shouted, “There, there dear, don’t cry. Put your trust in God. She will protect you.”
It has been predicted that by 1980, 42 percent of all women over the age of 16 will be in the labor force. Statistics show that nine out of 10 women will hold jobs at some point in their lives, thus contributing significantly to the support of their families.
Historically, the South has had limited economic resources, but now this region shows the fastest rate of growth in the country. And thus, the “New South” will need more and more women power in the professional and technical areas.
More emphasis will have to be placed on encouraging women to enter training programs that will not lead just to the traditional occupations of women, such as teaching and nursing.
Far too many women are still concentrated in low-skilled, low-paid jobs. They are not yet fully realizing and utilizing their talents and abilities.
There will be a need for more child care programs for working mothers. The number of women workers is expected to increase faster than that of men workers in the years ahead, just as it has over several decades.
It is conservatively estimated that 40 percent of all married women in North Carolina work outside the home.
The question no longer seems to be, “Should a woman work outside the home?” It appears to be, “What can be done to help women best serve the two roles they will have—the traditional one of wife and mother and the newer, but fairly common role of career woman?”
Members of your organization have helped many women to cope with their dual demands and have taken an active interest in child care centers and kindergartens.
Many middle-aged women enter the labor force when their children are grown or in school. These women could benefit from continuing education and special training programs.
Often women have interrupted their education for marriage and child rearing. Many need to update their skills before returning to paid employment. Others seek cultural enrichment. Let us help them achieve their aims.
There is one more problem that relates to the family. That is the environmental problem, which involves air, water, soil, and noise pollution. It involves junk cars and littered streets. It involves legal questions, population patterns, land-use questions. It involves technology and a great deal of money.
There is no doubt in my mind that every man, woman, and child in this country will have to pay the costs to improve our environment. These costs will be high. But I believe our people and our economy can bear these costs.
As long as there are people around, there will be some pollution. We cannot eliminate pollution. But we can and should try to control pollution and to reduce it as much as possible.
As we plan and prepare for the advent of a new century, less than 30 years away, I suggest that we ask ourselves if what we do today will be good for our children and our grandchildren tomorrow.
I want these future generations to say that we planned well and that we acted wisely. There is no better legacy we can leave them.
Some of you have already taken leadership roles in your community to help improve the environment and to slow down pollution. Some of you are serving on statewide committees, such as the Governor’s Beautification Committee.
What I have related to you today is a part, and only a part of some of the challenges facing family live now and in the future. Let us meet these challenges, by working together, using your resources and ours.
We in government need your help. We need to hear from leaders, such as you, because we know your particular needs and problems far better than we do.
As I said in my Inaugural Address, the strength of North Carolina is in its people—its men, women, and children. I am dedicated to their advancement.
Thank you.
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Robert W. “Bob” Scott was governor of North Carolina from 1969-1973. Scott was born in Haw River and was a dairy farmer. He was also the son of N.C. Gov. W. Kerr Scott and the grandson and nephew of state legislators. He was president of the N.C. Community College System from 1983-1995. His daughter, Meg Scott Phipps, was elected North Carolina’s commissioner of agriculture in 2001.
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