Women have often stepped into the breach when male-dominated regimes have failed to do the right thing. Child labor laws, anti-lynching legislation, child abuse and neglect statutes, government inspections of food, factories, housing and sanitation all derive from the political elbow grease of devoted women.

Women have established orphanages, food pantries, homeless shelters, rape crisis networks and battered women’s shelters when governments would do nothing about these social issues. Indeed, politicians at the time often laughed at the women’s “do-good” efforts.

As many conservatives assert, people are responsible for the outcomes of the choices they freely make. Governments make many choices with cumulative effects on society. Here we have a choice where the governor of South Carolina absolves himself of the Commission on Women. Columbia College will now bravely raise $250,000 per year to finance what once was the Governor’s (and the people’s) Commission on Women.

Some interests do not have to beg around for contributions to conduct their business. Their business is considered important to the government, so our tax dollars are used to advance their causes. The Transportation Department does not have to raise its own money to development our automobile transportation system. The Ports Authority does not have to hold fund raisers to dredge, improve, repair and enhance our waterways. We fund parks, recreation, public schools, prisons, public safety and environmental protection because we see these as vital to the health and economic future of our state and its citizens.

Privatizing the Commission on Women indicates that girls and women are not seen as important to the future of this state by the powers that be.

The Status of Women in South Carolina report published in 2002 noted the cold, raw truth that girls and women here lack access to education, are underpaid, underemployed, disproportionately mired in hopeless poverty, raped, beaten and killed at rates that most governments would find shameful.

In many countries, if a majority of the population was so discriminated against, held down and violated, the international community would say they were under an undemocratic, minority regime.

The 2002 Status of Women in South Carolina report was written by a coalition of scholars and policy-makers, including the former South Carolina Commission on the Status of Women. The report inferred that recruiting talented people and cutting-edge businesses into South Carolina is hampered by all the indicators showing South Carolina ranked 50th, 49th or 48th in many areas, including the status of women.

One year after the report was published, 100 percent of the funding for the South Carolina Commission on Women was eliminated. This is an instructional example of the political phenomenon of killing the messenger.

Columbia College now must ask for money for the work of the Commission on Women from a public already beset with household economic pressures. The public is also asked to help all the entities and causes that tax and budget cuts have harmed. I hope Columbia College is able to raise lots of money each year from the very same patricians who claim they actually do care about girls and women.

The South Carolina government is now outsourcing equal rights efforts. Hiding behind the skirts of the faculty and staff of Columbia College, however, cannot erase the fact that this governor has chosen not to support improving the lives of girls and women. The choices this administration has made display clearly that when it comes to trying to improve the lives of girls, women and their families in South Carolina, it is “not their job.” Thanks again, Columbia College, and good luck.

Dr. Woliver is a professor in the department of political science and associate director of the women’s studies program at the University of South Carolina.