Women's history lesson

Re "Women as victims, not true" (Letters, Nov. 30): William Rose's assertions that American women have never suffered from oppression shows his blindness to our nation's history. Unjust exercise of power happens in any patriarchal society, even America. I challenge him to read about women in history and to imagine being:

• A slave, servant or immigrant who endured rape and beatings in order to help her family seek justice.

• A woman imprisoned in 1918 whose crime was securing the right to vote for her future daughters and nieces.

• A 13-year-old girl, raped by her stepfather, being forced to have a child.

• A Civil War nurse who treated soldiers on the front line and eventually founded the American Red Cross.

• A young scientist who died of cancer because she sacrificed her life to help discover X-rays.

Read American history and realize that Olympic competitions, voting, reproductive rights and Senate seats were unavailable to many American women. To end oppression, we need to seek honesty, compassion, and understanding – traits that Rose seems to be lacking.

– Deborah Meltvedt, Sacramento

One woman's experience

William Rose must have been born after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was established in the 1960s. I worked for Bank of America in 1964, starting pay $265 per week for 40 hours. I learned all the functions in the bank from teller, vault teller, NCR, general ledger, bookkeeper, note clerk and became their youngest officer at age 21. I was making $365 after three years and was training a man who had just been hired. He was making $585 per week. Also, the medical coverage for which I paid $68 a month did not cover any ailment that could not affect a man. If you were pregnant and missed a day's work for any reason (not related to pregnancy) you were not paid. Many men in positions of power have not done the right thing unless they were forced by law. True then, true now. Just look at the economic collapse, auto industry, etc. One thing in common – men!

– Laura Stuart, Granite Bay

Sexism forced underground

I want to thank William Rose for his edifying letter on the status of women in our modern society. One of my complaints about the various equal-opportunity laws is that they have not in fact eliminated sexism. Instead, it's been driven underground, thereby becoming much harder to identify and confront. Rose's contempt for women is right out in the open; there is no mistaking his low opinion of us. So thank you, Mr. Rose, for your valuable contribution to the advancement of gender equality.

– Debra Walker, Carmichael

Time to address state's water needs

Re "California water storage: Underworld and body" (Viewpoints, Nov. 28): Storing water underground, while obviously presenting us with significant technological problems, is a terrific idea and a storage technology that most certainly needs enriching.

In a future with a reduced snowpack and a steadily increasing population, we need to consider all of the approaches mentioned.

We have the option of raising Shasta Dam 200 feet – to the height to which it was originally engineered – and by so doing could triple the storage to about 13.8 million acre-feet. With the building of Auburn Dam – one of the few sites on which a dam could still be built in California – we could add another 2.3 million acre-feet.

With the 10 million to 50 million acre-feet of underground storage envisioned by professor Graham E. Fogg, California would be realizing the level of water storage needed to not only provide for the existing needs of the state but also much of California's future needs.

All of these options do present technological and environmental challenges, but California does have the resources to address them, and for the future health of our state, we hope those resources are brought to bear.

– David H. Lukenbill, Sacramento,

senior policy director, American River Parkway Preservation Society