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Chapter 4: Warm Springs and Hot Topics at the Tax Alliance Retreat: Doing Gender and Doing Business
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76 Chapter 4 Warm Springs and Hot Topics at the Tax Alliance Retreat Doing Gender and Doing Business Imagine you are enveloped in a warm wrap of linens that have been steamed in a fragrant blend of natural herbs.You then receive a hydroptimale treatment to prevent dehydrated skin. Next you receive a special treatment to increase the consumption of oxygen by the skin, resulting in an even, fresh, and luminous complexion.You take a leisurely soak in a luxurious mineral bath, warm water cascading around you, leaving you in a state of total relaxation and enchantment.Your skin is rubbed with raspberry oil, wrapped, and allowed to re-moisturize itself.You are member of the Tax Alliance, a women-only organization whose members are representatives of the top tiers of business and government and who get together once a year at a luxury hotel and spa to soak in mineral baths, enjoy facials and body wraps, bowl, play golf, dine on the finest food—and discuss the hottest tax, social security, and health care policy issues of the day. It has been several decades since Domhoff presented his eye-opening analysis of the Bohemian Grove, where social bonds between the captains of industry and high-level politicians , who are mostly men, are solidified and policy cohesion enhanced through informal discussion, activities, rituals, Warm Springs and Hot Topics 77 and ceremonies (Domhoff 1974). Because policy organization research has focused mostly on the networks of those who occupy the top tiers of business and government, many specialized policy discussion groups (where women have entered as more than just tokens) have been overlooked. This chapter examines the significance of a women-only policy discussion group, the Tax Alliance (pseudonym), and its annual retreat, for solidifying the business-government relationship. In addition, building on the work of others (Martin and Collinson 1999; Martin 1996, 2001, 2003; Moore 1987, 1988), it examines how gender is produced and used within the context of the Tax Alliance retreat and the potential consequences for businessgovernment relations. The Tax Alliance The Tax Alliance was founded in the mid-1980s by a group of women from the corporate sector in their attempt to combat various forms of gender discrimination. Some women who represented top corporations inWashington began to realize that they were being treated like second-class citizens in terms of prestige and promotion:“It was like we were still serving coffee,” says one of the founders. They also began to realize that they were being left out of the arenas where important policy discussions took place and where there were opportunities to network with key people in government. Several of the original members of the Tax Alliance explained that the final straw was when a woman corporate-government relations official was“kicked out” of aWashington power breakfast.That night theTax Alliance was born. As one of the founders, a corporate-government relations vice president, said,“A couple of my girlfriends and I got on my Rolodex one night and started our own girls’ network.”Thus it all began with a small group of women who decided to form their own tax group in order to provide each other with career support and exchange important policy information. From its [18.189.2.122] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 11:34 GMT) 78 Th e B e s t - K e p t S e c r e t inception, the Tax Alliance included not only corporate friends, but also friends who worked on the Hill. Today the Tax Alliance remains a small, exclusive group of women who represent business and government.The criteria for corporate membership are strict, limited to women who spend at least 90 percent of their time working on tax issues and who are sponsored by other Tax Alliance women. For the women in government who specialize in this areas, becoming a member is a “piece of cake”: For the private sector it is very big. Like you are put on a list, the waiting list, and then when someone leaves you get to come in, and so it is a pretty hard and fast number. It is a big deal when you get admitted because now you are in the Tax Alliance. I think for the public sector folks, it is more of like you didn’t have to work to get in. I mean if you are on the Way and Means, Finance, or Joint Tax you are automatically admitted. So it is no...