Posts Tagged ‘ equal pay ’

Miss USA Pageant Tackles the Wage Gap

June 17, 2013
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Miss USA Pageant Tackles the Wage Gap

I have no business passing judgement on someone for flubbing the answer to a question on camera in front of a live audience (I can ramble with the best of them), but this clip from last night’s Miss USA Pageant is just too precious not to share. (Thanks to all of you who emailed it to me this morning.) When asked, “A recent report shows that in 40 percent of American families with children women are the primary earners yet they continue to earn less than men – what does this say about society?” Miss Utah responded, ”I think we can relate this back to education, and how we are continuing to try to strive to … figure out how to create jobs right now. That is the biggest problem and I think, especially men are seen as the leaders of this, and so we need to try to figure out how to create education better. So that we can solve this problem. Thank you.” The clip is precious not because Miss Utah’s answer was awful. It’s precious because an organization that bills its contestants as “savvy, goal-oriented and aware,” that describes itself as “a global community empowering role models of beauty, health and [...]

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Why Working Mothers Need Paternity Leave

June 11, 2013
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Why Working Mothers Need Paternity Leave

Lately I’ve been asked to share advice about maternity leave: how to tell your boss your’re pregnant and how to plan for your time out of the office. But some of the best advice I’ve heard from other women is to make sure your spouse takes paternity leave – separate from your leave. The women I’ve met whose husbands took leave after the mother returned to work report some of the highest levels of satisfaction at home. By taking leave at different times, both parents gain an appreciation for what it takes to care for a baby and manage the house. “It has to be a real leave,” one woman told me. “Not a few days off and working on a home improvement project.” It makes sense. The skills and understanding each parent gains while home alone with the child will carry over when those parents go back to work and will help to even the workload at home. And getting to equity at home helps women reach pay parity at work. In her article “Which Policies Promote Gender Pay Equality?” Joya Misra, Professor of Sociology & Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, points to research that shows [...]

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Sheryl Sandberg: Your Daughter Needs Tech Camp and an iPad

April 10, 2013
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Sheryl Sandberg: Your Daughter Needs Tech Camp and an iPad

My son attends an enrichment program for students in grades 4 – 8 at an area prep school. Students in the program can choose from math, literature, science, computer technology, art and drama courses. This past session, when they called the names of the students in the Engineering course, there wasn’t a single girl in the group. It made me sad. We need to encourage our daughters to pursue classses and ultimately careers in sciene, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Last week, while addressing the Boston start-up community, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg pointed out STEM careers pay more than others. If more women entered these fields, she said, it would help close the gender-based wage gap. Her advice to parents: enroll your daughter in tech camp and get her an iPad. Check out this great infographic from TechSchool.com for more reasons we want women and girls in STEM. Courtesy of: Techschool.com

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The Slow Road to Equal Pay (infographic)

April 7, 2013
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The Slow Road to Equal Pay (infographic)

  Source: Women on Business  

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President Obama Renews Oath of Office

January 21, 2013
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President Obama Renews Oath of Office

“For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country. Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm.” President Barack Obama, January 21, 2013  

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Gift Guide: Nine Priceless Gifts for Feminists

November 28, 2012
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Delight the feminist on your holiday shopping list with these priceless gifts. (Click the bottom of the list to view it on The SkinnyScoop and get more details.) View this SkinnyScoop List

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Men Can’t Have It All Either

June 24, 2012
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Men Can’t Have It All Either

As evidenced by my recent lack of blogging, I’ve been really busy the past two months and unable to “do it all.” However I’ve been asked by several people what I think of the current Atlantic magazine cover story, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” written by former State Department official Anne-Marie Slaughter. So it seems like a good time to get back to work here. Slaughter was the first woman director of policy planning at the State Department, working for Secretary Hillary Clinton. The demands of life in Washington, and of working for someone else, after having been a tenured professor who controlled her own schedule, made parenting her two teenage sons too difficult and so she left the position to be with her family. What do I think? At first pass, I think, no kidding the life of a working mother is incredibly challenging – for women at the highest levels of success and those working at hourly wage jobs. I think many things contribute to having it all – a good boss, a good partner at home, well-adjusted kids out of diapers and out of trouble. And many things can make success difficult – a less [...]

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Motherhood Is Not the Most Important Job

April 14, 2012
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Motherhood Is Not the Most Important Job

I’ve had a couple of days to watch the craziness that erupted after Democratic pundit Hilary Rosen said of Ann Romney on CNN, “She never worked a day in her life.”  Rosen, who has since apologized, was reacting to Governor Mitt Romney positioning his wife as his advisor on all-things-women including their views on the economy. In recent days Romney has told reporters, “My wife has the occasion, as you know, to campaign on her own and also with me and she reports to me regularly that the issue women care about most is the economy.” Well, golly, Mr. Governor! Of course we care about the economy. Even Governor Haley could have told you that. Of course Haley got it wrong when she said, “Women don’t care about contraception. They care about jobs and their families.” First of all, contraception and jobs are interrelated. And second, women are capable of caring about multiple topics at once. But as long as candidates view women as a special interest voting bloc, as opposed to half of the people in this country, they will continue to get it wrong when it comes to the “woman vote.” But women and the economy isn’t the [...]

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Ignorant Legislator of the Week

April 10, 2012
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Ignorant Legislator of the Week

Do you know why women earn less than men? According to Senator Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin, this week’s Ignorant Legislator recipient, money isn’t as important to us as it is to men. Grothman told The Daily Beast‘s Michelle Goldberg, “You could argue that money is more important for men. I think a guy in their first job, maybe because they expect to be a breadwinner someday, may be a little more money-conscious. To attribute everything to a so-called bias in the workplace is just not true.” And to attribute it to an outdated and sexist idea, Senator, is just not rational. According to the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistic data, approximately 40 percent of working wives out earn their husbands. Grothman told Goldberg the gender wage gap was caused by women’s decisions to “prioritize childrearing over their careers,” and that the hypothetical working wife is “not go go go.” Grothman clearly hasn’t seen the time use data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics either. If he had, he might know, women, on average, do more household chores than men. This is a scenario that occurs regardless of work status. Of course, we wouldn’t expect Grothman to consider that lack of sick [...]

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News from Around the Web

February 24, 2012
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News from Around the Web

Before we retreat for the weekend, a few updates on legislation affecting women, and a story of a news anchor crossing a line. After days of protests and outcry, we have some small victories to celebrate in Virginia. First, Governor Bob McDonnell said he would reconsider the bill requiring a woman to undergo an invasive ultrasound prior to obtaining an abortion. Then the Virginia Senate effectively killed the personhood amendment by sending it back to committee. We can’t forget of course, Texas has a similar ultrasound law and other states have introduced personhood bills. Women in Wisconsin earn, on average, just .75 cents for every dollar a man earns. Still, “the State Assembly voted Tuesday night to repeal the 2009 Equal Pay Enforcement Act.”  The Huffington Post captured the reaction of Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), “I’m very disappointed with the Wisconsin state legislature. Yet another big step back for women. This is becoming a real pattern.” Speaking of women and work, a FOX news anchor caused a minor uproar when he said he had a word that started with a “B” to describe NASCAR driver Danica Patrick.  He later apologized. But more concerning, frankly, were his comments that what’s “not attractive” about Patrick [...]

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