Posts Tagged ‘ equal pay ’

Women Newsmakers in 2011

December 31, 2011
By Hello Ladies
Betty Dukes and Walmart plaintiffs

Betty Dukes and Walmart plaintiffs

Another year almost over, another few cents narrowing the wage gap. Here’s a look back at some of the stories that impacted or involved women in 2011:

Reproductive rights under attack: Three days into the year we wrote, “Congressman John Boehner (R-Ohio) will become Speaker of the House Wednesday and women should pay attention. … In fact, he represents a significant threat to women’s reproductive rights.” And indeed 2011 saw some of the most aggressive attacks on women’s reproductive health. Ashley Portero at the International Business Times has a round up of the staggering number measures related to reproductive health introduced in 2011 including:

  • H.R. 3 with its disturbing “forcible rape”  language (as if all rape isn’t forcible?)
  • H.R. 358, the Protect Life Act, or as some are called it, the Let Women Die Act.
  • The Heartbeat Bill, which would ban abortions after the first detectable fetal heartbeat- before many women even know they are pregnant. Two fetuses were witnesses at an Ohio legislative committee contemplating this bill.
  • And of course, the attack on Planned Parenthood.

Rape and intimate partner violence a very real threat: Speaking of women’s health, in November the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, a comprehensive survey on sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence revealing in the United States nearly 1 in 5 women have been raped,  and more than 1 in 3 women have experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner.

DialloTwo brave women speak out: Two women bravely spoke out against sexual violence and took to the mainstream media thereby letting the world know the stigma of rape belongs to the rapist, not the raped. Nafitassou Diallo, the woman who accused Dominique Strauss Kahn (DSK),  former head of the International Monetary Fund of raping her in a New York hotel room, and Lara Logan, the CBS correspondent who was brutally assaulted in Egypt went on primetime television and shared their stories.

Ginni Rometty

Ginni Rometty

IMF and IBM appoint women to top spots: Following the allegations against Strauss Kahn, Christine Lagarde, France’s finance minister, was named the new head of the International Monetary Fund. And technology giant IBM appointed its first ever woman CEO, Virginia (Ginni) Rometty while former eBay chief Meg Whitmasn was named CEO at Hewlett Packard. However, Avon’s CEO Andrea Jung, stepped down and Carol Bartz was fired by Yahoo. While there was plenty of movement, the 2011 Catalyst Census:Fortune 500 Women Board Directors, Executive Officers and Top Earners reported in the corporate world “women have made no significant gains in the last year and are no further along the corporate ladder than they were six years ago.”

The Supreme Court blocks Walmart discrimination suit: In June, The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in the Walmart v. Dukes case in favor of Walmart. The court ruled the gender discrimination suit against Walmart could not proceed as a class action. In doing so the court overturned a U.S. appeal court ruling that granted class action status to female employees of the giant retailer. The decision was widely viewed as a win for big business and a blow to women and we wrote, “The decision leaves women alone in their fight against discriminatory practices, steeling for a long, expensive, and sometimes nasty battle, or merely biting their tongue.”

The wage gap remains: Underscoring why the Walmart ruling matters, in March the White House Council on Women and Girls issued the report, Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economical Well-Being, which noted women have not only caught up with men in college attendance but younger women are now more likely than younger men to have a college or a master’s degree and the number of women and men in the labor force has nearly equalized in recent years. However, the gains in education and jobs has not translated into wage and equity. At all levels of education, women earned about 75 percent of what their male counterparts earned in 2009.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Three women win the Nobel Prize: In October, The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to three women in recognition of “their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.” The Nobel Committee divided the award equally between Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman.

Politics continues to be a sexist sport: In August we published “The Hello Ladies Guide to Sexism in Politics” so women could follow along during a wild year for women in politics. The year began with a horrific attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords who we were thrilled to see return to the House in August for the debt ceiling vote. Also in January, the formidable Maryland Senator Barbara A. Mikulski became the longest-serving woman in U.S. Senate history. Mid year Congresswoman Michele Bachmann announced her candidacy for president and thankfully former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin did not. In September, Elizabeth Warren officially entered the Massachusetts Senate race. And throughout the year, many in the  media, and certainly Herman Cain, continued to demonstrate sexist behavior towards women in politics. Name It Change It has a good roundup of sexist media coverage in 2011.

We said goodbye to two strong women and hello to many more: Former Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro, who was the first female vice presidential candidate of the United States, passed away in March as did Former First Lady Betty Ford in July. As we said goodbye to these inspiring women, we were introduced to emerging leaders like:

 

  • Afrykayn Moon who held her ground when a public transit bus driver ordered her to either cover up or get off the bus while she  was breastfeeding her child
  • Michelle Hickman, who staged a nationwide nurse-in at Target after she was asked by Target employees to relocate while nursing her child at the store
  • and Penis Mom who reminded us to speak out out against outdated gender stereotypes and biases and made us laugh while doing it.

We’re looking forward to covering more heroines in 2012.

 

 

 

If I Were Santa

December 14, 2011
By Hello Ladies

Santa's gift bagIf I were Santa, I’d be making my list and checking it twice. And here are the gifts I would give:

For Our Daughters: The gift of self-esteem and positive role models

The mass media perpetuates a message that women and girls’ value comes from beauty and sexuality – and it affects us. Sixty-five percent of women and girls have an eating disorder. Eighty percent of the op-ed pages are dominated by men. The number of women in senior management positions globally has gone from 24 to 20 percent from 2004 to 2009.

For Corporate America: More women in leadership positions

There is a large, and growing, body of research connecting women at the tops of organizations to a strong bottom line performance. However, women comprise 53 percent of new hires, but only 37 percent of managers, 26 percent of vice-presidents, and just 14 percent of executive committees.

 

For Working Mothers: Flexible work arrangements … and a day of rest

The life of a working mother is challenging. Flexible work arrangements give parents the ability to work more flexibly and better manage the challenges of work and family.

For Working Families: Passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act

According to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, women earn, on average, just .78 cents for every dollar a man earns. And for women of color, the gap is much greater. Fair pay is not a woman’s issue, it’s a family issue. An estimated two-thirds of all U.S. households rely on a woman’s salary at least partially.”

For All Women: The ratification of CEDAW

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is an international treaty that supports fundamental human rights and equality for women around the world. CEDAW was adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly. To date, 186 of 193 countries have ratified the treaty. The United States has not.

For President Obama: The courage to stand up for women’s reproductive rights

Women helped President Obama get elected in 2008 and they can be expected to play a major role in the 2012 election too. In return, women need Obama to take a stronger stance on women’s rights, and in particular, women’s reproductive health – regardless of the pressures he’s facing from his opponents.

For the GOP: The Sanctity of Life

The US ranks poorly for infant mortality rates and maternal death rates; more than two women die every day from pregnancy related causes. Yet many lawmakers try to block women’s access to much-needed health services, supposedly  in the name of life. For Christmas, we want to give them the gift of truly honoring the sanctity of life – all life – and to see them work toward improving the health and life of mothers.

For Massachusetts: A woman Senator

Massachusetts has never sent a woman to the Senate. Although 51 percent of the U.S. population is female, women hold just 16.5 percent of the seats in Congress. That puts the US at 69th in the world for gender parity. We need more women in office.

For Victims of Domestic Violence: Hope

Domestic violence victims and their advocates need money to gain freedom from abuse, to protect children from abusive partners or ex-partners and develop public policy efforts related to domestic violence. Please donate and give them support and hope.

What gifts would you give? You can add to my list at The Skinny Scoop.

 

Ledbetter, Mikulski and Nine Others Join National Women’s Hall of Fame

October 1, 2011
By Hello Ladies

 

 

Lilly Ledbetter
Lilly Ledbetter

Lilly Ledbetter, the women who bravely fought against unequal pay, and Senator Barbara Mikulski, the longest  serving women in the Senate, were inducted into The National Women’s Hall of Fame today along with nine other remarkable women including civi rights activist Coretta Scott King and jazz singer Billie Holiday. The National Women’s Hall of Fame recognizes the achievements of great American women.  Inductees are selected every two years based on their lasting contributions to society through the arts, athletics, business, education, government, humanities, philanthropy and science.

The other honorees include:

Saint Katherine Drexel, a missionary who helped Native Americans and African Americans

Dorothy Harrison Eustus, who co-founded the country’s first dog guide school

Dr. Loretta C. Ford, who co-founded the nurse practicioner model

Abby Kelley Foster, a women’s rights and anti-slaverly leader

Chemist Helen Murray Free, who co-developed dip-and-read diagnostic test strips

Dr. Donna Shala, the longest serving Secretary of Health and Human Services

Katherine Switzer, the first woman to officially enter the Boston Marathon.

Thanks for the inspiration ladies.

Here’s one of our favorite videos of Senator Mikulski in action:

Three Ways to Honor Betty Ford’s Legacy

July 12, 2011
By Hello Ladies

Betty FordFuneral services begin today for former First Lady Betty Ford who passed away Friday at the age of 93. Here are three ways we can honor Ford’s incredible legacy.

1. Support the Equal Rights Amendment. Ford was a supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment. She marched and rallied in support of the amendment which still has not been ratified.

The Equal Rights Amendment was written in 1923 and took 49 years to pass Congress but it was never ratified because not enough states supported it and Congress sets a time limit for ratification. Last month Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and Senator Robert Menendez re-introduced the Equal Rights Amendment. As Maloney said in a press release, “The Equal Rights Amendment is still needed because the only way for women to achieve permanent equality in the U.S. is to write it into the constitution.  Making women’s equality a constitutional right—after Congress passes and 38 states ratify the ERA—would place the United States on record, albeit more than 200 years late, that women are fully equal in the eyes of the law.” Urge your representatives to support the bill.

2. Support the Paycheck Fairness Act. Ford was also a supporter of equal pay, an issue she said she became sensitive to while caring for and supporting her first husband, when he was unable to work.

The Paycheck Fairness Act was rejected by the Senate last fall but reintroduced this year by Senator Mikulski and Rep. DeLauro.  Senator Kirsten Gillibrand wrote in the Huffington Post that the Paycheck Fairness Act, “would prohibit employers from retaliating against workers for sharing salary information with their co-workers. The legislation would also establish training groups to help women strengthen their negotiation skills, enforce equal pay laws for federal contractors, and require the Department of Labor to work with employers to eliminate wage disparities through better outreach and training.” Contact your representatives and ask them to support the Paycheck Fairness Act.

3. Help remove the stigma of addiction and illness. Perhaps Ford’s greatest legacy was her founding of the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California in 1982. She was a brave advocate for people suffering from drug and alcohol addiction after she was treated for chemical dependency and she recognized the need for gender-specific treatment programs.

Ford set an example for people suffering from addiction to seek help and made it safer for women, especially, to admit to having a problem.  She was also one of the first women to discuss breast cancer openly. We can honor her life and her work by continuing the dialogue on issues affecting women.

Why We Need the Paycheck Fairness Act

June 22, 2011
By Hello Ladies

Pay Secrecy at WorkYears ago, at my second job post-college, my friend and coworker asked me to share my salary. I said no, but she persisted. We were both about to have salary reviews and she argued we had no way to benchmark our raises if we had no idea what others in the firm were getting paid. It made sense, so we snuck into the stairwell of our office building to swap data in secrecy –we were under the impression we could be fired for sharing our pay.

It turns out she was paid $1000 more annually than me. So while in reality our salaries were practically the same, at the time it seemed like a big deal. She gloated. I pouted. And I vowed never to share salary information again – nothing good could come from it.

Not true.

A new report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) titled, “Pay Secrecy and Wage Discrimination,” discusses how pay transparency might reduce the gender wage gap. Today, women earn, on average, 23 percent less than men. And 40 percent of pay inequity can be attributed to pay discrimination.*

But with approximately half of all workers in the United States contractually forbidden or strongly discouraged from discussing their pay with coworkers, per an IWPR/Rockefeller Survey of Economic Security, there is virtually no way to discover pay discrimination.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the Walmart v. Dukes case presented data in the court room pointing to a gender-based pay gap at the giant retailer. But in a place where the evidence “suggests that gender bias suffused” the culture, pay secrecy would have made confirming that data a challenge for women on the job. And Lilly Ledbetter, for whom the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is named, worked at Goodyear for almost two decades before she received an anonymous note tipping her off to the fact she was paid less than men doing the same work.

The Paycheck Fairness Act which was reintroduced this year by Senator Mikulski and Rep. DeLauro after it was rejected by the Senate last fall, will help combat pay secrecy. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand wrote in the Huffington Post that the Paycheck Fairness Act, “would prohibit employers from retaliating against workers for sharing salary information with their co-workers. The legislation would also establish training groups to help women strengthen their negotiation skills, enforce equal pay laws for federal contractors, and require the Department of Labor to work with employers to eliminate wage disparities through better outreach and training.”

Contact your representatives in Congress and ask them to support the Paycheck Fairness Act.

*”The Gender Pay Gap: Have Women Gone as Far as They Can?” (Blau and Kahn, 2007)

 

 

It’s Equal Pay Day, Let’s Try This Again

April 12, 2011
By Hello Ladies

Today is Equal Pay Day….again. Equal Pay Day is the day we note women earn less than men for similar work. The day is always observed on a Tuesday in April because women would need to work a week plus two more days, or a year plus three more months, to earn what men earn. According to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, women earn, on average, just .78 cents for every dollar a man earns. And for women of color, the gap is much greater.

The Equal Pay Act was signed in  1963 and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was signed in 2009. Clearly, they are not enough. If we don’t take action, the gap won’t close for thirty more years- and even then there are no guarantees.

The good news today is that Senator Kirsten Gillibrand vowed to push for passage of  the Paycheck Fairness Act, along with Senator Mikulski. Gillibrand writes at the Huffington Post that the Paycheck Fairness Act, “would prohibit employers from retaliating against workers for sharing salary information with their co-workers. The legislation would also establish training groups to help women strengthen their negotiation skills, enforce equal pay laws for federal contractors, and require the Department of Labor to work with employers to eliminate wage disparities through better outreach and training.”

The Paycheck Fairness Act was rejected by the Senate last year. We can’t let that happen again. We can’t let that happen because:

- Fair pay is not a woman’s issue, it’s a family issue.  An estimated two-thirds of all U.S.  households rely on a woman’s salary at least partially.

- The wage gap threatens our economic health. If American families are earning .22 percent less than they deserve, then they will have .22 percent less to spend on consumer goods and services.

- The wage gap stems, in part, from the biases working mothers face in the workplace. Forty percent of mothers are primary breadwinners and they deserve equal opportunities and equal pay.

- Wage discrimination can be difficult to address and to fight. We’ve seen evidence of that in the WalMart hearings. The Paycheck Fairness Act will help address those challenges.

Contact your representatives in Congress today and ask them to support the Paycheck Fairness Act.

 

 

Walmart Gender Discrimination Suit Update

April 4, 2011
By Hello Ladies

Female Justice

The class action gender discrimination suit against Walmart, which had been given a green light by a federal judge and a federal appeals court, could be losing steam in the Supreme Court.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs must prove Walmart had an unlawful policy that led to the discrimination. The UPI explained the challenge they face in trying to prove the class has merit, “The basic claim in the suit is that Walmart maintains a common culture — “the Walmart Way” — to ensure uniformity in its 3,400 stores … but the corporate headquarters gives local store managers unlimited discretion to decide pay and promotions — resulting in lower pay and fewer promotions for women.”

Many close to the case and present in the courtroom said the justices seem divided down gender lines with Justices Sotamayor, Ginsburg and Kagan revealing support for the case in their line of questioning. The St. Petersburg Times reported, “ Ginsburg, who made her legal reputation in sex-discrimination law, said WalMart’s experience shows how “gender bias can creep” into the workplace. It isn’t “at all complicated,” she said. “Most people prefer themselves. And so a decisionmaker, all other things being equal, would prefer someone who looked like him.”

The case was sparked ten years ago by Betty Dukes, a 60 year old store greeter, and claims women at the giant retailer are paid less than men, have fewer opportunities for promotion than their male coworkers, and are poorly represented at the management levels of the organization. This case has also leveled accusations of a work environment that included team meetings at Hooters and requests for women to “doll up.”

Walmart had asked for a review of the appeal court ruling that paved the way for a massive class action suit against the retailer (reports have the size of the class at more than a million).  Treating the case as a class action obviously has major implications for both Walmart and its female employees. If the court rules in favor of the employees, Walmart could face a huge payout. If the court rules against the class, many women could be denied an opportunity to deal with any individual discrimination cases they may have.

Gender discrimination can be challenging to identify and the long-term effects can remain hidden indefinitely. Women must have squeaky clean employment records or risk having their character and work ethic shredded during a suit. And many lawyers won’t take individual cases as the dollars involved don’t make it worth their time.

There is plenty at stake here. A ruling is expected in June.

 

News from Around the Web

March 29, 2011
By Hello Ladies

News microphone

 

Here’s a round up of news from affecting women from around the web.

Bayer faces gender discrimation lawsuit from six women who claim the company discriminates when it comes to  wages, promotions and the treatment of pregnant women and mothers. The women are current and former employees of Bayer.  Like the Walmart case, this is a class action suit and the plaintiffs are seeking $100 million in damages.

After consumers complained, Abercrombie Kids stopped marketing push-up, padded bikini tops for young girls. The popular retailer said on its Facebook page, “We’ve re-categorized the Ashley swimsuit as padded. We agree with those who say it is best “suited” for girls age 12 and older.” Didn’t anyone learn from Primark, the UK retailer that tried the same thing last year?

Yesterday in Wakefield, Mass. a man shot and killed his wife bringing the number of domestic homicides in Massachusetts to nine this year.

And from NBC News Chicago, a pro-life  organization is set to use President Obama’s image on a billboard in Chicago that reads, “Every 21 minutes, our next possible leader is aborted.” The group, Life Always, are the same people behind the controversial billboards that appeared in New York and Missouri.

Walmart Gender Discrimination Case: A Familiar Debate for Some Women

March 28, 2011
By Hello Ladies

Doris Dukes and Walmart plaintiffs

Tuesday the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the Walmart gender discrimination class action lawsuit. The case was sparked ten years ago by Betty Dukes, a 60 year old store greeter, and claims women at the giant retailer are paid less than men, have fewer  opportunities for promotion than  their male coworkers, and are poorly represented at the management levels of the organization. This case has also leveled accusations of  a work environment that included team meetings at Hooters and requests for women to “doll up.”

Tomorrow’s hearings will not focus on whether WalMart discriminated against women. Rather the court will evaluate whether the women who have worked at WalMart have enough in common to be considered a class. The size of the class has been reported at 1.5 million women. Walmart lawyers have argued that the women have little in common except gender.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs will be challenged to demonstrate Walmart had a a common policy that was discriminatory.  They have cited decentralized and discretionary employee evaluation policies as support for a commonality finding. Walmart has argued discretionary decision-making is not inherently discriminatory.

It sounds like the lawyers will engage in debates not unsimilar to the debate working women occasionally  have – but usually with themselves.  For example, while on a business trip once with coworkers, the boss thought it would be “funny” if we all had lunch at Hooters .  Did that harm me? Should I have I complained? Was it a one time laspe of judgement or indicative of a hostile work environment?

Or,  I wasn’t considered for an internal position several years back –  around the same time one of the bosses asked me if I could travel to a client site when I had kids at home.  The guy they hired for the job, which required a lot of travel,  had more kids than me, but he also had more relevant experience.  Then he was given a better office and title. Were these gender-based decisions or just a series of  unrelated events? With hindsight and distance, I recognize the  pattern. But in  the moment, it was hard to see clearly.

Subtle discrimination can be challenging to identify and the long-term effects can remain hidden indefinitely. Building a case  is not easy as an individual, or as a member of a class. Women have plenty at stake tomorrow, as the outcome of this case could set the tone for future cases.

Corporate America is concerned too. Walmart could face billions of dollars in damages. Twenty U.S. companies have expressed support for Walmart. They are worried a ruling against the retailer could open the “floodgates” for countless and baseless claims.

This will be one to watch.

 

 

Sexist Campaign Mailer Highlights Women’s Double Bind

March 16, 2011
By Hello Ladies

 

Ferlita Mailer

Motherhood and marriage are assets to a woman’s career? We wondered about this back when Elena Kagan was a nominee for Supreme Court and her lack of children was used by opponents as a reason not to appoint her. It never felt that way to this working mother. Not nine years ago when we told our boss we were pregnant and she said we probably wouldn’t be able to hit our sales targets when we returned from maternity leave. Not when we were pregnant the next time and told a different boss. She said she was going to dock our bonus that year since we were planning to take ten weeks of maternity leave. Not when we interviewed for the next job and were asked by the president of the company, the HR director and another member of the management team, “So you’re looking to down shift your career, right?” Not when we were asked just several months ago, “How old are your kids? Are you sure you can handle this job?” Nor did we think motherhood was a career asset when we read about the effects of motherhood on the wage gap.

But apparently, we were wrong. Because when writing about Justice Kagan’s then potential appointment, Michael Roston (not a mother) of True/Slant wrote, “Women with the concrete knowledge of the decision-making that comes with motherhood simply know better – ‘A mother knows best’ as we so often say.”

And now, a mayoral candidate in Tampa, Florida has been deemed unfit for office because she is simply, unmarried. A flyer, alleged to come from the group, “Less Government Now,” is circulating and says this of Furlita,

“Rose Ferlita has put her political ambition first and foremost, while her opponent is a dedicated family man with two children — Ferlita is an unmarried woman with a suspect commitment to family values.”

According to the St. Petersburg Times, the flyer “has been e-mailed to campaigns, journalists and political activists.”

 Wow. Talk about a double bind.

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