Posts Tagged ‘ paycheck fairness act ’

Did you hear the glass ceiling was shattered?

May 19, 2010
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Following a report from Bloomberg News, recent headlines have been touting the fact the glass ceiling has been shattered. That’s because Carol Bartzof Yahoo with her $47.2 million compensation package, and fifteen other women CEOS of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index averaged higher salaries than their male counterparts.

That’s nice for Carol Bartz and her 15 peers, but does it change anything for the rest of us? Yes and no.

It helps to have women earning and performing in the highest echelons of corporate America.  Bartz and others serve as examples that women have done it, can do it, and will do it again. But it hardly signals pay equity across America. In a Bloomberg articleon the subject, Frank Glassner, CEO of San Francisco-based Veritas Executive Compensation Consultants LLC, was quoted as saying, “When you see numbers like this, one can truly say that the glass ceiling in corporate America has been shattered.” Not so fast Frank.

Perhaps there are a few more cracks in the ceiling, but shattered it isn’t. Women still earn, on average, .77 cents for every dollar a man in a comparable job earns. And big name companies like Walmart and Outback Steakhouse are still getting dragged into court to settle pay discrimination cases.  

Then there is the latest report on women directors and executive officers of public companies from The InterOrganization Network (ION), an alliance of fourteen women’s business organizations across the U.S. According to ION nothing has changed when it comes to adding women to the boardroom.  So even though a few women might get paid handsomely when they reach the top of the corporate ladder, the chances of reaching the top are still slim.

Consider these facts from ION based on research of public companies in the fourteen regions where the organization has representation:

- Women hold between 7.6 and 17.8 percent of the board seats in all of the companies included in their research.

- The percentages of companies that have no women directors at all range between 11 percent and 55 percent.

- Women hold between 7 percent and 15.2 percent of all executive officer positions.

- Between 32 percent and 70 percent of those companies have no women in their executive suites.

- And finally, the percentage of women who are among the top compensated executives in their companies range between 5.1 percent and 9 percent. Between 60 percent and 78 percent of those companies have no women among their most highly paid executives.

So what do you think ladies? Is the glass ceiling still there?

What I Want for Mother’s Day

May 7, 2010
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In case anyone is wondering, here’s what I would like for Mother’s Day:

- A pair of Christian Louboutin Simple 85 Pumps in Magenta

- A pitchfork for my garden

- Equal pay for women

- Paid sick time for working mothers and fathers

- Better maternity leave policies

- Choice

- Quality maternal care.

I don’t ask for much. Happy Mother’s Day.

Gender Equality: Is it Heartbreak Hill?

April 19, 2010
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Today was the 114th running of the Boston Marathon and a record number of women participated as registered runners. Out of 26,790 entrants, 11,350 were women. That’s an impressive number considering women have only been allowed to run in the Boston event for 38 years.

From the start of the race in 1897 up until 1972, women were barred from participating. It doesn’t surprise me that women were excluded in the beginning. It annoys me – but doesn’t surprise me. But I didn’t realize women were barred during my lifetime.  

When I hear about this kind of blatant gender discrimination happening just one generation ahead of me, I wonder how my parents and teachers had the gall to tell me I could grow up to do or be anything I wanted to be.  What made them believe that, when they witnessed blatant discrimination first hand? I can only suppose the women who took risks and shattered stereotypes were so inspiring that people wanted to believe the doors they opened would never close behind them.*

Now that I am raising a daughter, I am more cautious than my parents were about what I tell her. I feel I should set realistic expectations. Yes, she lives in a world where there is more gender equity than in previous generations, but I don’t want to create a false sense of reality. Sure, I’ve witnessed strong women blaze trails. Hillary Clinton ran for president, but she’s not in the Oval Office. And Lilly Ledbetter fought pay discrimination, but women still earn .77 cents for every dollar a man earns.

What do you think? Are women today more or less optimistic than their mothers were about women’s equality?

*Roberta “Bobbi” Gibb was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon in 1966. She wrote about her experience here. It’s a beautiful read.

Newsweek takes on sexism

March 24, 2010
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Brava to the three Newsweek writers who take on gender discrimination at their own magazine. In the March 29 issue Jessica Bennett, Jesse Ellison and Sarah Ball ask just how far women at Newsweek have come since 46 women filed a sexual discrimination suit against the magazine in 1970. They go on to describe a culture of sexism perhaps less blatant than the corporate landscape of the 1960s and 70s but harder to confront. It is the micro inequities women face every day that can be hardest to address. Tell me “women don’t write here” “or sell here” or “manage here” and I can deal with that. But fail to give me the choice assignments and instead hand them to my male colleagues and what do I do with that? And good luck getting any support from coworkers – male or female. No one wants to fight the good fight, especially since we’ve been told we already won.

Write the authors, “There’s no denying that we’re enjoying many of the spoils of those women’s victories. We are no longer huddled in secret; we’re reporting for a national magazine, and we’re the ones doing the writing. We have a president whose first act in office was to sign a law that promises equal pay for equal work. Yet the fact that such a law is necessary makes the point: equality is still a myth. …We’ve come a long way, baby. But there’s still a long way to go.”

What I found to be even more revealing than the article is a slideshow on the magazine’s website showing how Newsweek has reported on women over the years.

- There is the cover featuring Bryn Mawr students from 1966. The accompanying article says “for the first time, the career drive in girls exceeds the mating drive.”

- “The Divorced Woman” cover in 1967.

- “The New Woman” cover in 1971 featuring Gloria Steinem.

- The “Women at Work and Home” cover in 1980. The article inside the magazine states, “The women’s movement, after concentrating on legislative action in the past decade, has now vowed to make day care and other family issues top political priorities in the ’80s.” Wow. We’re still trying to make them a priority in 2010.

- Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears on the “Girls Gone Wild” cover in 2007. Apparently, celebrity bad boys got a pass.

- And the Sarah Palin in running clothes cover of 2009.

According to the White House Project, women account for just 22 percent of the leadership positions in journalism. Until women reach critical mass in the newsroom, we can expect more of the same – stories discussing us as alien beings who’s desires to learn, work, have children, not have children, marry, divorce, reach the corner office and the oval office, are radical new ideas instead of the normal desires of 51 percent of the population.

Until women reach critical mass in the newsroom, we can expect more of the same – stories discussing us as alien beings who’s desires to learn, work, have children, not have children, marry, divorce, reach the corner office and the oval office are radical new ideas instead of the normal desires of 51 percent of the population.   

 

 
 

 

 

 
  
 
 

Five Ways to Celebrate International Woman’s Day

March 8, 2010
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Today is International Women’s Day (IWD). IWD was started in1911 to celebrate the economic, political and social achievements of women worldwide. IWD is an official holiday in China, Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.  The theme of this year’s IWD is “Equal rights, equal opportunity: Progress for all.”

Here are five things you can do to celebrate the day:

1. Support equal pay. Women still earn, on average, only .77 cents for every dollar a man earns. For women of color the gap is even greater. Despite the signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Act at the start of last year, we are not making progress in this area. The wage gap has widened. Let your senators know we need them to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.

2. Support a woman candidate. Make a donation or volunteer your time and help get a competent women elected. Better yet, why don’t you run for office? Organizations like the Women’s Campaign Forum and Emily’s List support pro-women candidates with coaching and fundraising. Start by visiting She Should Run. Women bring much-needed diversity, unique perspectives, creativity, hard work and problem-solving to public office.

3. Support healthcare reform. Healthcare should not be a political issue. It is a matter of equity. Call your legislators today and tell them to pass healthcare reform. Women deserve equal coverage for equal premiums. We are not preexisting conditions and we deserve the full spectrum of coverage – including reproductive health.

4. So while you’re at it, tell Congress to stop Rep. Stupak and demand comprehensive reproductive healthcare. You can also share this video from Pathfinder International and help support reproductive rights for women worldwide.

5. Support yourself. Brag a little. Tell your friends, family and or coworkers about something positive you did. Don’t hold back. Let the world know, one woman at a time, about the achievements of women –starting with you.

Gender Parity at the Olympics? Not Yet

February 14, 2010
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My five year old had the stomach bug this weekend which meant she spent most of the last two days lying on the couch, snuggling her Daddy and watching the Winter Olympics on TV. How sweet. Not really. Why? Because the Olympics are just one more piece of evidence for my little girl that women are not equal; that she can’t grow up and be anything she wants to be. At least not yet.

It’s disheartening. Men have been competing in ski jumping as an Olympic event since 1924. Women, however, are not allowed to compete in this event.

It’s not for lack of interest. Several women jumpers filed a discrimination suit against the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), hoping to be able to compete this year.

David Amber of ESPN asked Alan Johnson, director and coach for the men’s project X U.S. Ski Jumping team, why women can’t compete. The numbers seem to be there. From the ESPN inteview: “This season [2009-10] there are eight ski cross International Ski Federation (FIS) events, with an average of 18 competitors representing seven different nations; there are 12 ski jumping FIS events with an average of 45 competitors representing 12 nations. So you must ask yourself, if the IOC denied ladies ski jumping based on lack of numbers and development of the sport on the same day they invited in ladies ski cross, how can this be justified when skier cross is far less developed than ski jumping? It’s not even close.”

Supposedly, in 2005 Gian-Franco Kasper, president of the International Ski Federation, said ski jumping was harmful to women’s reproductive health. How can that be the reason when young girls train so hard to be Olympic gymnasts they don’t begin to menstruate until they are in their 20s? I don’t buy the IOC’s concern for women’s health.

The most convincing argument I’ve read for barring women from ski jumping was this quote from Women’s Ski Jumping Vice President Vic Method in a Wall Street Journal article. “This is a big macho event in Europe. If suddenly you’ve got these little size-four girls jumping comparable distances, the men don’t look so macho anymore.”

For more on this topic, visit the website for “Women On Top,” a documentary that follows the U.S. Women’s Ski Jumping Team and their quest to compete in the Olympics.

I will hold off for now on telling my daughter that girls are considered equal to boys and can do or be anything. It’s not true at the Olympics. It’s not the case at work.  It doesn’t play out on the Op-Ed pages. It’s not the case in Washington. Some people don’t even want girls to make their own medical decisions.

But I do plan on telling her someday (perhap during the next Winter Olympics). So let’s get to work and reach true parity.

Celebrating Lilly

January 29, 2010
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It’s January 29 so today we are honoring two women named Lilly. The first, Lilly Ledbetter, a brave woman who fought against pay discrimination so that all women would have a better chance at earning a fair salary. Jan. 29 is the anniversary of President Obama signing the Lily Ledbetter Act into law. Thank you Ms. Ledbetter.  We know your work is not finished. So ladies, please take a moment and send a message to your Senators telling them to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act. Despite all of Lilly Ledbetter’s hard work, the wage gap has widened. Women earn, on average just .77 cents for every dollar a man earns. Women of color earn even less.

January 29 also means it’s cold here in New England. There is snow on the ground, the temperature is 18 degrees F, and the wind is gusting to 28 mph. It’s the kind of day that makes us long for summer on Cape Cod. And it’s impossible to think about the Cape without thinking about the unofficial Cape Cod uniform – a Lilly Pulitzer dress.

Lilly Pultizer was a New York Socialite who moved to Palm Beach with her husband in the 1950s. Although she never had to work a day in her life, she was unhappy doing nothing and so she opened a juice bar on the tony Worth Avenue. She designed her own cotton shift dress to wear to work and soon customers started ordering more dresses than juice from her. “The Lilly” was born.

So today, let’s also pay tribute to Lilly Pulitzer, a business woman who lived life according to her own rules, and who dressed to please herself and no one else. Ms. Pulitzer does not need us to sign any petitions, but feel free to check out her 2010 summer collection here.

Hooray for the Lillys!

On Ledbetter Anniversary, Paycheck Fairness Act Gets Attention

January 26, 2010
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I think I owe you some good news. Don’t you? Well here it is. I just got off a conference call with Senator Dodd, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Marcia Greenberger, Co-President of the National Women’s Law Center, and Lilly Ledbetter. Senator Dodd announced he has support from Senator Tom Harkin, Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee to start hearings on the Paycheck Fairness Act.

As you may know, this week is the one year anniversary of President Obama signing the Lilly Ledbetter Act into law. The Ledbetter law gives employees a longer window to file discrimination claims. It is an important piece of legislation, but as Ledbetter said on the call, “The work is far from done.”

The Paycheck Fairness Act will strengthen the Ledbetter Act. One of the most important aspects of the bill is it will prohibit retaliation against employees who ask about or disclose their wages. Said Ledbetter, “This would have been particularly helpful to me. This policy delayed my discovery (that she was being paid less than her male peers) by decades.”

The House passed the Paycheck Fairness legislation in July 2008 but the Senate has not yet acted on it. Hearings are just the start of the process – a bill would hopefully follow and then Dodd would seek floor time in the spring. It is encouraging to hear there is movement on this legislation.

Unfortunately since the passage of the Ledbetter Act, the wage gap has increased not decreased. We need to keep working for equal pay and support the efforts of Dodd and DeLauro. As Rep. DeLauro said this morning, “This is not about women. This is about families.”  If female breadwinners are bringing home less money than they deserve, entire families are shortchanged.

Click here to send a message to your Senators that we need fair pay. I will certainly be sending a message to my new Senator.

Wage Gap Widens

October 5, 2009
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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Hello Men: you suffer too when you pay women less than you pay men for comparable work. I don’t mean to blame everything on men, but the reality is men still dominate management positions in this country. They hold 85 percent of all board seats, the majority of executive positions, and run 95 percent of the companies in the Fortune 500.

My husband knows the drill. If I bring home less than my fair share of wages, then he, a stay-at-home-father, has less money to run the household. Less money for groceries, less money for the kids, less money to pay the bills, less money to fill the gas tank, less money for his fantasy football team (it costs money to manage a team).

Why are we talking about this now? It’s not Equal Pay Day; the one day a year this subject gets any significant attention. And President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act back in January. Here’s why: The. Wage. Gap. Has. Widened. That’s right. Last year’s data from the U.S. Census Bureau showed women earning, on average .78 cents for every dollar a man earned. The new data shows women are earning .77 cents. That’s. Not. Progress.

Not only is it not progress (and not fair). It’s foolish. With traditional male dominated jobs hit hardest by the recession, there will soon be more women on the national payroll then there are men. If these women are earning less than their fair share, their families, and the economy will suffer. Groceries, gasoline, doctor’s bills – none of it becomes 23 percent less expensive when a woman is paying for it. And if families are living off less than fair wages, there is less available income to pour back into the supposed recovering economy.

It’s not just my husband who should be upset by the wage gap. We need to reverse the trend and close the gap. Click here to take action and send a message: No More Pay Discrimination on the Basis of Gender.

Read more on this topic here.

View the data here.

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