August 27, 2010 • 1:15 pm
By Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, from Huffington Post:
EOI Board Member Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner
It’s Women’s Equality Day, the date marked to celebrate women getting the right to vote in our nation 90 years ago today. It’s both hard (and easy in some sad ways) to believe that it was just 90 years ago that women got the right to vote in our nation.
Reflecting on this, I called my grandmother, who turns 95 this year, to see what she recalled about women winning the right to vote, and who had this to say with a twinkle in her voice:
“Well, I wasn’t able to vote when I was 5 years old and women first got the right to vote. Although as a child I thought I should be able to vote, but of course I couldn’t. I had to wait for what felt to me like a very long time to be old enough to vote. I remember when I first voted and going into the polls. I remember that all my girl friends voted too. We all voted. We wanted to take part in what was going on in the world. The only way we could do that was by voting.”
Fast forward 90 years to now in 2010: Women do have the right to vote, we also have a modern economy with women comprising 50% of the entire paid labor force for the first time in history this year, and women now take part in what’s happening in the world in many more ways than appeared possible to my grandmother when she could first vote.
But that doesn’t mean women in our nation have achieved equality yet.
That’s right. It’s not yet time to pop the bubbly and celebrate victory on Women’s Equality Day just yet. There’s one very large group of women in particular who are experiencing significant inequality in our nation: Mothers.
Read more from Huffington Post: Don’t Pop the Bubbly Yet for Women’s Equality Day
Filed under: work and family , women, Women's Equality Day, Glass ceiling, Suffrage
August 25, 2010 • 9:49 am
A report from ABC News examines the salary gap between working women with children and those without kids, finding that women with children earn just 75% of men’s wages (compared to 90% for women without kids) — on average, $11,000 less per year.
The report includes an interview with Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director of MomsRising.org (and EOI Board member), asking her about pay discrimination against mothers — and how the playing field can be leveled to give all workers a fair shake.
“We have a 1950s work-policy structure, but we have a modern labor force… Now more than 50% of the labor force are women for the first time in history, but that doesn’t mean we’ve reached full equality,” said Kristin. “Passing family-friendly programs like family leave, like affordable childcare, like access to paid sick days, like access to flexible work options. Those things actually help lower the wage gap between women and men and they raise all boats — because it’s not just moms who need those policies.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: work and family , public policy, economic security, paid sick leave
August 17, 2010 • 1:35 pm
Or as the Slate.com DoubleX blog puts it: Yes, You Can Get Fired After Taking Maternity Leave: The confusing state of family-leave policies.
Sandy Stephens got pregnant when she was working in housekeeping for a company known as Global NAPs Inc. in Massachusetts. Her supervisor at the small telecommunications firm had told her that she could take unpaid maternity leave longer than eight weeks if she gave birth by cesarean section. Stephens did wind up having a C-section, and so she stayed home for 11 weeks. Yet, when she returned to her job, she found she had been fired.
It’s the kind of “misunderstanding” that takes place all the time. The postpartum deal is struck, the baby comes, and then—whoops!—human resources has no record of the agreement. The story often ends up with a confused, angry, and suddenly unemployed new mother quietly accepting her fate. In this case, though, Stephens decided to sue; and last week the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court handed her a decision that is a depressing, if not surprising, reminder of the sorry state of parental-leave policy in this country.
Read the full story here.
Filed under: work and family , paid family leave, fmla
August 13, 2010 • 12:39 pm
While “I’ve got mine” is an easy attitude to cop, there’s evidence that getting ahead alone isn’t as beneficial to you as making sure others can do the same. The national discussion over a minimum paid sick days work standard offers insight into why that is the case.
First, consider this question posed by Scope (the Stanford School of Medicine blog) about paid sick days and the public good:
I live in a small house with eight friends, six chickens and a puppy. When one of us gets sick, many others follow suit. (So far, we’ve avoided any cross-species bugs.) Over the last few weeks, a nasty cold made the rounds, prompting an informal discussion about when it’s appropriate to miss work: If you’re not feeling well, is it best for some general good to stay home or trudge to the office, red nose and handkerchief in tow? That question, of course, assumes an individual has the luxury of considering the greater good.
It turns out that “considering the greater good” is indeed a luxury for many workers, especially since very few low-wage workers have the opportunity to earn paid sick days on the job. And that has a very direct impact on the family budget. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: work and family , paid sick days, economic security
