Tag Archives: Lilly Ledbetter

Promises Unkept, The Enduring Pink Ghetto

Today there is an ongoing flap about the consideration of Kim Gandy, President of the National Organization for Women (NOW) , for Directorship of the Women’s Bureau in the U.S. Department of Labor. If you recall, NOW endorsed the all-male ticket of Obama and Biden in the general election.  Some question her motives and believe it was a type of “pay for play”.
All the talk and back and forth in the blogosphere, with many women’s groups protesting Gandy as a choice, has set me to thinking about the the Women’s Bureau itself.  Specifically, what has it accomplished and is it, in itself, another form of a pink ghetto?
What is a pink ghetto?
Elana Centor, in Can You Ever Escape The Pink Ghetto? explains ” Time was the Pink Collar Ghetto was a term to describe traditional women’s jobs — those jobs with low pay and little job advancement opportunities: teachers, nurses and secretaries.”  It is also used to describe certain spots for women in corporations such as HR, an Marketing or the role of CMO (Chief Marketing Officer).

In just about every field there is a corner reserved for women where the pay and prestige are lower even though the work is equally demanding.

Think about it.

As Imdiversity.com points out, “….the medical profession provides a case study in the opportunities and problems for women in general. Most women doctors are in the so-called nurturing fields — pediatrics, family doctors, obstetrics and gynecology. Few are in the more prestigious and highly compensated fields such as neurosurgery or heart surgery. Women remain a distinct minority on medical-school faculties, and there are precious few female deans.”

In fact, when women begin to be the majority in a field, the pay goes down.

Melanie Perry reports she “was wondering during a recent salary survey of Design professionals that I did that Training, Marketing, Landscape Architecture and Interior Design were among some of the lower-paying fields when they obviously require such skills… then it occurs to me… those are the fields with some of the highest percentages of women in them.”

So, my question is, What is it that the Women’s Bureau is doing for us? They’ve had a long time to do it, so why are women still only earning 78 cents on the dollar for men?  Why is it that Federal law requires that certified women-owned businesses receive at least 5% of all Federal contracts, but less than 3.2% of all contracts are awarded to women.

Yes, Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter act but are individual women going to have to sue huge, rich conglomerates to get fair pay?

I have to wonder if the Women’s Bureau itself is a Pink Ghetto?  Is it like the Bureau of Indian Affairs, there to babysit us and hold our hand and see that we don’t get off the reservation?  Or, if we do, we don’t get into too much trouble?

If women are going to be marginalized couldn’t they at least give us our own plot of land so we could build a casino and make some real money? ( I’m kidding.)

Long ago many women decided the only way to get a fair break was to start their own business, which women have increasingly done and are making almost $2 trillion doing it.

But we shouldn’t have to jump out of the labor market to make equal pay.  And that, it seems, should be the base line expectation for the Women’s Bureau. Whoever is appointed to lead the Women’s Bureau we should hold her feet to the fire until she accomplishs that one goal.

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Is The Fair Pay Act For Women A Constantly Moving Target?

Remember those Looney Tunes animated cartoons where the characters Wile E. Coyote (also known simply as “The Coyote”) and the Road Runner did battle with each other, with the Road Runner  using devilish tricks to humiliate and defeat the Coyote.  I remember one cartoon, or seem to, where the Road Runner kept zooming ahead, constantly moving the sign that said “5 miles to Somewhere”, so it became a 100 mile trek, with the goal always out of reach.  The Coyote usually wound up running as fast as he could and going SPLAT head on into a wall or cliff, having completely lost his bearings in the skulldudgery and never even getting close to his destination.

I remember a personal trip like that when I, my niece and a few supportive friends made the trek to visit a nephew of mine who had misguidedly joined the remote Rashneesh compound in Oregon.  Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rashneesh had purchased the 64,000 acre Big Muddy Ranch near Antelope for $5.7 million and enticed many of his followers to join him, their wallets in hand.  Our goal was to get my nephew to sign some papers to preempt him from emptying out any of his other relatives’ bank accounts into the guru’s pockets, to support the guru’s lavish livestyle or his fleet of Rolls Royce’s, in which he drove by and waved to followers like my nephew whose job was digging fence posts and pledging more money.  As we drove on and on into the Oregon wilderness one of my friends asked dolefully:  “Is someone running ahead of us, moving these signs back 5 miles, every time we drive 4 miles?”

Good question.

And one which Lilly Ledbetter and a lot of other women must be asking ourselves about now. My nephew was not the only one ever to be suckered.  My niece and my friends and I were not the only ones who ever made a long trek only to have the sign posts moved down the road ahead of us to forever prolong the journey. Lily Ledbetter is an unfortunate symbol for women. She embodies the wrong that has been done to us all.  And one more time, there are promises on the table to correct it.  But will it happen?

According to the AFL-CIO in House Passes Two Major Working Family Bills: Fair Pay Act, Paycheck Fairness Act, Lilly Ledbetter says she knows she’ll never recover the hundreds of thousands of dollars she lost from her paychecks because of nearly 20 years of pay discrimination. But a few days ago, by a vote of 247-171, the House passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Act (H.R. 11) overturning the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that denied Ledbetter—and any worker who suffers pay discrimination—justice. Then shortly after, lawmakers added some new teeth to equal pay laws and passed the Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 12) by a 256-163 vote. Both bills now go to the U.S. Senate.

During a conference call with reporters Ledbetter said:

“I’m a living example of the fact that pay discrimination is a pervasive problem in workplace today….My case is just the tip of the iceberg. My case is over and I will never receive any pay. But Congress has the power to ensure what happened to me won’t happen to anyone else.”

After years of working at an Alabama Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant, Ledbetter discovered she was being paid less than the lowest-paid man doing the same work. She gathered enough evidence to file suit, and a jury awarded her $3.8 million. But Goodyear appealed to the Supreme Court.

But in May 2007, the Supreme Court squelched the award and ruled Ledbetter—and other workers—has no right to sue for a remedy in cases of pay discrimination if she—or any worker—waits more than 180 days after her first paycheck, even if she didn’t discover the pay discrimination until years later.

Following the court’s ruling, hundreds of pay discrimination cases have been thrown out based on the 5-4 decision that basically overturned decades of precedent that considered each paycheck a discriminatory act, thus allowing workers who don’t discover the discrimination for years to seek legal remedies.

Marcia Greenberger of the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) says the Ledbetter bill is a matter of economic justice and a matter of economic urgency for women and the families they support. More than 300 cases…were lost because of the court’s ruling. How many more were told by their lawyers, “It’s too bad. You’re too late.” We can’t wait another day to pass this law.”

The Paycheck Fairness Act, introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s (D-Conn.), would provide more effective remedies for women who are not paid equal wages for doing equal work, by adding some teeth to the 1963 Equal Pay Act. The Paycheck Fairness Act makes the 45-year-old Equal Pay Act a more effective tool. It stiffens penalties, protects workers from retaliation and offers concrete solutions to what is a real problem.

Anti-labor groups and Republican leaders in the Senate are sharpening their knives for the upcoming vote on this and the Employee Free Choice Act.  It is sure to be a knock down drag out battle.

And one more time, can women look forward perpetually to have the destination of equal pay enticingly in our sights then have it moved down the road again?  Will we keep getting suckered in?  Will we once more go SPLAT against the wall of our expectations?  Stay tuned..……

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