Today is Women's Equality Day. At the center of my mind today is:
What the heck do I tell my daughter?
How do I tell my daughter about the fact that despite many gains made for women's (and mothers') equality, women still don't earn equal pay for equal work? Women now make, on average, only 77 cents for every dollar that men make for full-time work.
Not equal.
How do I tell my daughter that there's rampant hiring and pay discrimination against mothers? While overall women make 77 cents to every man's dollar, women without children make 90 cents to a man's dollar, mothers make 73 cents, and single mothers make only 60 cents to a man's dollar. Women of color experience increased wage hits on top of this. Further, studies have found that with EQUAL resumes, women with children are 100% less likely to be hired than women without children. Another study found when moms are offered positions, on average, they are offered starting salaries that are $11,000 less than those offered to non-mothers.
Not equal. These stats keep me up at night, particularly given that 80% of American women become mothers by the time they are 44 years old.
What do I tell my daughter about the fact that women don't yet have equal representation in Congress? Women are 50.7% of our population, yet women comprise only 17% of Congress. This low representation of women in our national legislature ranks us 70th of all nations, behind Turkmenistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Our nation is missing out. The Harvard Business Review recently reported, "If a group includes more women, its collective intelligence rises."
Not equal. There's definitely no reason to celebrate Women's Equality Day here.
And how do I tell my daughter that instead of rising, the very small number of female CEOs is falling, despite the fact that women are now 50% of the labor force for the first time in history. There were 15 female CEOs in the Fortune 500 last year, and now there are only 12 female CEOs in the Fortune 500 companies. That's 12 women CEOs out of 500. Not good. This drop is despite the fact that a 19-year Pepperdine University survey of Fortune 500 companies showed that those with the best record of promoting women outperformed the competition by anywhere from 41% to 116%.
Not equal in the business sector yet either, which is deeply troubling because our economy needs every bit of entrepreneurship possible, and disproportionately leaving out women hampers our nation's success.
There's certainly not much in the way of news to celebrate on Women's Equality Day.
So, what the heck DO I tell my daughter?
Then it hit me. I know what to say: I'm telling my daughter that I'm fighting for her and for all the daughters in our nation on Women's Equality Day.
And one of the ways I'm fighting is by pushing for policies that promote family economic security, which have been shown to reduce the wage gaps, while also helping businesses and taxpayers save money in the long run -- policies like paid family leave, access to early learning, sick days, health care, and more. I'm fighting by advocating for policies like the Paycheck Fairness Act and the Healthy Families Act,
I'm fighting for every girl and boy to have equal opportunities to thrive.
And as I fight, I'll be telling my daughter that I'm not alone, and that I'm joining this fight with the more than million members of MomsRising.org, as well as with over a hundred aligned organizations. And, I'll tell her that I'm also joining this fight with the voices of women, daughters, and mothers across the nation who are speaking out on Women's Equality Day in a #HERvotes Blog Carnival to assert that they are joining together to combat extremist attacks against women's health and economic security. You can read more here.
For Women's Equality Day, I'm telling my daughter to fight.
Follow Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rowefinkbeiner
26:26 minutes in, just like August 26th is "Women's Equality Day"
Women are not only fully equal to men; they have more choices.
That should do it.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903454504576486690371838036.html?KEYWORDS=KAY+S+HYMOWITZ
I jwold tell my daughter her gender is the majority of voters in this country, and IF they truly wanted more women in power, they would vote for women instead of men, since gender is more important than substance.
I would teach my daughter that she is entitled to raise children AND have her work accomodate her needs over their own. After all: Children Are Our Future. We can't allow men to share this attitude, the place would fall apart!
Most of all, I would tell my daughter not to sign any petitions against Women's Sufferage or you'll end up on youtube.
Gender is more important than substance? How does that make sense. Eventually, if women can shake the crutch of feminism we will start to see thier gender produce some worthwhile candidates and the people will vote accordingly.
So, if she starts in a career as a deep sea welder, stays for 3 years, and then excercises her right to choose motherhood over her career for 2 years and then she goes back to her job you think she should be paid the same as the employees who just gained 2 years experience?
In what way is that fair to anyone?
What if she worked there for 10 years and then left for 10 years and came back as a part time employee? ( which is a very likely scenario for any woman in any career)
Do you think she should get paid the same as the other people on the job that have worked without significant absence for the last 20 years ?
What if some of the employees that had remained in the field for the last 20 years were also women ?
You say children are our future......... what about families? Without family whats the point of life?
Where are we headed?
Those are excellent questions you ask, and I'd love to hear the answer spins - but it never happens.
On youtube a group of college guys went around having girls sign a petition against woman's sufferage.
Woman's "sufferage" is the right for women to vote.
Most girls signed it, thinking all women "suffer" from something. They've heard all their lives how much women suffer.
I was basically telling women to do their share, take the bitter with the sweet, if they want "equality", which, let's face it, equality is fighting and dying, dirty work and sacrifice. Something most women take for granted men have always done, and will always continue to do for them. Like dying in wars or building dams, and agreeing that women can do anything they can do while doing all the heavy lifting for them.
I refused to relocate my family when offered a promotion, so I did not receive a promotion. I didn't cry foul, I understood that I have choices and so does the company.
I will tell all three of my daughters that life is full of choices and women have more than men, so take advantage of it.
My major issues with these studies is they do not account for the number of women who take time off to raise children (not a bad thing) and they don't do a very good job assigning comparable jobs dominated by each sex - its just someone's opinion that a cop should be paid the same as a teacher or a hair stylist should be paid the same as a brick layer.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903454504576486690371838036.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTSecondBucket
As far as being represented in government. The same types of choices are what effects that. Running for and winning a political office means spending time in another city away from your family. Women are much more reluctant to do that than men. In terms of a person's happiness I don't know that filling those positions makes a person enjoy their life more.
They can't.
And it's not a recent phenomenon, either.
Well done.
Not happening. How about you get some smart women to run for office instead of these Palins, Bachmanns and that maxine waters were all hearing about.