Waging War on the Wage Gap

I found an article I thought both informative and supportive of women concerned with wage parity. We’ve got a long way to go before women are paid equal pay for equal work, and, as Debra Katz and Christine F. Andronici in Ms. Magazine by way of AlterNet show, we’re both blamed for the disparity and punished for speaking up. Their article, The Wage Gap for Women, shows how women, once hired at a salary lower than their male counterparts, have a hard time addressing the discrepancy because employers, supported by the courts, front a “she-didn’t-ask” defense.

The authors suggest pushing their case in the courts the better way to right the imbalance, because there are protective statutes on the books, most notably in the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act. This way, too, employers who just don’t get it yet will be digging their own graves by hiring women at lower salaries while women won’t have to risk not getting the job for speaking up.
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Affirmative Action for Boys???
And now I learn that young women applicants for the university shouldn't be upset when they're passed over by a boy with the justification that the gender balance has tipped demonstrably in their favor. Even erstwhile all boys creme de la creme, Harvard, icon of boy brain power, is girl-dominant now. See here.

IWMF: Good Group Grants Good Women Awards

The International Women’s Media Foundation has granted three women its
yearly award for Courage in Journalism. Amongst them is Jill Carroll,
the Christian Science Monitor reporter captured and held for 82 days in
Iraq. Also awarded were May Chidiac of Lebanon and Gao Yu of China.

The organization gave a Lifetime Achievement award to Elena
Poniatowska, Mexican journalist, writer and social icon. Poniatowska
was born in Paris into Polish nobility (her full name at birth was
Princess Hélène Elizabeth Louise Amelie Paula Dolores Poniatowska
Amor), moving to Mexico during World War II with her family. Educated
in the States, Poniatowska returned to Mexico and eschewed her
privileged background. She has devoted her life to social justice
issues.

For most of her journalistic career, Poniatowska has written for Mexico
City’s prominent daily, La Jornada.

Perhaps of greatest import has been her book, La Noche de Tlatelolco
(Massacre in Mexico), which recounts the indiscriminate gunning down of
student protesters, their supporters and innocent onlookers and
passersby, during a march in the Tlatelolco district of the Mexican
capital. Estimates of civilians killed during the army massacre of the
afternoon and night of Oct. 2, 1968 range anywhere from 300 to several
thousand.

The International Women’s Media Foundation is a super group of women
journalists supporting women’s efforts for full participation in media.
They provide training and seminars to enhance women’s skills and
opportunities; liaise with and support women in perilous assignments
worldwide; and do research, issuing reports on the role of women in the
media.

The IWMF was especially helpful to me, providing invaluable contacts
while I worked on my article, Women on War, for the Women’s Village.

So, “Hats (or whatever) off” to all the worthy women of the group and
their awardees.

Pelosi Steps Up as Democrats Shift Balance of Power in DC

With U.S. Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 1994, Nancy Pelosi is now in line to become the first woman Speaker of the House.

While there remain before her some tricky negotiations within her Party, which in many ways turned toward a more moderate position last night, Pelosi looks forward to a powerful role that can significantly control the country’s legislative agenda. The Speaker of the House is also second in the line of presidential succession, behind only the Vice President.