Women's Economic Equality--The Next Frontier in Women's Rights

Legal Momentum and Cornell University ILR

present
Women's Economic Equality
The Next Frontier in Women's Rights

Click Here to Register

Thursday, April 2, 2009, 6:30 p.m.
Cornell University ILR (NYC Campus)
16 East 34th Street, 6th Floor (between Madison and Fifth Avenues)
New York, NY

(NOTE: Building security requires photo ID)

SPEAKERS

Mimi Abramovitz, DSW The Bertha Capen Reynolds Professor of Social Policy Hunter School of Social Work and The CUNY Graduate Center Mimi Abramovitz, DSW Columbia University School of Social Work is The Bertha Capen Reynolds Professor of Social Policy at Hunter School of Social Work and The CUNY Graduate Center. Widely published in the area of women, poverty and the welfare state, she is the author of Regulating the Lives of Women: Social Welfare Policy From Colonial Times to the Present; the award-winning Under Attack, Fighting Back: Women and Welfare in the US; and co-author of The Dynamics of Social Welfare Policy , and Taxes Are A Women's Issue: Reframing the Debate. She is currently writing Gender Obligations: The History f Low-Income Women's Activism Since 1900

Heather Boushey Senior Economist Center for American Progress Heather Boushey is senior economist at the Center for American Progress. Prior to joining the Center she was a senior economist with the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress. She was formerly a senior economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Dr. Boushey studies working families and trends in the U.S. labor market. She has written extensively on labor issues, including tracking the recession and its impact on workers and their families, women’s labor force participation, trends in income inequality, and work/life policy issues. Her work is important to understanding how women have fared in recent recessions. She has testified before Congress and given lectures nationwide. Dr. Boushey’s research has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, as well as many regional papers, television and radio. Previously, Dr. Boushey worked at the Economic Policy Institute, where she co-authored The State of Working America 2002-3 and Hardships in America: The Real Story of Working Families. Boushey received her Ph.D. in economics from the New School for Social Research and her B.A. from Hampshire College.

Irasema Garza President Legal Momentum Irasema Garza is president of Legal Momentum, the nation's oldest legal advocacy organization dedicated to advancing women's rights. An attorney with a broad range of experience as public servant and labor advocate, Garza has distinguished career of public service, championing the interests of women and economically disadvantaged ethnic and racial groups by working for economic equality. In the Clinton administration, Garza served as director of the U.S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau, the only federal agency mandated by Congress to represent America's wage-earning women in the public policy process. During her tenure, she worked to ensure that economic security for women was a key component of the Labor Department's political and legislative agenda. Before that, she served as the first secretary of the U.S. National Administrative Office, charged with implementing the labor provisions of NAFTA. In this capacity, she worked with the governments of Mexico and Canada to improve labor rights for working people, including women workers in Mexico's maquiladora industries. In 2003, Garza joined the U.S. labor movement as director of women's rights for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and three years later moved to Working America, the community affiliate of the AFL-CIO, serving first as national political director and later as director of community and external affairs. Garza has a J.D. and a B.A. from the University of Michigan.

Linda Hirshman Author Allen/Berenson Distinguished Visiting Professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies (retired) Brandeis University Linda R.Hirshman retired as the Allen/Berenson Distinguished Visiting Professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies at Brandeis University. She is a political columnist for “Double X,” the political magazine for women from the Washington Post Slate Group, www. Slate.com. She is the author of “Get to Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World,” (Viking, 2006). A version of the book project, “Homeward Bound,” appeared in the December 2005 American Prospect and was the subject of syndicated columnist David Brooks’ New Years Day column, “The Year of Domesticity” and syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman’s commentary, “Desperate ex-Housewives.” (Desperate ex-housewives - The Boston Globe.htm). Her most recent opinion work, “Where Are the New Jobs for Women?” appeared in the New York Times on December 9, 2008.

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The 25 most women-friendly cities

After leafing through Women.Co's travelogue of world cities least accommodating to women workers--The list seems overly selective, not specific enough and heavily disses India. Nonetheless...--this often-informative site led me to a more hospitable ride, this one through 25 recommended locations where, if you're looking for a change of scenery or are considering a major career move, their suggestions might pan out. Limiting, though, is that they're all stateside.
Read here.

Rihanna, muster up some dignity for your fans' sake!

I’m going to try the keep the indignation bordering on rage and the sadness I’m feeling out of my introduction to Women’s History Month you’ll find soon on the home page; I’m hoping the blog will provide catharsis and let me be warmer and fuzzier about us as independent, strong and evolving beings than my thoughts are at the moment. I’m scribbling these notes furiously between the graphics of this month’s Smithsonian magazine, riding the New York City subway uptown. It’s either scribble or scream at what I just saw.
Grumbling like a typical New Yorker at the haphazard weekend service, my monolog was picked up by a woman sitting on the bench I’d parked myself on to wait. (and wait.) She concurred with a nod about the service and then seemed eager to engage me with what was on her mind. “She went back wid ‘im,” she said, displaying an unmistakable Eastern Caribbean lilt. “Went back with who? Who went back?” I said. In explanation, she opened the New York Post to page whatever and pointed to an article reporting that Rihanna and Chris Brown had reconciled. He was repentant and of course she could forgive him. Believe me, I don’t deal in hip hop or its heavies (unless it delivers righteous and/or womanist messages), but I couldn’t help but be pulled into the pulp about the dastardly beating of this young woman. So I was kinda following the story. But I hadn’t seen the photo until my Trini companion showed it to me. Jeez!
And the Trini woman told me how she’d had a pack of kids with her husband back home. And that he beat her. And beat her. And kept beating her, as Brown will do to the either naïve or really messed up Rihanna. But my interlocutor told me that, one day, when she was out of the house, she packed herself up and her 5 kids and stole away back to her mom’s. Never went back, never looked back, she said proudly. Hard it was, she went on. But she made it and the kids didn’t have to see Mommy getting “licked” any more.
I’m still thinking, more regretfully, about the Rihanna mess on the day before we celebrate our womanhood. And how she’s the envy of so many millions of maturing or starstruck young woman, giving them the message, not of women making it or fulfilling their dreams of stardom—ultimately a skewed, unrealistic, even counterproductive and dangerous message in itself—but legitimizing a return to the glory of victimhood, of groveling, of total dependence. And I remembered the day when I stopped listening to Billie’s pathetic and shameful, “It cost me a lot…he beats me too, what can I do?…but there’s one thing that I got, it’s my man.”
Then I found Brown’s YouTube efforts and these comments:
--aww.... i love him, everyone goes through bad times, do things they shouldnt have
--if you love woman - you have to beat her )
--lalala. and so what ? support his music . SMH you must be one of rihanna fans.
--some bitches just need to get beat sorry :)

Well, maybe there is something to celebrate. And it’s that humble Trini mother who got out.

FYI: Midlife women and activity study. Any takers?

This is Chia-Chun, a doctoral student and a Graduate research assistant in school of Nursing, University of Texas at Austin.
Now I am working with Dr. Eun-Ok Im, and she is currently conducting an Internet study entitled Ethnic Specific Midlife Women's Attitudes toward Physical Activity. This study is funded by NIH/NINR (1R01NR010568-01). We believe that midlife women will get the benefit from participating in this study.
In the study, data will be collected through the Internet from Feb. 1, 2008 to May 31, 2011.
Methods for the data collection include an Internet survey among 500 midlife women in the U.S. on the Internet and four ethnic-specific online forum discussions among about 30 midlife women per ethnic group recruited among the Internet survey participants.

Please visit our project s website: http://mapa.nur.utexas.edu/MAPA/

Women eligible to participate in this study are midlife women aged 40 to 60 years old who do not have any mobility problems; who can read and write English; who are online; and whose self-reported ethnic identity is Hispanic, non-Hispanic (N-H) White, N-H African American, or N-H Asian.

Reimbursement for individual participation will be made by providing 10 dollars gift certificate per internet survey participant and 50 dollars gift certificate per online forum participant (only those who participate in the additional online forum for 6 months will be provided with this additional gift certificate).

Contact Information:
Chia-Chun Li, MSN, RN,
Graduate Research Assistant, doctoral student
School of Nursing, University of Texas at Austin
1700 Red River, Austin, TX 78701
E-mail: chiachunli@mail.utexas.edu
Phone: (512) 475-6352


PI: Eun-Ok Im, PhD, MPH, RN, CNS, FAAN
Professor & La Quinta Motor Inns Inc. Centennial Professor
School of Nursing, The University of Texas at Austin
1700 Red River St. Austin, TX 78701
Email: eim@mail.nur.utexas.edu

Bartering while out of work?

Women for Hire are on the mark. I've recently joined. Good networking, info, support.

We're looking for people who recently lost their jobs, but are not collecting unemployment (either it's run out or you're not eligible for benefits), and would be interesting in bartering their skills for products and services they need while looking for work. For example, maybe you're a graphic designer and you're willing to design a logo for someone in exchange for a stroller for your newborn. Perhaps you're a bookkeeper who can prepare simple tax returns in exchange for meals at a local diner. Or you're a publicist who'll trade PR services for someone to design a website so you can start a business quickly.

If this sounds like you—and you'd like to work with us to learn how to do this successfully—please send an email to media@womenforhire.com and put "bartering" in the subject line. Tell us the following: your name, phone and location; what kind of work you were doing; when and why you were laid off; why you're not collecting unemployment; the specific skills or stuff you are willing to barter; and the specific skills or stuff you'd ideally need in return to help you through some tough times. Even though everyone wants cash the most, this project is specifically about bartering. Please indicate a willingness to be on TV if selected to work with us.

Disclaimer of a sort: Womenforhire's job bank is all over the place. I keyed in 'New York' and 'Publishing/Media' and got 'California' and advertising listings. Our job bank is MUCH better: see link halfway down the page

Talent Management Systems Unwittingly Biased Against Women

Reinforcing Male Leadership Traits Can Limit Opportunities for Women in Business Leadership

New York (February 25, 2009) – Gender biases and stereotypes can be unconsciously embedded into talent management systems when leadership characteristics reflect traits exhibited by a company’s top, predominately male executives, according to Catalyst’s latest report, Cascading Gender Biases, Compounding Effects: An Assessment of Talent Management Systems. Even organizations with the most sophisticated talent management systems are vulnerable to gender bias which can ultimately impact long-term corporate success, the report says.

This latest study offers a rare assessment of talent management systems and highlights the influence of roadblocks to advancement at 110 leading companies across 19 industries. The report shows that executives set the tone and employees mirror those traits that have made senior leaders successful. When perceptions of leadership are described by masculine stereotypes, employees are viewed as less competent if they demonstrate qualities, characteristics, and skills that are considered atypical. According to the research, this results in a perpetual cycle that can overlook and under-utilize women high performers.

Since consistent evidence shows that teams with diverse leadership outperform those with less diversity, this potential talent loss may have a profound impact on an organization’s performance and sustainability. “Businesses restrict their own growth potential when women are unintentionally excluded from key training and advancement opportunities,” said Ilene H. Lang, President & CEO of Catalyst. “Whether the economy is up or down, who gets promoted – and who gets left behind – has substantial consequences for business success. Everyone is a stakeholder in developing and retaining top talent. Smart companies will seize the opportunity to ensure that their own talent management systems deliver on the promise of tapping into all talent.”

The report builds on two of Catalyst’s research series, Leaders in a Global Economy and Gender Stereotyping. This new study provides unique insights on how organizations can mitigate gender biases rooted in their systems. These insights include:
▪ Develop programs that target the needs of each business unit while examining the various forms of gender stereotyping.
▪ Educate leaders about how stereotypes can negatively influence job assignments and performance appraisals.
▪ Train employees at all levels to recognize effective gender-neutral leadership characteristics.
▪ Review practices from other companies and create strategies that increase development and advancement opportunities for women.
▪ Create opportunities for senior leaders and employees to engage in talent management dialogues.
▪ Evaluate the presence of gender-stereotypic language in talent management systems.

Recognizing the ways in which leadership traits might influence company culture can assist executives in developing talent management systems that address gender biases and stereotypes. This knowledge will help break down barriers that inhibit organizations from achieving gender diversity in leadership and in business itself.


Dickstein Shapiro LLP and Ernst & Young LLP are co-sponsors of Cascading Gender Biases, Compounding Effects: An Assessment of Talent Management Systems. To learn more about this report, as well as other research on gender stereotyping, visit www.catalyst.org. For media inquiries, please contact Serena Fong at 646-388-7757, sfong@catalyst.org, or Jeff Barth at 646-388-7725, jbarth@catalyst.org.

About this study
Research questions were developed based on a comprehensive literature review focused on gender stereotyping, performance management, career advancement, and talent development. To determine potential vulnerabilities in talent management systems, Catalyst collected data from 110 corporations and firms representing 19 different industries. We interviewed 30 talent management experts and architects from 24 organizations, we examined documents from many organizations that completed the interviews, and we then fielded an online survey that was completed by 86 corporations and firms.

About Catalyst
Founded in 1962, Catalyst is the leading nonprofit membership organization working globally with businesses and the professions to build inclusive workplaces and expand opportunities for women and business. With offices in the United States, Canada, and Europe, and more than 400 preeminent corporations as members, Catalyst is the trusted resource for research, information, and advice about women at work. Catalyst annually honors exemplary organizational initiatives that promote women’s advancement with the Catalyst Award.

Am I missing something here?

...Or will approval of this new pharmaceutical encourage African women to go out and get HIV/AIDS?
Check out the protocols: "The women were counseled to have their partners use condoms." Meaning, of course, that the study of the gel's efficacy would be invalid if they did, so don't push too hard. PLUS one quarter of the participants, nearly 800 women, were given a placebo or no gel. The gel's ultimate efficacy? "...the difference was not statistically significant..."
Early study shows AIDS-fighting gel promising