Women's wages, rights still lag behind men
Julianne Malveaux/NNPA Columnist
Issue date: 8/24/08 Section: Politics
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) is scheduled to deliver a major speech at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday.
It is poignant and proper that she should speak on Women's Equality Day, the 88th anniversary of women getting the right to vote. According to some sources, Sen. Clinton will be joined on stage by other women legislators, including the Democratic women of the United States Senate. Her speech is likely to touch on major public policy issues, and also to pay tribute to those that paved the way for her glass ceiling-shattering campaign.
Sen. Clinton's campaign illustrated that the gender playing field is not yet level. We don't need to use her campaign for that illustration, though. Economic data on the status of women suggest that we have a long way to go before women have the same social, economic, political and cultural clout that men have.
The lens of patriarchy so heavily influences the interpretation of the status of women that women who have left the labor market for economic reasons are perceived as having "opted out" because they prefer stay-at-home motherhood. The real deal is that women's wages are lower than men's - still. And some of the jobs that are "typically female" have been taking the same kinds of hits as other jobs have been taking.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report on women's earning in September 2007 that is telling. While the gender wage gap is narrowing, women still earn less than men do.
The median weekly earnings for women was $600, just 81 percent than the $743 that men earn. To be sure, the 19 percent gap is lower than the 27 percent gap reported two decades ago. Still, as former Illinois Senator Carol Moseley Braun asked in the 2004 campaign, will grocers change women less for a dollar loaf of bread? The gap varies by age, education, and other factors, but when we look at the very top, there are glaring inequities.
About 7 percent of women earned the highest wages, $15,000 or more a week, compared to 15 percent of men. If gender equality is coming, it is coming at a snail's pace.
It is poignant and proper that she should speak on Women's Equality Day, the 88th anniversary of women getting the right to vote. According to some sources, Sen. Clinton will be joined on stage by other women legislators, including the Democratic women of the United States Senate. Her speech is likely to touch on major public policy issues, and also to pay tribute to those that paved the way for her glass ceiling-shattering campaign.
Sen. Clinton's campaign illustrated that the gender playing field is not yet level. We don't need to use her campaign for that illustration, though. Economic data on the status of women suggest that we have a long way to go before women have the same social, economic, political and cultural clout that men have.
The lens of patriarchy so heavily influences the interpretation of the status of women that women who have left the labor market for economic reasons are perceived as having "opted out" because they prefer stay-at-home motherhood. The real deal is that women's wages are lower than men's - still. And some of the jobs that are "typically female" have been taking the same kinds of hits as other jobs have been taking.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report on women's earning in September 2007 that is telling. While the gender wage gap is narrowing, women still earn less than men do.
The median weekly earnings for women was $600, just 81 percent than the $743 that men earn. To be sure, the 19 percent gap is lower than the 27 percent gap reported two decades ago. Still, as former Illinois Senator Carol Moseley Braun asked in the 2004 campaign, will grocers change women less for a dollar loaf of bread? The gap varies by age, education, and other factors, but when we look at the very top, there are glaring inequities.
About 7 percent of women earned the highest wages, $15,000 or more a week, compared to 15 percent of men. If gender equality is coming, it is coming at a snail's pace.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Virginia Harris
posted 8/25/08 @ 12:40 PM EST
Thanks to the success of the suffragettes, women now have voices and choices!
There is so much that is useful for today's activists to know in the successful strategies of the suffragettes. (Continued…)
Kris
posted 9/04/08 @ 3:59 PM EST
Yes, I give top props to all the women who have impacted society, and that means all women. We are all contributing in some way to the growth and leaps of greatness that move all women forward. (Continued…)
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