The average wages of a woman living in Washington, D.C., is 91 percent of the earnings of her male counterpart.  New state by state research released by The American Association of University (AAUW) shows some of the location-based differences can be explained by demographics.  According to the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) the high percentage of federal jobs in D.C. may contribute to the narrower wage gap, an area with a small private sector.  Wyoming, (ranks 51) on the other hand, characterized by male-dominated industries like coal mining, may account for the wage discrepancy in this area of the country. Michigan ranks 42 with a 74 percent gender wage gap.

Read more at the Huffington Post Women’s page.

Posted under AAUW of Michigan, Equal Pay

Are frogs more important than economic security for women and families?  Apparently amphibians rate higher with Michigan legislators evidenced by the resolutions introduced in the House on Tuesday, April 17, 2012. HR 0230, a resolution to declare April 28, 2012, as Save the Frogs Day was gaveled approved, while HR 0229, a resolution to declare April 17, 2012 as Pay Equity Day in the state of Michigan, was sent to committee. This kind of insipid approval for banal activities indicates weak leadership, and a lack of concern for the economic issues that affect Michigan women and families.

I like frogs. They play a beneficial role in our ecosystem and environment.  However, on the scale of economic importance in the lives of working women and families, frogs fall near the bottom of the list. Ribbit!

Recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that despite nearly 50 years of equal pay laws, American women still earn 77 cents for every dollar their male counterparts are paid, unchanged from 2011. According to AAUW’s The Simple Truth About the Gender Pay Gap, women of color earn even less with African-American women earning 70% compared to white men’s earnings and Hispanic and Latina women earning 61% of white men’s earnings. Asian women salaries show the smallest gender gap at 88 percent of white men’s earnings.

Current equal pay laws need to be updated. Michigan House and Senate pay equity bills – HR 4611-4614 and SB 0340-0343 – would:

• Strengthen the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to make it clear that sex-based wage discrimination is illegal under Michigan law,

• Increase penalties for wage discrimination based on gender,

• Establish a pay equity study commission,

• Allow employees to learn what their co-workers earn so they can know if they are receiving equal pay.

Many states have yet to pass equal pay legislation. Wisconsin recently repealed its Equal Pay Enforcement Act, removing a woman’s ability to sue for back wages, attorney’s fees and punitive damages in state court.

If you’re a Michigan resident, contact your state legislators and tell them to pass the pay equity bills, now!

Posted under AAUW of Michigan, Equal Pay, Equity in the News, Women and Economic Security

The pay gap continues to persist.  According to AAUW’s The Simple Truth About the Gender Gap, “women’s annual earnings as a percentage of men’s annual earnings for full-time, year-round workers is 77 percent.”

Janet Watkins talks about how the long-term impact of the wage gap affects women and families in a guest commentary that can be read at the online edition of the Detroit Free Press.

Posted under AAUW of Michigan, Equal Pay, Equity in the News, Women and Economic Security, Women and Work

Share by Kathy Banfield Shaw - Marshall Branch

Posted under AAUW of Michigan, Reproductive Health & Rights, Sexism, Social Justice

Posted under AAUW of Michigan

Posted under AAUW of Michigan, Reproductive Health & Rights

About this column: This column will feature letters to the editor. Letters will be edited for grammar, style, brevity and obvious factual accuracy. (We can’t check every fact asserted, but if we realize something isn’t true, we’ll edit it or possibly not run the letter). Please keep submissions about 300 words or less. Submit letters or questions to Dearborn Patch Editor Jessica Carreras (jessica.carreras@patch.com). Related Topics: American Association of University Women, Bullying, and Dearborn Public Schools

Posted under Sexual Harassment, bullying

Posted under Photo Gallery

by Janet Watkins

The struggle for equal pay appears to be a torch our granddaughters will have to carry given the resistant snail’s pace to get legislation passed in support of it. Ensuring women and men get equal pay and benefits have been a long hard battle.  On average women earn 23% less than men, and their earnings don’t catch up on a yearly basis until April 12.  So for nearly, 16 months women have less money to spend on essentials like, food, child care, housing and other expenses.

But, I’m preaching to the choir.  You already know these facts, and support closing the wage gap.

However, many of our elected officials do not support eliminating this economic disparity that affects people across all classes and disproportionately women of color.

Over a woman’s lifetime, gender differences in earnings contribute to a huge disparity in Social Security benefits.  Women typically live 6 years longer than men, with a life expectancy approaching 80 years old.  The gift of longevity is often accompanied by many challenges including chronic disease and disability. Confronted with these issues, women after working during their earning years, have far less to rely on in their golden years.  Diana Pearce, a researcher from the University of Wisconsin coined it in a 1978 published paper “the feminization of poverty.”

So, what to do?  Join the conversation at the AAUW of Michigan Facebook and Twitter pages all month long. Learn more about pay equity by visiting the AAUW website. Contact your elected officials and demand that they support reducing the incidence of women living in poverty due to wage disparity. Tell them “women are not worth less.” Pass Pay Equity legislation now!

Talk about the issue with your daughters, granddaughters, aunts, nieces and girlfriends (include the guys, too). Share the pay equity message with your online network of friends and family.  Pay Equity benefits everyone.

Pay Equity – Raise your voices for our mothers, for our daughters, for our future.

Posted under Equal Pay, Women and Economic Security

Testimony of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) of Michigan

before the

Michigan Civil Rights Commission

Forum on Bullying

Cadillac Place, 3054 W. Grand Boulevard, Detroit, MI 48202

January 25, 2011

Good afternoon. My name is Barbara Bonsignore and I am the Public Policy Director of AAUW of Michigan. I appreciate the opportunity to give testimony on the subject of bullying and harassment.

AAUW is a membership organization founded 130 years ago and has approximately 100,000 members and 1000 branches nationwide. We break through barriers for women and girls and believe all students deserve safe learning environments. AAUW of Michigan has approximately 3,000 members and 43 branches throughout the state.

Public schools face longstanding challenges in preventing and effectively responding to instances of bullying and harassment. Bullying and harassment interfere with a student’s ability to achieve. In addition, bullying and harassment can lead to even greater safety problems.

Sexual harassment is a type of harassment and AAUW has released several research reports on this topic including Hostile Hallways: The AAUW Survey on Sexual Harassment in America’s Schools, which revealed that four out of five students in grades eight to 11 had experienced some form of sexual harassment.

The following are some startling statistics about the prevalence of bullying and harassment in schools.

· Close to half of all children are bullied at some point while they are at primary or secondary school.[i]

· In Michigan, 24 percent of high school students reported being bullied on school property in the prior year.[ii]

· 7.4 percent of high school students reported missing school because they felt unsafe. In Detroit, 19.1 percent of students reported missing school because they felt unsafe.[iii]

The definition of harassment that is commonly used and is used in legislation pending in Congress is: conduct that adversely affects the ability of one or more students to participate in or benefit from the school’s educational programs or activities because the conduct, as reasonably perceived by the student (or students), is so severe, persistent, or pervasive; and includes conduct that is based on-

(i) a student’s actual or perceived race; color; national origin; sex; disability; sexual orientation; gender identity; or religion;

(ii) any other distinguishing characteristics that may be defined by a State or local educational agency; or

(iii) association with a person or group with one or more of the actual or perceived characteristics listed in clause (i) or (ii).

Bullying is a type of harassment that unfortunately places the student (or students) in reasonable fear of physical harm.

On October 26, 2010 the Department of Education in Washington, DC issued guidance in an effort to support educators in combating bullying and harassment in schools and clarified that a school’s response, or lack of response, when a student is bullied or harassed may violate federal education anti-discrimination laws, such as Title IX.

Title IX protects students from unlawful sexual harassment in all of a school’s programs or activities, whether they take place in the facilities of the school, on a school bus, at a class or training program sponsored by the school at another location, or elsewhere. Title IX protects both male and female students from sexual harassment, regardless of who the harasser might be.

In conclusion, all children must have a safe environment in which to learn. It is encouraging that attention is being paid to the problem of bullying and that both national and state departments of education are attempting to help educators better understand their obligations, while providing resources to allow prompt and effective action to be taken in an effort to end harassment and bullying in schools.

Thank you for the opportunity to submit testimony.

Barbara Bonsignore

AAUW of Michigan Public Policy Director

(248) 375-0062

E-mail: bjbaauw1@aol.com

Posted under Education