The American Association of University Women describes the situation here:
A much needed updated of the 47-year-old Equal Pay Act, the Paycheck Fairness Act is a comprehensive bill that would create stronger incentives for employers to follow the law, empower women to negotiate for equal pay, and strengthen federal outreach, education and enforcement efforts. Championed by longtime AAUW friend Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the bill would also deter wage discrimination by strengthening penalties for equal pay violations and by prohibiting retaliation against workers who ask about employers' wage practices or disclose their own wages. Together with the Ledbetter bill, this critical piece of legislation can help create a climate where pay discrimination is not tolerated, and give the new administration the enforcement tools it needs to make real progress on pay equity.
With a record number of women in the workforce, wage discrimination hurts the majority of American families, both in terms of their economic security today and their retirement security tomorrow. Due to rising employment rates, an unprecedented number of women are now the family breadwinner – making pay equity even more critical, not simply to family economic security, but also to the nation's economic recovery.[Taken from the AAUW website.]
You can take back the democratic process that Bush hijacked by telling your senator to vote in favor of the bill. It's a totally free call. 877.667.6650. The same number for everyone living in the US. You don't even have to know who your senator is. If you cannot call during normal business hours, you can leave a message that will be forwarded to Congress.
The fact that many employers (some of which I have worked for) ignore the federal legislation granting everyone equal pay regardless of gender for the same type of work that has been on the books for nearly fifty years blows my mind. But, what really disturbs me is the huge amount of women employed by corporations who just roll over. I have known several women - some of which are single mothers - who are dedicated to holding key positions within the structure of large companies who force themselves to go into denial about not only being paid unfairly, but the generally anti-woman atmospheres of their workplaces.
In Illinois, where I live, it is mandatory for employers to place a poster supplied by the Board of Labor announcing that women in this state only make 71 cents to every dollar earned by their male counterparts somewhere where it can be read by all workers such as a breakroom. Yet, at every office job I have had, female employees routinely sublimate addressing this issue in favor of campaigns which inundate workplaces with sets of namby pamby rules prohibiting things like setting the air conditioning lower than 72 degrees at the height of summer, devoting a certain amount of company time to organizing office bridal or baby showers or ensuring the office manager keeps a spare supply of tampons in the supply closet. Or else! This mentality often allows sexist humor and attitudes insensitive to gender differences to go unchallenged even in an office predominately populated by women as the herd will most often abandon the individual that speaks up for fear that questioning male authority will burn the bridge that accesses power. There is a paranoia that if one women burns this bridge, all other women will loose power-accessing privileges as well. Afterall, 'boys will be boys.'
Being able to depend on your employer to prevent you from getting period stains on your dress, indulging in the celebration of archaic sexist rituals on the job or using powers of manipulation to normalize a physically uncomfortable environment for men are not rights. Sadly, these have nothing to do with the rights the Feminist Wave of 1965 - 75 (the ERA-ers) fought for. If not in direct opposition to those rights, they are a passive-aggressive reaction against progress. They are symptoms of a possession of the collective female super-ego by the notion that femininity (is desirability is approval) is sacrificed by ambition. The product of fulfilled ambition is loneliness.
It is also the backlash of the pervasiveness of gender studies in colleges and universities who have during the last two generations decided to divulge the secret that 1965 - 75 Women's Liberation Movement was at it's heart the first phase of the Lesbian Liberation Movement. Therefore, if a woman in the corporate workplace perceives herself - or is perceived - to be succumbing to ambition en lieu of making sure the boys put the toilet seat back down, she puts herself in danger of being branded DYKE. Before participating in this new exclusively anti-Lesbian form of homophobia, remember that American women are two times more likely to retire into poverty. I'd rather be called a dyke by my boss today and have a comfortable tomorrow.
What really disgusts me is the lack of response my announcement of the 11/17 vote got on Facebook. Out of 227 friends who all seem to identify themselves as being keen on the advancement of human rights, civil liberties and all the other shit that goes with it, not one indicated liking my post or shared it. Well, actually one did. I take my pants off to you, Billie Jewell. Could it be that gender-based wage inequity is generally considered inevitable or even acceptable? Maybe that's why everyone wants to get married these days. I guess that's the topic of a future post.
{Donna Summer}
No comments:
Post a Comment