Women News, Nov 3rd 2009
Women News, Nov 3rd 2009
Jane: Sad news! Rusty Gordon of Haverhill, Florida, died Tuesday night at age 67. Rusty was an activist, feminist, lesbian advocate, archivist, concert producer, athlete, coach, teacher, recreation therapist, and Democratic precinct woman. She founded The Whimsy Political Clearinghouse in 1967 that collected more than 7,000 books and many articles, some rare. She maintained Loops, or e-mail lists, to send articles on those topics to some 200,000 readers and activists.
Joan: Eleanor Smeal president of the Feminist Majority and publisher of Ms. Magazine said that despite the recession women have made actual work-related gains in the past six to nine months. These gains include
Other work pending in Congress includes:
These are small gains, but according to Smeal, "A gain is a gain."
Jane: Yet, in another study released by the World Economic Forum on the progress of attaining gender equity with regards to economic participation, education, health, and political power, the United States ranked just behind Lithuania and just in front of Namibia. In fact, two African countries afford their women more gender equity than we do here. The United States ranks 31st, down four ranks since the last study. According to this study women equity is going backwards.
Joan: Last Thursday the Senate confirmed Dr. Regina Benjamin to be the U.S. surgeon general. She was the first black woman to head a state medical society, received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights and received a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant.”
In nominating Dr. Benjamin, President Barack Obama cited her experience and her commitment to prevention and wellness programs as a way to head off diseases and complications that could be prevented. Jane: The next four reports are about children. Some of it is alarming. Last Monday, the FBI said that in a national sting it has rescued more than 50 children who were being victimized through prostitution. The operation, part of the Innocence Lost National Initiative, took place in 36 cities. The FBI said 631 others, including 60 pimps, were arrested on local and state charges. "Child prostitution continues to be a significant problem in our country, as evidenced by the number of children rescued through the continued efforts of our crimes against children task forces," Kevin Perkins, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division, said in a statement on Monday.
"There is no work more important than protecting America's children and freeing them from the cycle of victimization," said Perkins. "Through our strategic partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies, we are able to make a difference."
The Innocence Lost Task Forces and Working Groups have rescued nearly 900 children from the streets to date, the FBI reported.
Joan: According to the NY Times more kids, many of them not even in their teens, are running away from home because of the depressed economy. Government officials, experts and homeless advocates blame the economy for the surge over the last two years. The Times reported that at least 1.6 million kids run away from their homes -- or are kicked out -- every year. With many runaways too young to work, many under the age of 13, they resort to begging, selling drugs and prostitution, according to the National Runaway Switchboard.
Jane, this is what I find most disturbing: federal statistics indicate that in more than three-quarters of runaway cases, parents or caretakers do not report the child missing, often because they are angry or would simply prefer to see a problem child leave the house. That's 1.2 million kids who are left unreported.
Additionally in 16 percent of the reported cases, according to a review of federal data by The New York Times, the local police failed to enter the information into the federal database, as required under federal law.
Kids who need help can call 800-RUNAWAY. 800-786-2929
Jane: USA Today reported that according to the National Campaign To Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy most teen parents are not raised in poor, single-parent homes but are from two-parent households and live above the federal poverty level. The survey by Child Trend Inc dispels myths about teen pregnancy. According to the survey, two-thirds of adults believe most teens who give birth come from homes below the poverty line and 70% of adults believe most of these teens come from single-parent homes. The reports summarizes, saying that "efforts to prevent teen pregnancy and childbearing are appropriate and important for all teens, regardless of socio-economic status, and should be the responsibility of all parents, communities leaders, practitioners, and policymakers."
Joan: Highlights magazine recently took a survey of children aged 5 through 12 about household chores. Of the 845 responders, 73.3 percent of girls say they have assigned chores at home, while only about 65.3 percent of boys say the same. This matches a report by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research that found that girls spend seven hours each week on chores while boys spend five hours. In addition, the boys were 15 percent more likely to be paid for their work than the girls. This enforces the belief among kids that housework is a woman's domain.
Contance Gager, a sociologist at the department of family and child studies at Montclair State University is frustrated by this stubborn passing of this imbalance from one generation to the next. She finds it depressing that women are still expected to pick up the slack when family life gets busy. She said, “We expected that as a generation or two of women have gone out into the labor force, the gender differences would have faded in their children, but that’s not happening. Instead children see that household work falls more to women than to men, more to girls than to boys, and the grow up to perpetuate the assumption.
Jane: Sad news! Rusty Gordon of Haverhill, Florida, died Tuesday night at age 67. Rusty was an activist, feminist, lesbian advocate, archivist, concert producer, athlete, coach, teacher, recreation therapist, and Democratic precinct woman. She founded The Whimsy Political Clearinghouse in 1967 that collected more than 7,000 books and many articles, some rare. She maintained Loops, or e-mail lists, to send articles on those topics to some 200,000 readers and activists.
Joan: Eleanor Smeal president of the Feminist Majority and publisher of Ms. Magazine said that despite the recession women have made actual work-related gains in the past six to nine months. These gains include
- The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that removed the 180-day limit that a 2007 Supreme Court decision set for workers to file pay-discrimination lawsuits whether they knew about the discrimination or not.
- The Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act that will provide a month of paid maternity or paternity leave to the federal government's 1.8 million employees.
Other work pending in Congress includes:
- The proposed Paycheck Fairness Act (S 182), that would prohibit employers from retaliating against workers who discussed their salaries--the first step toward pay equity.
- A 2010 budget proposal to fund several new early childhood support initiatives, including Title I Early Childhood Grants and competitive Early Learning Challenge Grants.
- The Healthy Families Act (HR 2460) would require every employer to pay sick leave of up to seven days. Data compiled by the Institute for Women's Policy Research, found that 40 percent of working women--more than 22 million women--have no paid sick leave.
These are small gains, but according to Smeal, "A gain is a gain."
Jane: Yet, in another study released by the World Economic Forum on the progress of attaining gender equity with regards to economic participation, education, health, and political power, the United States ranked just behind Lithuania and just in front of Namibia. In fact, two African countries afford their women more gender equity than we do here. The United States ranks 31st, down four ranks since the last study. According to this study women equity is going backwards.
Joan: Last Thursday the Senate confirmed Dr. Regina Benjamin to be the U.S. surgeon general. She was the first black woman to head a state medical society, received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights and received a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant.”
In nominating Dr. Benjamin, President Barack Obama cited her experience and her commitment to prevention and wellness programs as a way to head off diseases and complications that could be prevented. Jane: The next four reports are about children. Some of it is alarming. Last Monday, the FBI said that in a national sting it has rescued more than 50 children who were being victimized through prostitution. The operation, part of the Innocence Lost National Initiative, took place in 36 cities. The FBI said 631 others, including 60 pimps, were arrested on local and state charges. "Child prostitution continues to be a significant problem in our country, as evidenced by the number of children rescued through the continued efforts of our crimes against children task forces," Kevin Perkins, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division, said in a statement on Monday.
"There is no work more important than protecting America's children and freeing them from the cycle of victimization," said Perkins. "Through our strategic partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies, we are able to make a difference."
The Innocence Lost Task Forces and Working Groups have rescued nearly 900 children from the streets to date, the FBI reported.
Joan: According to the NY Times more kids, many of them not even in their teens, are running away from home because of the depressed economy. Government officials, experts and homeless advocates blame the economy for the surge over the last two years. The Times reported that at least 1.6 million kids run away from their homes -- or are kicked out -- every year. With many runaways too young to work, many under the age of 13, they resort to begging, selling drugs and prostitution, according to the National Runaway Switchboard.
Jane, this is what I find most disturbing: federal statistics indicate that in more than three-quarters of runaway cases, parents or caretakers do not report the child missing, often because they are angry or would simply prefer to see a problem child leave the house. That's 1.2 million kids who are left unreported.
Additionally in 16 percent of the reported cases, according to a review of federal data by The New York Times, the local police failed to enter the information into the federal database, as required under federal law.
Kids who need help can call 800-RUNAWAY. 800-786-2929
Jane: USA Today reported that according to the National Campaign To Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy most teen parents are not raised in poor, single-parent homes but are from two-parent households and live above the federal poverty level. The survey by Child Trend Inc dispels myths about teen pregnancy. According to the survey, two-thirds of adults believe most teens who give birth come from homes below the poverty line and 70% of adults believe most of these teens come from single-parent homes. The reports summarizes, saying that "efforts to prevent teen pregnancy and childbearing are appropriate and important for all teens, regardless of socio-economic status, and should be the responsibility of all parents, communities leaders, practitioners, and policymakers."
Joan: Highlights magazine recently took a survey of children aged 5 through 12 about household chores. Of the 845 responders, 73.3 percent of girls say they have assigned chores at home, while only about 65.3 percent of boys say the same. This matches a report by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research that found that girls spend seven hours each week on chores while boys spend five hours. In addition, the boys were 15 percent more likely to be paid for their work than the girls. This enforces the belief among kids that housework is a woman's domain.
Contance Gager, a sociologist at the department of family and child studies at Montclair State University is frustrated by this stubborn passing of this imbalance from one generation to the next. She finds it depressing that women are still expected to pick up the slack when family life gets busy. She said, “We expected that as a generation or two of women have gone out into the labor force, the gender differences would have faded in their children, but that’s not happening. Instead children see that household work falls more to women than to men, more to girls than to boys, and the grow up to perpetuate the assumption.
Posted by Women Matters at 11/5/2009 9:38 PM 
Categories: Women News
Tags: Rusty Gordon Eleanor Smeal World economic forum women's economic gains Dr. Regina Benjamin runaways
Categories: Women News
Tags: Rusty Gordon Eleanor Smeal World economic forum women's economic gains Dr. Regina Benjamin runaways
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