Bravo: Women must continue struggle for equality
By COLLEEN McCARTHY
Associate News Editor
Over the last century women have made many gains in the work place, but there is room for improvement in the areas of sexual harassment, equity in pay, and access to family leave and child care, said Ellen Bravo, coordinator of the "9 to 5 National Association of Working Women" in a lecture Tuesday.
"A lot of companies say they have women-friendly workplaces, but we have to dig a little deeper," said Bravo.
Although the pay gap between what men and women earn has lessened, a large discrepancy still remains, said Bravo.
"Today, for every dollar earned by a white man, white women earned 73 cents, African-American women earned 63 cents and Latina women earned 53 cents," said Bravo.
Bravo said that women work in almost every job setting today, including those that are traditionally male-dominated, but women are still paid less. The only field in which women earn more than men is food preparation.
Even in high-paying jobs, women earn substantially less than men. Among women executives of Fortune 500 companies, women earn only 68 percent of what their male counterparts earn. Female surgeons earn 77 percent of what male surgeons earn.
"Education does make a difference, but among women with four-year college degrees, they were earning only 56 percent of what male college graduates with a bachelor's degree earn," said Bravo.
Bravo revealed why she believes women are paid less than men.
"I'm going to tell you a secret," she said. "Women earn so little money because employers pay them so little. Why do employers do this? Because they can."
In the past, women were paid less than men because it was thought that they didn't need to make as much money because they had a man to support them, Bravo said.
However, she emphasized the need to revalue jobs that are traditionally held by women in order to lessen the pay gap.
"Why do child care workers earn poverty level wages?" asked Bravo. "They earn these poor wages because they are doing in the workplace what women do for free in the home."
Men are not hurt by women receiving equal pay, said Bravo.
"Most men don't lose when women get equal pay," she said. "In fact, families benefit."
Bravo also indicated that reports of sexual harassment to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) have tripled, but the agency's budget has not. The EEOC was set up to handle sexual harassment and discrimination claims by the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
"Many women who call the "9 to 5" 800-number have said `stop' to the person who is harassing them or have reported it to management," said Bravo. "The problem is women often don't have the power to make it stop. It is up to employers to set consequences for sexual harassment."
The sexual harassment cases that make the news are anomalies because few cases actually settle for millions of dollars in favor of the plaintiff, said Bravo.
"Most sexual harassment incidents aren't reported and most cases that are, don't go to court or are handled internally," said Bravo. "This happens because many victims of sexual harassment can't afford an attorney. When they do go to court, they usually don't end up seeing a dime of money and it's a very upsetting, emotional process."
Bravo also advocated policies to help employees balance work and families.
"There is a syndrome that I refer to called `Those who get the good jobs better have a wife at home,'" said Bravo. "This is because if you want to advance in many companies, you have to be willing to meet, move, travel and put in the face time."
Although she said the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 is a step in the right direction, it does not allow for paid leave, and many cannot use the Act because they cannot financially afford to use the leave. In addition, the Act covers only half the workforce because it applies to companies with 50 or more employees and a person has to have worked at the company for one year.
"By putting in place family-friendly policies in the workplace, we have to understand that it's good for society to have people taking care of families," said Bravo. "For all our family value rhetoric in this country, we really don't value families."
In order to make changes, people must organize, said Bravo.
"To get what you need for yourself, you have to work with other people on behalf of everyone," she said.
All News Stories for Wednesday, April 5, 2000
