Happy Women's Equality Day!

I celebrated by contacting my Senators and I hope you'll do the same.

Join me in asking our Senators in support of the Fair Paycheck Fairness Act:
http://action.momsrising.org/sign/Equality_Day/?referring_akid=2910.295940.7N9Fbv&source=taf

-Thanks
Joanne

** More Details in the email I received below.******


Today is Women’s Equality Day. This morning, my first thought was:

What the heck do I tell my daughter?

More specifically, what do I tell my daughter about the fact that although women have made many gains, women still don’t have equal pay for equal work and are now making only an average of 77 cents for every dollar that men make? [1]

That's certainly NOT celebratory news on Women’s Equality Day.

But then it hit me. I know what to say: I’m telling my daughter that I’m fighting for her, and for yours, and for all the daughters in our nation on Women’s Equality Day.

*Join me in fighting for equal pay for equal work by urging your U.S. Senators to support the Paycheck Fairness Act in honor of Women’s Equality Day today:

http://action.momsrising.org/sign/Equality_Day/?referring_akid=2910.295940.7N9Fbv&source=taf

(Please take a moment now to forward this email to everyone who IS a daughter or HAS a daughter in your life, so they can take action on Women's Equality Day too.)

Before we can fully celebrate Women's Equality Day, there's much to be done.

The inequalities that women in our nation face everyday are so ridiculous that I can't even begin to explain them to my daughter. They simply make no logical sense to a 12 year old (or even to a 42 year old, a 20 year old, a 5 year old, or 95 year old, to be frank).

Working together, we can right inequalities for daughters everywhere, including the facts that:

Women currently face big pay inequalities, with mothers facing some the biggest wage gaps: While overall women make 77 cents to every man's dollar, one study found that women without children make 90 cents to a man's dollar, mothers make 73 cents, and single mothers only about 60 cents to a man's dollar.[2] Women of color have increased wage hits on top of this.[3] Studies also show that with EQUAL resumes, mothers are hired 100% less of the time than non-mothers and are offered $11,000 lower starting salaries.[3] We aren't making much progress. If the wage gap continues to narrow at the same rate as it has done since 1960, it will take another 45 years, or until 2056, for women and men to reach pay equity. [4] These stats keep me up at night, particularly given that 80% of American women become mothers by the time they are 44 years old and the biggest wage gaps are experienced by mothers.[5]

Women don't have equal representation in Congress: Women are 50.7% of our population, yet comprise only 17% of Congress.[7] This low representation of women in our national legislature ranks us 70th of all nations, behind Turkmenistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina. [8] This is a tremendous loss to our country because numerous studies have found that there are better outcomes when women have more equal representation. For example, the Harvard Business Review recently reported, "If a group includes more women, its collective intelligence rises." [9]

Businesses are missing out without women in leadership: The number of female CEOs is falling. There were 15 female CEOs in the Fortune 500 last year, and now there are only 12 female CEOs in the Fortune 500 companies.[10] This drop is despite the fact that a 19-year Pepperdine University survey of Fortune 500 companies showed that those with the best record of promoting women outperformed their competition by anywhere from 41 to 116 percent.[11] Our economy needs every bit of entrepreneurship possible, and disproportionately leaving out women hampers our nation's success.

As you can see from the list above, there's much work to be done. Every bit of American ingenuity possible is needed to fix our economy to build a stronger nation -- and not having equal representation of women in Congress, nor at the top levels of businesses hurts us all. And, we also have work to do because the wage hits that women -- particularly mothers -- are getting right now have rippling repercussions with 1 in 4 kids in our nation experiencing food scarcity due to family economic limitations.[12]

We can do better in our country. One significant step forward that we can make toward full equality is to ensure women (and mothers) are paid fairly for the equal work we do, starting with passing the Paycheck Fairness Act.

The Paycheck Fairness Act will:
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;

Empower women to negotiate for equal pay;

Strengthen federal outreach, education and enforcement efforts

Create stronger incentives for employers to follow the law.

*Hope you can join me in fighting for equal pay for equal work by urging your U.S. Senator to support the Paycheck Fairness Act in honor of Women’s Equality Day today:

http://action.momsrising.org/sign/Equality_Day/?referring_akid=2910.295940.7N9Fbv&source=taf

Here's to building a stronger nation where both families and businesses can thrive--and where our daughters have the same opportunities as our sons.

Don't forget to forward this email around so women across the country can take action for our daughters on Women's Equality Day too.

- Kristin and the entire MomsRising Team


P.S. Women (and mothers) are coming together to counter attacks on women's health and economic security online through a joint blog-a-thon with many other organizations. Read more here: http://www.momsrising.org/blog/hervotes-blog-carnival/?referring_akid=2910.295940.7N9Fbv&source=taf


[1] www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/pdf/cb11ff-04_women.pdf
[2] http://www.jstor.org/pss/2646943
[3] http://www.nwlc.org/our-blog/state-wage-gap-data-show-little-or-no-improvement-2008 & http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/incpovhlth/2009/index.html
[4]http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb07/SS.Focus.Correll.html
[5] IWPR Report: Women’s Median Earnings as a Percent of Men’s Median Earnings, 1960-2009 (Full-Time, Year-Round Workers) with Projection for Pay Equity in 2056, Jeff Hayes, Ph.D. (March 2011)
[6] http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/fertility.html>
[7] http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/11/super-committee-who-are-these-guys/?iref=storysearch
[8] http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm
[9] http://hbr.org/2011/06/defend-your-research-what-makes-a-team-smarter-more-women/ar/1?cm_sp=most_widget-_-default-_-Defend+Your+Research%3A+What+Makes+a+Team+Smarter%3F+More+Women
[10] http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/fortune/1104/gallery.fortune500_women_ceos.fortune/index.html
[11] http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=7721081&page=1
[12] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/16/AR2009111601