Women
& Work
- 37 years after passage of the Equal
Pay Act, Women still get paid about 75 cents to men's dollar
- In real terms, that means that women
had to work 17 extra weeks in 2000 to earn what men earned
in 1999 alone. That is why President Clinton designated May
11, 2000 Equal Pay Day.
- And even that sad marker does not
apply to all women. Black women will not reach their Equal
Pay Day until July. And Hispanic women will have to wait for
late October of 2000 for our Equal Pay Day.
- While women have been entering high-paying
non-traditional fields in increasing numbers, men still outnumber
us by more than 2 to 1 in many high-tech occupations - occupations
that pay about 80% above the average jobs.
- And according to Catalyst, a women's
advocacy group, women still make up only 11.9% of corporate
officers at America's top 500 firms.
- This is not just a "women's" issue
- it affects whole families. Nearly one in five U.S. families
are headed by a single woman, and more than 7 out of 10 women
with children work.
- The problem does not end when a woman
stops working. The average retiring woman can expect about
half the pension benefits of the average retiring man. That's
if she gets a pension at all - which less than half as many
women as men do.
- The poverty rate among elderly women
is about twice the rate for people over 65 generally.
--
Irasema T. Garza, Women's Bureau Director. Speech before
the National Association of Commissions for Women (NACW) 31st
Annual Convention in San Francisco, CA on July 6, 2000
Top 5 Reasons Why Retirement is a Challenge for Women Workers
- Nearly three out of four working women
earn less than $30,000 per year.
- Nearly nine out of ten working women
earn less than $45,000.
- Half of all women work in traditionally
female, relatively low paid jobs without pensions.
- Women retirees receive only half the
average pension benefits that men receive.
- Women's earnings average $.72 for
every $1 earned by men - a lifetime loss of over $250,000.
--Women's
Institute for a Secure Retirement
Women & Work fact sheets
Women
& Welfare
Why every woman in America
should beware of welfare cuts.
Welfare is the ultimate security policy
for every woman in America. Like accident or life insurance,
you hope you’ll never need it. But for yourself and your family,
sisters, daughters and friends, you need to know it's there.
Without it, we have no real escape from brutal relationships
or any protection in a job market hostile to women with children.
Why is Congress trying to take it away?
Ten Facts most American
don’t know about welfare.
- Only 6% of welfare mothers are teenagers.
Less than 3% of poor families are headed by women younger
than 19.
- The typical welfare family includes
a mother and two children, about the same as the average American
family.
- Welfare mothers on average receive
$367 a month, even with food stamps worth $295, this is still
31% below the poverty line for a family of three. Benefits
have about about a third of their value since 1979.
- Welfare to single mothers makes up
just 1% of the federal budget--3% if food stamps are included,
- Thirty-eight percent of AFDC parents
are white, 37% are African-American, and 18% are Latino.
- Over 70% of women applying for welfare
receive benefits for less than two years; only 8% remain over
eight years.
- More than 60% of AFDC families have
a child younger than six. Forty percent have a child
younger than two.
- Full-time, year-round work at minimum
wage puts a woman and two children $3,000 below the poverty
line-with no health care coverage.
- Unemployment hat steadily increased
since World War II, while unemployment benefits have decreased.
- Carefully conducted research has
found that AFDC benefits do not influence a never-married
mother's decision to have a child; nor do they influence mothers
already on welfare to have additional children.
A war against poor women is a war against
all women.
--from a paid advertisement in the
New York Times, 8/8/95. Cosponsored by
1199 National Health & Human Service Employees
Union, National Association of Social Workers, Coalition of
Labor Union Women, Catholics for a Free Choice, American Postal
Workers Union, AFL-CIO, Office & Professional Employees
International Union AFL-CIO, Welfare Reform Network of New York,
Ms. Foundation for Women, Feminist Majority, Wider Opportunities
for Women, Women & Poverty Project, Communications Workers
of America, Democratic Socialists of America, Women's Actions
for New Directions, National Committee on Pay Equity, United
Farm workers of America AFL-CIO, Center for Women Policy Studies,
National Council for Research on Women, National Jobs for All
Coalition, National Coalition for the Homeless, NOW Legal Defense
& Education Fund.
Welfare concerns every
woman
Welfare is a feminist issue because:
a) it concerns primarily women and children
b) it is about the value of women’s work, about the dignity
of women
C) it says a lot about how we, as a country, care for children
d) it is not just about mothers and not just about poor people
e) it is about women as persons
The welfare debate incorporates many
dominant cultural ideas about women
Racist stereotype: a young black
woman, never-married, with six or more children.
Facts:
- As many white women on welfare as
black (not all from poor backgrounds)
- Average size of female headed family
has been decreasing since the 1960s and is now at 2.9 - one
woman and 1.9 children
- More than 40% of welfare mothers
have only ONE child
- Average length of time on welfare
is two years
- Until recently most welfare mothers
were formerly married. There has been an increase in never
married. Is marriage really the answer to the problems?
- AFDC is only 1% of the national budget
- Welfare payments are only a fraction
of the nationally established poverty level; the average payment
is $367 per month.
Compare:
- Foster mothers are paid from 3 to
8 times what a woman is given in AFDC benefits to care for
her own child.
- It costs taxpayers $200 per day (and
anywhere from $27,000 to 75,000 per year) to keep a young
criminal in jail.
- It costs taxpayers anywhere from
$38,000 to 60,000 per year to keep a child in an orphanage.
Why, then, are we so unwilling to help women
support their children?
- A major reason women resort to welfare
is non-payment of child support by fathers. AFDC could be
imagined as a subsidy of fathers, not a hand-out to mothers.
Why isn’t it?
- Child care is expensive and often
inadequate or non-existent.
- Many women want to stay home with
their infants and toddlers; this option should be available
to all--not just the rich with husbands to support them,.
It is important for children and their mothers. Part time
work options should be available along with income supplements.
--original handout by Carol Delaney,
Professor of Anthropology,
Stanford
Women
& Domestic Violence
Domestic violence is defined
as abuse committed against an adult or fully emancipated minor
who is a spouse, former spouse, cohabitant, former cohabitant,
or a person with whom the suspect has had a child or has or has
had a dating or engagement relationship.
In 1990, 195,019 domestic
violence cases were reported to the police in California. Of these,
7,781 were reported in Santa Clara County. (Bureau of
Criminal Statistics, Sacramento, CA, 1991.)
Domestic violence is the most
prevalent violent crime in California, with law enforcement agencies
receiving 500 reports every day. Yet, even the FBI estimates these
reports underesti-mate actual cases by one-tenth. (California
Alliance Against Domestic Violence, April, 1991.)
According to the FBI, as many
as 6 million women are abused by their partners each year. A woman
is battered every 15 seconds. (The California NOW Activist.
November, 1991.)
One out of every two American
can women will be physically abused at some time in her relationship
lifetime. (The Battered Woman's Survival Guide, 1990.)
Battering is the major cause
of serious injury to women in America, more than auto accidents,
muggings and rapes combined. (The Lipman Report, The
American Epidemic of Violence: A Major Security Concern and Public
Health Care Problem, December 15, 1985.)
Among all female victims of
murders that police reported to the Uniform Crime Report in 1989,
28% were believed to have been slain by husbands or boyfriends.
(U.S. Dept. of Justice, Female Victims of Violent Crime.
January, 1991.)
Women were victims of violent
intimates at a rate 3 times that of men. Women were 6 times more
likely than men to be victimized by a spouse, ex-spouse, boyfriend,
or girlfriend. (U.S. Dept. of Justice, Female Victims
of Violence Crime. January, 1991.)
A study by the March of Dimes
reports that one of every twelve women is battered while she is
pregnant. Battered women are four times more likely to have low
birthweight babies and twice as likely to miscarry compared with
normal mothers. (The Battered Woman's Survival Guide, 1990.)
More
info: Intimate Partner Violence (by National Institute of Justice/CDC)
Mid-Peninsula Support
Network for Battered Women
(415) 940-7855 24-hr.
hotline
Women
& Art
- 51.2%
of all artists in the U.S. are women [1]
- 30.7% of all photographers are women
[1]
- 90% of all artist's models are women
[4]
- 67% of bachelor degrees in Fine Arts
go to women [3]
- 46% of bachelor degrees in Photography
go to women [3]
- 65% of bachelor degrees in Painting
go to women [3]
- 60% of MFAs in Fine Arts go to women
[3]
- 55% of MFAs in Painting go to women
[3]
- 47% of MFAs in Photography go to
women [3]
- 59% of Ph.D.s in Fine Arts go to
women.[3]
- 66.5% of Ph.D.s in Art History go
to women.[2]
- 59% of trained artists and art historians
are women.[2]
- 33% of art faculty are women.[2]
- 5% of works in museums are by women.[6]
- 17% of works in galleries are by
women.[2]
- 26% of artists reviewed in art periodicals
are women.[4]
- Women artists' income is 30% that
of male artists'.[4]
- 30% of Guggenheim grants go to women.[7]
- 42% of $5,000 NEA grants go to women.[7]
- 33% of $10,000 NEA grants go to women.[7]
- 29% of $15,000 NEA grants go to women.[7]
- 25% of $25,000 NEA grants go to women.[7]
- Of the art commissioned by the Department
of Cultural Affairs Percent for Art Program in New York City,
70% have been artists of color, 41% women, 39% of the 41%
women of color.[9]
- Of the 1992 New York Foundation for
the Arts awards given, women received 53.4%, men received
46.6%.[10]
- Of the world's top 200 collectors,
approximately 128 are male, 52 are male-female couples, and
20 are female.[8]
- 7 of 36 one-person museum exhibitions
in the 1991-92 New York season were by women.[5]
SOURCES
[1] 1990 Statistical Abstract of the United States.
[2] Eleanor Dickenson, "Gender Discrimination in the Art
World," paper prepared for the College Art Association, Coalition
of Women, Februarv 15,1990, New York.
[3] U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education
Statistics, 1989-90.
[4] Devorab L Knoff, unpublished manuscript.
[5] Art in America 1991-92.
[6] Guerrilla Girls poster, New York, 1991.
[7] Women's Caucus for Art, Moore College of Art Fact Sheet,
citing Rosentt Browes, 1989.
[8] Artnews, cover article, Januarv 1992, pp.79-91.
[9] Department of Cultural Affairs, Percent for Art, 1992.
[10] New York Foundation for the Arts. 1992.
Women
& Prison
Women in prison are:
Young: 75% are between
the ages of 25 and 34
Low Income: 50% lived
below the poverty line and were unemployed when arrested
Women of Color: African-American
women are 8 times more likely to receive jail sentences than European-American
women. In California, the state with the largest population of
women in prison, 46% are African American and 30% are Latina.
Mothers: 78% are
mothers of dependent children
Non Violent Offenders:
75% for non-violent offenses
Survivors of domestic
or sexual abuse: Between 48% and 80% have suffered from sexual
abuse or abusive intimate relationships
Victims of Substance
Abuse: 90% have a history of drug and/or alcohol abuse. The
main reason for the high increase in imprisonment of women is
the ‘war on drugs’
Mentally ill: Due
to insufficient mental health services in the community, massive
incarceration of drug addicted women, the stresses of incarceration
including sexual abuse by guards.
-
Approximately 138,000
women are incarcerated in US jails and prisons.
The number of US women
inmates has more than tripled since 1985.
-
About 40% of women
in prison violated drug laws. About 25% are in prison for
committing a violent crime.
-
Around 200,000 children
under the age of 18 have an incarcerated mother.
80,000 women in US
prisons and jails are parents, many are single parents.
1,300 babies were
born to women in prison in 1997-98 and more than 2,200 pregnant
women were incarcerated.
-
In 1996, only 47%
of women received a medical exam to determine their health
status after being admitted to prison
-
There are 138,000
women in state and federal prisons. In federal women’s correctional
facilities, 70% of guards are male.
-
In 1994, the National
Institute of Corrections stated that provision of gynecological
services for women in prison is inadequate. Only half of
the state prison systems surveyed offer female-specific
services such as mammograms and Pap smears, and it is not
known how long an inmate must wait to be seen.
-
The number of prisoners
with histories of drug abuse is growing but the proportion
of prisoners receiving treatment declined from 40% in 1991
to 18% in 1997
-
Incarcerated women
in U.S. prisons often suffer punishment far in excess of
their state imposed sentence. At the hands of correctional
officers they face widespread sexual abuse ranging from
unauthorized body frisks to rape.
-
Thirteen states offer
no legal protections for women against sexual molestation
and abuse: The following states have no law: Alabama; Kentucky;
Minnesota; Oregon; Utah; Vermont; Wisconsin The following
states have enacted laws since March 4, 1999: Massachusetts;
Montana; Nebraska; Virginia; Washington; West Virginia --Amnesty
International
-
An African American
woman is eight times more likely than a European American
woman to be imprisoned; Latina women experience nearly four
times the rates of incarceration as European American women.
--National Law Journal November 2, 1998
-
From 1986 to 1996 the
number of women sentenced to state prison for drug crimes
increased tenfold. Nationally one in three women in prison
and one in four women in jail are incarcerated for violating
a drug law. --Prisoners in 1997, Department of Justice,
Bureau of Justice Statistics
-
Among those arrested
for violent crimes the proportion who are African American
have changed little. Among those arrested for drug offenses,
the proportion who are African American has tripled. The
number of women sentenced to a year or more of prison has
grown twelvefold since 1970. --Atlantic Monthly, Dec.
1998.
-
Jurors in the US were
polled as to what factors would make them most biased against
a defendant, and perceived sexual orientation was chosen
as the most likely personal characteristic to bias a juror
against a defendant, three times greater than race.
--National Law Journal November 2, 1998
In the past decade, the
female prison population has grown by 202%, the male by 112%.[1]
-
There are 17 times
more men than women in prison.[3]
-
73% of women in
prison are under 30 years of age.[2]
-
66% of women in
prison were unemployed before incarceration.[2]
-
92% of women in
prison had less than a $10,000 yearly income.[2]
-
58% of women in
prison have less than a 12th-grade education.[2]
-
54% of women in
prison are women of color.[2]
-
Over 80% of women
in prison are mothers.[2]
-
1 in 4 women entering
prison is pregnant or has recently given birth.[3]
-
The percentage
of women who give birth while in prison has been estimated
at 9%. However, the thousands of statistics published
by the U.S. Department of Justice include no information
on prison births.[9]
-
New York is the
only state that allows infants to stay in a prison nursery
with their mothers.[9]
-
In the U.S. there
are 48,000 women in state and federal prisons and another
42,000 in city and county jails, totaling 90,000 women
in prison.[8]
-
The imprisonment
of women has left an estimated 167,000 children without
mothers.[8]
-
Women in prisons
and jails are diagnosed with HIV infection at twice the
rate of their male counterparts.[10]
-
Of the women incarcerated
in New York, 80% are mothers, 80% have substance abuse
problems, 30% are homeless, and over 25% are HIV positive.[10]
-
Doctors are available
to women in prison 2 days a week versus 5 days a week
for men.[2]
-
5-10% of women
in prison have VD or gynecological problems, though there
are no gynecologists available for female inmates.[2]
-
The federal prison
system's only hospital for women, in Lexington, Kentucky,
does not employ a full-time obstetrician-gynecologist.[3]
-
Mood-altering drugs
are prescribed 2-3 times more often for women in prison
than for men.[2]
-
Prison terms for
killing husbands is twice as long as for killing wives.[6]
-
60% of all women
in federal prisons have been convicted of drug-related
offenses. Estimates of the number that are indirectly
drug related are 95%.[3]
-
64% of women in
prison are drug users, and 68% of these used drugs daily
before incarceration.[2]
-
One study found
that 93% of the women who had killed their mates had been
battered by them; 67% indicated the homicide resulted
from an attempt to protect themselves and their children.[2]
-
Of 2,589 death-row
inmates in the U.S., 41 are women, and over a third of
the women are lesbians.[7]
-
10% of street gangs
are girls; there are an estimated 7,000 girl gang members
in the U.S.[5]
SOURCES
[1] "An Unequal Justice," New York Times, July 10,
1992
[2] National Coalition for Jail Reform, Washington
D.C.
[3] "Women: The Road Ahead," Time, Special
Issue, Fall 1990
[4] U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Statistics,
1988
[5] Anne Campbe3ll, "The Girl in the Gang," cited
in June Stephenson, Men Are Not Cost Effective: Male Crime
in America, Diemer Smith Publishing, 1991
[6] "20/20," ABC-TV, August 4, 1992
[7] "Dykes on Death Row," Village Voice, October
5, 1992
[8] "U.S. Prisons Challenged by women behind Bars,"
New York Times, November 30, 1992
[9] Jean Harris, "The Babies of Bedford," New York
Times Magazine, March 28, 1993
[10] "Hoppier Home," Women's Prison Association,
New York, 1992.
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