Author: Sharon Levin

Ledbetter Act doesn't solve the problem of fair pay. That's up to us.

Posted on by Sharon Levin

Last week, President Obama signed his very first bill and it was on a key economic issue for women – fair pay.  What a wonderful and symbolic way to start the new Administration.  I am thrilled by all of this.

But, I have to admit that I do have some concerns about our next steps in the fight for equal pay for equal work .

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act reverses a Supreme Court decision from 2007 that ignored decades of legal precedent and closed the courts to women and minorities seeking redress from employees who had discriminated against them. (Please note, in Ledbetter’s case, a lower court found that she had – in fact – been discriminated against. The Supreme Court didn’t disagree with that fact; it just disagreed about when she should have filed the case.)

There are a lot of things to celebrate about the President’s signing of the Ledbetter bill:

  • It signals to the country that discrimination against women and any type of wage discrimination will be taken seriously by the Administration.
  • It tells the nation that the President understands the concerns of working women and their families and that he is on our side.
  • It proves a political theory that I have long believed to be true. Most polls show that fair pay is a top issue for women. Many of us have said that if we can show that government can make a difference in this area, women will vote based on it. President Obama campaigned with Lilly Ledbetter and made this a signature issue of his campaign. And, as we know, many more women voted for him than voted for McCain.
  • As a legal matter, the Supreme Court’s 2007 decision needed to be fixed and the law needed to be returned to the pre-2007 standard if our anti-discrimination laws were to have any teeth.

So, why do I have concerns?

We must remember that this bill does not move us forward in our fight for fair wages. It – very necessarily – bring us back to where we were two years ago. And, in 2007, we had not made any real dents in the wage gap for 20 years.

We still have a lot of work to do.

My fear is that – as so often happens in our media age of sound bites – the message that people will take from the press coverage of the bill signing is that this new law solves the problem of the wage gap completely.

It doesn’t.

I am also concerned that when we turn to Congress to address the “nitty gritty” of dealing with the wage gap, they will say, “We’ve already done something on equal pay. You’ve had your day and we have other issues to address.”

And, my final worry is that the tremendous political support for fair wages that was created during the campaign will dissipate now that the Ledbetter bill has been passed.

Now, while public attention is still on the wage gap, we have to start building the case for the measures that are needed to really bring men’s and women’s wages into equity: we need women to be able move from the lowest paying jobs to jobs that allow them to support their families; we need laws that support work-family balance so that working moms are not penalized at the office; and, we need employers to bring transparency to the wages that they pay so that their employees will know if they are being treated unfairly.

I thank President Obama for making fair pay the focus of his first bill signing.  And, I salute Lilly Ledbetter for her tremendous courage and effort to make sure other women don’t face the same discrimination that she did.

We must take advantage of the opportunity that they have given us to really create a public conversation on the wage gap.  To do anything less would be a failure to honor both of their work.

Sharon Levin is The Women’s Foundation’s director of  policy advocacy.

Good news for working women!

Posted on by Sharon Levin

On Friday, the House of Representatives passed two bills that would greatly improve the ability of women and other employees to bring claims of wage discrimination. President-Elect Obama has said that he would like to sign the bills — the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act — in his first days in office. So, if the Senate moves quickly to pass both bills we could take an important step towards pay equity in the next few weeks.

The provisions of the bills include:

  • The correction of a Supreme Court decision that incorrectly bars many (if not most) wage discrimination cases from being heard in Court;
  • An increase in the remedies available to women who win wage discrimination suits and the easing of rules that allow women to bring class actions;
  • Procedures to bring greater attention to model employers so that others can emulate “best practices;”’ and,
  • A prohibition of employer retaliation against those who file wage discrimination cases.

Women still only earn 78 cents for every dollar earned by men.

The passage of these laws will allow women who have been paid less than they are worth to seek justice.

You can help to have these two bills passed quickly by contacting your Senators and urging them to support both the Ledbetter and the Paycheck Fairness Acts.  You can reach them at www.senate.gov or 202.224.3121.

Think about what a great way this would be to start the New Year!

Sharon Levin is The Women’s Foundation’s Director of Policy Advocacy.

Conversation on poverty in Montgomery County generates more than just talk.

Posted on by Sharon Levin

Last week, I was one of the lucky people who participated in the “Conversation on Poverty in Montgomery County” that Rebecca Wagner, Executive Director of Interfaith Works, blogged about last week.

The session that I attended was wonderful.

The room was filled with a cross-section of the Montgomery County community — concerned citizens, religious leaders, government representatives, philanthropists, advocates, direct service providers–the list goes on. And, everyone was committed to having a very serious conversation about poverty in Montgomery County.

Now, I must make a confession. Generally, I am not a big fan of facilitated meetings like this. Far too often, they consist of hours of talk that often veer off subject and lead to nothing happening.

And a year later, we have the same meeting and the same discussion again.

The conversation that Rebecca organized was just the opposite.

I participated in in-depth discussions about the challenges of bringing attention to the needs of the poor in Montgomery County when the public perception is that there isn’t much poverty in the County because it is so wealthy.

Sadly, the fact is that there are tens of thousands of people living below the federal poverty line in Montgomery County. And, because the cost of living in the County is so high, there are even more people who live there but cannot afford to support themselves and their families.

In addition, the County is very large and its population is very diverse (we tend to forget that there are still farms in Montgomery County), which poses unique obstacles to providing services that are accessible and appropriate. And, the demographic make-up of the County has been changing rapidly, which makes it hard for service-providers to keep up with the need.

The great news is that these Conversations have accomplished Interfaith Works’ goal – as a result of these convenings, other meetings are going to be held.

Most notably, the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services is going to host a meeting on October 10th to discuss an agenda to address these problems. For more information about this meeting, please contact Diana Day at the County HHS.

Here at The Women’s Foundation, this conversation feeds into our work in many ways.  It sets the stage for some meetings we will be holding on women and poverty later this year. It informs us of the needs in the County as we formulate our funding priorities for the next year.  And, it gives us the opportunity to learn about the work being done by nonprofits that we may not have worked with yet.

All in all, the Conversation on Poverty was a true success.

Sharon Levin is The Women’s Foundation’s Director of Policy Advocacy.

Celebrate Women's Equality Day by calling on candidates to make equality a reality.

Posted on by Sharon Levin

Today is Women’s Equality Day – the anniversary of the day that women finally won the right to vote in 1920.  In a year when a woman was a serious contender for the Presidency and another woman is Speaker of the House, we should take a moment to celebrate how much has changed thanks to the work and sacrifices of the suffragettes.

But when that moment is over, we need to start having a serious conversation about how far things still have to go.

Ironically, today is also the day that the Census Bureau releases the annual poverty statistics. It spells out just how unequal things still are for women when it comes to dollars and cents.

Single-women headed families are still far more likely to be in poverty than families headed by married-couples or single men.  More than 28 percent of families headed by a woman live in poverty.  In fact, of the 7.6 million families living in poverty, 4.1 million (well over half) are headed by single-women.

This has consequences not only for the women themselves, but for their children as well.  Between 2006 and 2007, the poverty rate for children increased. And, children living in women-headed families are far more likely to be poor. Forty-three percent of children under 18 living with a single mother were living in poverty and 54 percent of children under six living with a single mother were living in poverty as well.

What is one of the major reasons that women are poorer than men?

The fact is that women still earn less than men. In 2007, women earned 78 cents for every dollar earned by a man. 

This is the smallest the wage gap has ever been in history. So, let’s recognize it for what it is – a small step in the right direction.  But, it is a very small step. The reality is that the wage gap has barely increased in the past 20 years.  In 1983, the wage gap was 19.9 percent.  Today it is 22 cents.

So, to honor Women’s Equality Day, every person reading this blog should go out and demand that all candidates for office champion laws and programs that will assist women to have jobs that pay enough that they can support their families.  We need bold leaders if we are going to address the big issues like the wage gap and the poverty rate for women.

I know that The Women’s Foundation community is filled with the strong, visionary women that we need to get this job done.

Sharon Levin is The Women’s Foundation’s Director of Major Events and Policy Advocacy.

Working with other women's funds to increase our impact on the lives of women and girls.

Posted on by Sharon Levin

I hope you all have had a chance to read Phyllis’ commentary in the Spotlight on Poverty.

I am one of the staff here at The Women’s Foundation working on the Women’s Economic Security Collaborative (WESC) and I think it is a very exciting project.  We have the opportunity to really help low-income women and their families throughout the country by bringing greater attention to the issue and the policies that affect it.

One of the things that I love about this project is that I get to work with some of the other really incredible women’s foundations from other cities. Our partners are The Women’s Foundation of California, the Chicago Foundation for Women and the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis.

Already, we are learning so much from one and other – and I think the fact that we will be able to meld all of our experience and focus it on one common goal makes the WESC a very powerful group. Also, it gives Washington Area Women’s Foundation the opportunity to take the best of our partners’ work and use it here in the Washington metropolitan area.

I want to share with you just a few of the great projects that our collaborators are working on:

  • The Women’s Foundation for Greater Memphis is the only women’s foundation in the nation to lead the fundraising for a Department of Housing and Urban Development HOPE IV project (these projects provide funds to revitalize some of the country’s most distressed housing projects). In Memphis, the women’s foundation has partnered with the Memphis Housing Authority to redevelop two of the largest public housing developments in Memphis and to provide comprehensive community support services.
  • In Illinois, the Chicago Women’s Foundation has launched a state-wide public awareness campaign to address domestic violence called “What Will It Take”. Their goal is to end the abuse of women and girls, and they have used a wide-range of tools– including town-hall meetings, PSA’s, an action packet, concerts and more- to educate and involve the people of Illinois.
  • The Women’s Foundation of California houses The Women’s Policy Institute – the only project in the nation of its kind. It is a year-long program for community leaders in California that combines advocacy training sessions and actual work to develop and implement policy advocacy projects. Thus, the Institute meets the twin goals of increasing the number of women’s advocates in the state and increasing the number of policies that reflect the needs and realities of low-income women and their families.

And, of course, our partners are learning from us as well. In fact, the Stepping Stones Initiative’s success in helping single-women low-income families increase their financial independence is not only influencing the work of our partners, but of many other women’s foundation around the country as well (including Colorado, Maine and the Nokomis Foundation to name a few).

Over the next year, we will be working locally with Grantee Partners, poverty experts, policymakers, women throughout our region and other key stakeholders to review the local landscape and to discuss ways to improve policies that impact low-income women – including the use of a Poverty Impact Statement.

Then, we will meet with our partners in the WESC so that we can all share what we have learned in our communities and what we have learned nationally. Our goal is that, by working together, we can each exponentially increase our knowledge and our ability so that we can have a deeper impact on the lives of women and girls at home.

I think we will.

Sharon Levin is The Women’s Foundation’s Director of Major Events and Policy Advocacy. 

Casa de Maryland leads efforts resulting in unprecedented law protecting domestic workers.

Posted on by Sharon Levin

The Women’s Foundation congratulates Casa de Maryland on its victory Tuesday before the Montgomery County Council, when the Council unanimously approved a bill that will provide new legal protections for domestic workers.

This bill is believed to be the first legislation nationally of its kind.

The Washington Post covered the back story that led to this tremendous advocacy effort here.

With support from The Women’s Foundation, CASA led the advocacy efforts for this breakthrough legislation for women who work in other people’s homes.

As CASA’s Alexis De Simone noted, “The nannies, housekeepers, and elder companions who keep our homes and our families safe and secure are routinely denied overtime pay, minimum wage, sick days, and health insurance. They work in isolation, and are in some cases forbidden to interact with the outside world. Many are physically, sexually, and verbally abused.”

Thanks to a four year campaign by CASA and their coalition partners, these employees will no longer be so vulnerable.

The bill requires an employer to present the domestic worker written notice of their legal rights guaranteed under state law and a written contract specifying the terms and conditions of employment. Support for this policy was strengthened after the County Council released a 2006 report that found that domestic workers often did not know their rights – a fact that often resulted in their being paid less than the minimum wage or not receiving overtime pay.

The bill also requires that live-in domestic workers have a separate bedroom with a door that can be locked, and reasonable access to a kitchen, bathroom and laundry facility. In addition, the bill prohibits retaliation against a domestic worker who requests a written contract, attempts to enforce the terms of a contract, files a complaint or participates in an investigation of a complaint.

County Executive Isiah Leggett has said that he will sign the bill. That could happen as early as tomorrow, and then the bill would go into effect in 180 days.

Sharon Levin is The Women’s Foundation’s Director of Major Events and Policy Advocacy.  Casa de Maryland is a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation.

Join in helping make the Washington metro area healthier for women.

Posted on by Sharon Levin

Last week was National Women’s Health Week.  It seems like an appropriate time to talk about the very real health needs that exist in the Washington metropolitan area and the wonderful work our Grantee Partners do to address them.  Also, at the end of this blog I’ve included a link to a new resource that you can use to advocate on behalf of women’s health.

Despite the presence of some of the nation’s best hospitals, our region still lags behind the rest of the United States in several critical areas of women’s health. For example, women in Washington, D.C. have the worst life expectancy of any state in the U.S. – and Maryland (ranked 40 out of 51) and Virginia (ranked 31 out of 51) don’t fare much better.

D.C. also has the worst AIDS rate for women, and again Maryland (ranked 50 out of 51) and Virginia (ranked 32 out of 51) are also at the bottom of the list.

The District also has one of the highest rates of people living in a medically underserved area; Maryland has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the country; and Virginia has one of the highest rates of bad blood pressure.

Here are just a few examples of our Grantee Partner’s projects that address a wide range of health issues for women and girls:

Children’s National Medical Center: Girls Teen Life Clubs
Teen Life Clubs is Children’s year-long health education, empowerment program for 11-14 year old adolescents, who live in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Separate clubs exist for girls and boys.

Friends of Guest House
Friends of Guest House was founded to provide a temporary house for women charged with or convicted of a criminal offense who are in the need of basic human services to facilitate their new start in life and adjustments to the community at large. These services include individual & group counseling and medical services.

Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care
Established in 1988 with funding from the District of Columbia Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs(OLA) and the Department of Health (DOH), Mary’s Center addressed the demand for bilingual services to pregnant women and their infants in predominantly Latino areas of Ward One. Today, it serves multicultural populations throughout the metro Washington, D.C. region, serving individuals and families who have limited or no access to health-related services.

Women Empowered Against Violence
WEAVE works closely with adult and teen survivors of relationship violence and abuse, providing an innovative range of legal, counseling, economic and educational services that leads survivors to utilize their inner and community resources, achieve safety for themselves and their children and live empowered lives.

And, of course, all of our Leadership Award-Winning Grantee Partners this year focus on health and safety as well.
Ascensions Community Services
A Wider Circle
DC Abortion Fund
Divine Images Network
Fair Fund
Nueva Vida
Pregnancy Aid Centers
The Women’s Collective

If you would like to get more involved in advocating on behalf of women’s health, the National Women’s Law Center has just launched Reform Matters: Making Real Progress for Women and Health Care. This is a new project aimed at encouraging women to be active and vocal advocates in the fight for progressive health care reform and giving them the tools to do so

Today, (un)celebrate (not so) Equal Pay Day!

Posted on by Sharon Levin

Today is Equal Pay Day.

This day signifies the fact that it takes women almost 16 months to earn what men earn in 12.  Women still only earn about 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, and the wage gap worsens for women of color.

In fact, the wage gap has remained at basically the same level for the past 20 years.  A large part of the reason for this is that women tend to work in lower paying jobs than men and in lower paying industries.

Every day at The Women’s Foundation, we are fighting these systemic reasons for the differences in men’s and women’s earnings.  Here are just a few examples:

  • We support programs that allow women to move Into higher paying jobs.  Through Stepping Stones, we support job-training programs that prepare women to get jobs with salaries that are high enough to support a family. These are often jobs that have traditionally been held by men. For example, Washington Area Women in the Trades provides non-traditional employment training for homeless and low-income women. They estimate that in five years, more than 3,000 women will be provided assistance and more than 400 graduates will be prepared for high-skill/ high-wage jobs in our community.
  • We support programs that ensure that women-dominated fields have better salaries and benefits.  Historically, jobs that have been traditionally held by women (like teachers and nurses) have earned lower salaries than jobs held by men. Our Grantee Partners, like CASA of Maryland, work to fight this historical bias and to ensure that jobs that are held primarily by women earn better salaries. For example, CASA of Maryland has a program to get better wages for domestic workers and to make sure that they get employment benefits as well.
  • We support efforts that make sure that minimum-wage earners (who are disproportionately women) have a living wage. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women are the majority of minimum wage earners. DC Employment Justice Center, a Grantee Partner, was a core member of the D.C. Living Wage Coalition that successfully advocated for legislation that provided a living wage of $11.75 for workers employed by companies with contracts with the D.C. government.  It is estimated that this change will collectively increase women’s wages in the Washington metropolitan area by $7.5 million.

When you support The Women’s Foundation – by volunteering with us, by making a donation, by being a part of our community – you are supporting our efforts to increase women’s salaries and to take down the barriers that keep women from earning as much as their male colleagues.

Joining us in our efforts is a pretty terrific way to honor Equal Pay Day.

Powerful testimony on poverty inspires hope for positive change in D.C.

Posted on by Sharon Levin

Last week, Washington Area Women’s Foundation and several of our Grantee Partners testified at an incredible DC City Council Roundtable Hearing called “Poverty Issues: Developing a Public/Private Strategy Aimed at Eliminating Poverty Among District Residents.”

I was truly impressed by the commitment to addressing poverty in our community that was apparent at this hearing. More than 100 people signed up to be witnesses – in fact, such a large number of people wanted to testify that the hearing had to be extended from one to two days!

Witnesses came from every corner of the District and from every segment of the anti-poverty community – funders (like The Women’s Foundation), academics, researchers, clergy, tenant association members, businesspeople…the list goes on.

The most moving testimony, though, came from those who provide services directly to the city’s low-income population (like our Grantee Partners) and the individuals who came forward to discuss how these programs helped them to move from poverty to financial independence. I am in awe of the bravery of the women and men who testified on the record (and on cable TV) about their very personal trials.

Among those Grantee Partners who testified: Capital Area Asset Builders, Covenant House Washington, DC Employment Justice Center, DC Women’s Agenda, Empower DC, MANNA Inc., Marshall Heights Community Development Organization, Inc., My Sister’s Place, Inc., the Rebecca Project for Human Rights, So Others Might Eat and Wider Opportunities for Women.

The commitment of the Members of the Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs is also to be commended. Chairman Marion Barry and Council Members Yvette Alexander, Muriel Bowser and Tommy Wells were all present for a significant portion of the two days of hearings.  As somebody who has worked for two Members of Congress, I can tell you that that is an exceptional amount of time to dedicate to one hearing.  All of the Councilmembers carefully listened to each of the witnesses and asked thoughtful questions of each – all 100-plus of them.

The question now, of course, is what happens next.  Councilman Barry has stated that he plans to create a concrete policy agenda to address poverty in D.C.  Hopefully, this effort will lead to the creation of, and additional funding for, effective programs that help low-income people acquire the tools they need to provide for themselves and their families. To that end, The Women’s Foundation will continue to offer our expertise.

I have to say, though, that regardless of what laws eventually get passed, I think the Roundtable Hearing had a purpose unto itself (and you cannot say that about every hearing that is held before the City Council). Experts had the chance to educate the Committee about the parameters of poverty in D.C. Anti-poverty organizations were able to discuss their programs directly with Councilmembers – and I saw several meetings being set up so that Councilmembers could follow-up on the testimony.

Most importantly, the hearing gave a voice to so many people who are often voiceless in Washington. It is a powerful thing to command the attention of lawmakers. It was inspiring to see that power handed to those who must need it.

To check out video of the testimony of The Women’s Foundation, its Grantee Partners and others, click here.  These hearings took place on January 16th before the Housing Committee, and on January 17th before the Housing Committee.

To read The Women’s Foundation’s testimony:
Short version
Extended version