Women Losing Economic and Political Ground

[Triana]

Women Losing Economic and Political Ground
By Martha Burk, TomPaine.com
Posted on July 27, 2006, Printed on July 30, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/39593/

Summer isn't over yet, but the heat on women is already at full blast. Catalyst, one of the top research organizations on the status of women in corporate America, reports this week that females are losing ground in the top echelons of the Fortune 500. Growth in female-held positions has fallen dramatically in the past three years. The National Women's Law Center tells us that female degrees in math and computer science are way down. In what looks like a "back to the '50s move," Gov. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan signed a bill last week allowing the return of single-sex schools in her state. All abortions were outlawed in South Dakota this spring, setting up a challenge to Roe v. Wade that has a good chance of succeeding in a Roberts Court.

...

... The ongoing losses are the culmination of 20-plus years of conservative influence in the public square. Thanks to well-funded and well-placed right-wing think tank policy papers and their media machines shaping public opinion and influencing legislatures at all levels, we're losing ground and fighting hard just to keep the ideals of women's equality in the public debate. Popular mythology is all about women fleeing the workplace and the marketplace of ideas for hearth and home - just read The New York Times and countless copycats touting the exodus.

...

Thanks to Title IX, we have achieved parity with men in college degrees, but female enrollment is down in business schools, and there has been a 28 percent decline since 1984 in women getting science and math degrees. The Bush administration continues to weaken Title IX through rule changes - a major change to Title IX policy now allows schools to force girls, but not boys, to prove that they are interested in participating in sports before they are given the chance to play.

While we gained the right to seek any job with those early victories, we're still lagging 24 cents on the dollar behind men in overall pay and that gap is not budging. We've already seen that the glass ceiling is not about to shatter as many hoped - it's in fact getting thicker. And if the Roberts court rules in favor of Wal-Mart in the largest sex discrimination suit in history - currently making its way through lower courts - laws protecting employment rights will be effectively gutted.

Our right to control our reproductive lives - hard fought all the way to the Supreme Court in 1973 - is now one case away from being overturned. Don't look to Anthony Kennedy to save us from a Bush created anti-abortion majority. The so-called new Sandra Day O'Connor swing vote, he has a record of limiting reproductive rights while appearing moderate.

Adult women are still the majority of those working for minimum wage, stuck at $5.15 an hour since 1997. There are 62 minimum wage bills on Capitol Hill that the Republicans won't even hear in committee.

We have universal health care for retirees, but women over 65 are the largest group living in poverty. That hasn't stopped President Bush from pushing cuts to food, housing and medical care for the elderly.

[cornermouse]

1. Your last two paragraphs are part of the "Leave no Blue-haired

Granny Behind" policy.

[Triana]

2. Yea...and unfortunately

that policy has always existed and has gotten much worse with bu$hit&co. Women - older women particularly - are just 'out to pasture' in every sense of the word.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[blonndee]

4. And once again: SPAM. Why don't you actually respond

to individual posts with some thought instead of the exact same propaganda over and over?