Tag: gender pay gap
Breaking the Code of Independence: A Spinster’s Rich Life

Breaking the Code of Independence: A Spinster’s Rich Life

The tiny red country cottage in Georgetown, Washington’s oldest and toniest neighborhood, belonged to a code-breaking spinster who lived to 94.

I mean that word as a badge of honor for America’s top Soviet codebreaker in the Cold War. And much more, according to The Washington Post. Ann Z. Caracristi, who lived there for 65 years, rose to deputy director of the National Security Agency. She advised President Clinton on foreign intelligence.

Sadly, “spinster” gets a bad rap. But not today on 28th Street, northwest, near the breezy blue Potomac River. Curious neighbors squeezed inside a Sunday open house to see what it was like beyond the friendly little fence.

To the community, the bright red house was a shared storybook they had walked by for years and years. Its constancy was a comfort in a city ruled by cycles.

Caracristi’s dollhouse walls, held up with pre-Revolutionary ceiling beams, spoke of a life lived large and full, complete on the winter day she died.

If those walls could talk, maybe they’d tell that unmarried women are a rising force in society, as a brand-new book, “All the Single Ladies” by Rebecca Traister, points out. Watch out.

Let Caracristi’s life speak to an arc of independence. Contrary to popular myth, it’s no tragedy. They say single women are often happier.

Then and now, Washington is an excellent place for capable single women to converge and work in the federal government, especially in wartime. To this day, Washington ranks as the third best state for closing the gender wage gap, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found. Come hither!

Caracristi’s brilliant career shines a light on this, for the young cryptanalyst hit the waves just right. She graduated from college in 1942, in the churn of World War II, and went straight to work for the secretive agency, then called the Signal Intelligence Service. The Post reports she first worked on breaking Japanese shipping codes.

The nation’s capital was exhilarating with working women like her, who kept the homefront war going. On the nation’s waterfronts and in factories, Rosie the Riveter was a symbol of all the women who did heavy work, building airplanes, ships and munitions.

It happens every time. The classic demographic shift is that women thrive in the workplace when men are called to mobilize on land or sea. The military relies on women, too, such as the Navy WAVES in World War II, yet it may forget to honor them with burial at Arlington. This is a source of angst for families, a couple generations down.

And the high wage-earning Rosies got laid off when the winning soldiers and sailors came home. In 1946, after being shooed out of their jobs, these women were pressed to marry fast. What could be better than suburban domesticity at the end of every female quest?

Thus the post-war baby boomers were born, like Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. They were not an easy lot.

Caracristi was a character who liked her own company. You could just tell, since her spirit dwelled there still in her own solitude. The heart of the house remained intact, with her furnishings: lamps, rugs, art, bed, books, mirrors. It seemed she had left to go to the corner store.

The house is up for sale with all her stuff — less than $900,000 for a precious part of our past. Included: a feel for the dignity of living free and single.

Speaking strictly for me, I wanted to move in and curl up by the fireplace, with “1721” faintly etched in stone. An English sea captain is believed to be the original owner. I’ve always been an Anglophile. And I am a single woman.

The scale of the narrow winding stairs, the cozy bedroom and the sunny garden off the kitchen was perfect for flying solo. The fireplace was dressed up with a pewter collection and framed by the lady’s own library of books. All that was missing was the cat.

Once I was married — to a lawyer in London. On the British marriage certificate, I was listed as a “spinster.” Ironic. Maybe I am again.

If so, I am in excellent company.

To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit Creators.com.

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Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Meet The New Campaign To Pressure Both Parties On Women’s Economic Concerns

Meet The New Campaign To Pressure Both Parties On Women’s Economic Concerns

Tuesday marks the launch of Make It Work, a three-year, non-profit campaign that hopes to call attention to women’s economic security — or, one may argue, insecurity.

Make It Work is specifically focused on the economic inequality experienced by women, which the organizers believe is too often ignored or forgotten in broader discussions of income and wealth inequality.

Vivien Labaton, co-director of the campaign, explained to TheNational Memo that as more women graduate college — at increasingly higher rates than their male counterparts — and take on the role of breadwinner in the home, the gender wealth gap may be easily overlooked. Make It Work seeks to remedy this by seizing upon the opportunity that the 2014 midterm elections and 2016 presidential election present for women: a chance for them to use their “highly coveted votes” as a means of ensuring that candidates answer for the economic concerns that plague women’s lives and threaten their economic security.

Considering that women account for approximately two-thirds of all minimum-wage workers in the United States, candidates from either party could suffer by ignoring the reality that wealth inequality and gender pay gaps disproportionately impact women. Through online ads and on-the-ground organizing tactics in three soon-to-be announced targeted states, Make It Work will push the message that any candidate who addresses these issues deserves women’s support during election season.

The campaign is avoiding overt partisanship, but Democrats presently stand to gain more from the movement than their Republican opponents. Because the issues at hand require remedies that exist only through policy reform and legislative action, and Make It Work’s strategy relies heavily on the influence of women’s votes in political elections, an absolute divorce from party politics seems impossible.

Women’s votes could determine whether Democrats retain control over the Senate in 2015. Women now make up 53 percent of the electorate, and in the 2012 presidential election, 55 percent voted for President Barack Obama. The 2012 presidential election also saw an increase in unmarried female voters, to 25 percent of the electorate; nearly tw0-thirds of them voted for Obama. Democrats will need to keep those numbers high to compete in competitive midterm races.

Both parties recognize the weight of women’s votes — but they have considerably different approaches as they attempt to appeal to women. Facing the accusation that they have waged a war on women, Republicans have backed away from specific women’s issues and focused more on merely disputing the claim that said war exists — or at least that they are waging it.

The dialogue among elected Democrats goes deeper. In an effort to mobilize voters of both genders, Democrats have focused on income inequality and introduced legislative initiatives — like a minimum-wage hike — to tackle this challenge. Democrats — including the president — have also assumed the role of outspoken defenders of women’s economic rights, explicitly tying wealth and income inequality to gender discrimination and the gender pay gap. With legislative proposals like the Paycheck Fairness Act — a bill that would, among other things, allow women to fight for fair and equal pay — Democrats are confronting women’s issues far more directly than Republicans. Whether this earns them Make It Work’s support remains to be seen.

Even if it does, Democratic candidates — especially those in red states — will face an uphill battle. The issues most important to most Americans — and, specifically, women — are those that influence and shape the Democratic Party’s platform, and yet these positions are often distracted from and distorted.

Wealth inequality and women’s economic security can define the next few months or even the next years, but only if men and women force candidates to answer to the unequal economic realities of so many Americans in order to win an election.

As Labaton puts it, this is not a “persuasion challenge,” but rather an “activation challenge.”

Yet she remains hopeful. “We know the potential is huge,” she says.

Photo: Sarahstierch via Flickr

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RNC Reaches Out To Women (Again)

RNC Reaches Out To Women (Again)

The Republican Party has a problem with women, and it knows it.

President Obama won female voters decisively in 2012, and recent polls suggest that Democrats are maintaining that edge (a CNN/ORC survey from February, for example, found that 59 percent of women say the GOP does not understand them). Meanwhile, various Republican politicians — including at least one genuine presidential contender — seem unwilling or unable to stop saying things that confirm these voters’ worst fears. Worse yet, Republicans in Congress are using their votes to block legislation addressing topics that motivate women, such as closing the gender pay gap and raising the minimum wage.

In an effort to turn the tide, on Monday the Republican National Committee announced its latest effort to reach out to women: a new program that would solicit women to volunteer 30 minutes per week in the 14 weeks before Election Day. The Associated Press reports:

The Republican National Committee plans to [introduce] a new initiative, “14 in ’14,” to recruit and train women under age 40 to help spread the party’s message in the final 14 weeks of the campaign.

Representatives from all the party committees — the RNC and those supporting GOP candidates for Senate, House, governors and state legislators — meet regularly to plan strategy and advise candidates.

They are encouraging candidates to include their wives and daughters in campaign ads, have women at their events and build a Facebook-like internal database of women willing to campaign on their behalf.

To recap: One week ago, House Republicans were accusing Democrats of “politicizing women” and using them as “pawns” by introducing legislation that would address the gender pay gap. Today, the RNC’s official advice to Republican candidates is to put their wives and daughters in campaign ads.

In fairness, that’s not all that Republicans hope to do; the AP further clarifies that they intend to attack the White House’s own gender pay gap (a very questionable political play), and accuse the Obama administration of supporting cuts to Medicare — presumably without mentioning the Ryan budget.

The 14 in ’14 plan is just the latest in a series of dubious RNC attempts to shore up Republicans’ numbers with women. First, there was the “Growth and Opportunity Project,” which has fallen miles short of its goal of “developing a forward-leaning vision for voting Republican that appeals to women.”

Then there was Project GROW, an intiative to recruit Republican women to run for office (which fell completely flat, leaving the GOP with even fewer female candidates than before).

Now there’s 14 in ’14, which seems destined for failure as well. The reason is simple: Women aren’t turning away from the GOP because of insufficient outreach, or poor messaging (although that certainly doesn’t help). They are turning away because the GOP platform would actively harm them.

A recent report from Democracy Corps and Women’s Voices Women Vote Action Fund identified (through surveys and focus groups) a number of policies that would motivate unmarried women to go to the polls and vote for candidates who adopt them. Among others, they include making sure that women get equal work for equal pay, stopping insurance companies from charging women more than men, raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, and protecting Medicare to ensure that there is no reduction in benefits. Democrats actively support these policies, and Republicans actively oppose them. Until that changes, more volunteer hours and family-friendly ads seem unlikely to make a major difference.

Republicans may not need to make major changes to win big gains in the 2014 midterms. But unless the GOP finds a way to bring female voters into the fold, it will continue to have big problems in national elections — and cosmetic reform like 14 in ’14 isn’t going to get the job done.

Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Texas GOP Leader: Women Should Close Gender Pay Gap By Negotiating Like Men

Texas GOP Leader: Women Should Close Gender Pay Gap By Negotiating Like Men

As the Republican Party celebrates the one-year anniversary of its 2012 “autopsy” report, one of its leaders in Texas has provided a timely reminder of just how far the party’s outreach efforts still have to go.

On Monday, Texas Republican Party executive director Beth Cubriel was asked about her party’s opposition to equal pay legislation, such as the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the proposed Paycheck Fairness Act. Cubriel offered the following response:

“Men are better negotiators,” Cubriel told Texas political show Capital Tonight. “I would encourage women, instead of pursuing the courts for action, to become better negotiators.”

Cubriel is the second Texas Republican in as many days to offer a supremely unhelpful answer on an equal pay question. On Sunday, Cari Christman — executive director of the RedState Women PAC —suggested in an interview that women are too “busy” to push for equal pay laws.

“If you look at it, women are extremely busy,” Cristman said in response to a question about how she would close the gender pay gap. “We lead busy lives, whether working professionally, whether working from home, and times are extremely busy. It’s a busy cycle for women, and we’ve got a lot to juggle. So when we look at this issue we think, what’s practical? And we want more access to jobs. We want to be able to get a higher education degree at the same time we’re working or raising a family.”

According to a new report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, the ratio of women’s to men’s median weekly full-time earnings was 82.1 percent in 2013, and has barely changed over the past decade.

Equal pay laws have become a flashpoint in Texas’ gubernatorial race between Democratic state senator Wendy Davis and Republican attorney general Greg Abbott. Davis has repeatedly attacked Abbott for fighting against legislation to close the pay gap, and her campaign wasted little time in denouncing Cubriel for her comments on the issue.

“Greg Abbott’s allies’ defense of his opposition to equal pay for women is out of touch and offensive,” the statement from campaign spokeswoman Rebecca Acuna reads. “Texans deserve a governor like Wendy Davis, who will fight for economic fairness for all hardworking families instead of Gregg Abbott’s business-as-usual hostility to fair pay legislation.”

Abbott’s campaign has declined to comment on Cubriel’s theory.

H/T: The Huffington Post

Screenshot: YouTube