Womenstake, NWLC's Blog

Ten Things You Should Know About DC Circuit Nominee Nina Pillard

Posted by Amy K. Matsui, Senior Counsel and Director of Women and the Courts | Posted on: September 18, 2013 at 11:45 am

On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on the nomination of law professor Cornelia (Nina) Pillard to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. There has been a lot of misinformation swirling around about this highly qualified nominee since Professor Pillard’s confirmation hearing at the end of July. But when you look at Nina Pillard’s actual record, it is immediately apparent that she is tremendously qualified to sit on this important court – and should be approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Here are just ten facts that make the case:

  1. She helped open VMI to women. Professor Pillard wrote the briefs in United States v. Virginia, a case originally filed by the George H.W. Bush Administration. Professor Pillard’s arguments persuaded the Supreme Court to open the Virginia Military Institute to women, ending one of the last male-only admissions policies at a state college. Read an op-ed about Professor Pillard from a VMI alumna here.
  2. She protected the Family & Medical Leave Act. Professor Pillard argued Nevada Department of Human Resources v. Hibbs before the Supreme Court, alongside Department of Justice officials from the George W. Bush administration. Their defense of the Family and Medical Leave Act successfully vindicated a state employee’s right to take unpaid leave to care for his ill wife. Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote the majority opinion.
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Tags: Courts & the Judiciary, Judicial Nominations, Judicial Vacancies, Senate Judiciary Committee, Judicial Nominations, Judges & the Courts | Add new comment

Introduction of DC’s “Title IX Athletic Equity Act of 2013” Shows that Data Matters

Posted by Fran Faircloth, Fellow | Posted on: September 18, 2013 at 11:05 am

Yesterday I got to see how local government can provide tools to help fight for a level playing field in athletics. Together with the Sankofa Project, the Center was proud to be recognized for their work on a bill introduced by D.C. Council member Kenyan R. McDuffie with unanimous Council support.

The proposed legislation would require D.C. public schools to disclose certain key athletics equity data by gender on an annual basis, such as

  • enrollment and sports participation numbers by gender and race;
  • coach-to-athlete ratios;
  • compensation, qualifications and duties of coaches;
  • funding sources and spending;
  • scheduling and post-season play;
  • training and academic support; and
  • quality of facilities and equipment.

Under the bill, all of this information would be required to be publicly available on the city’s website.

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Tags: Athletics, District of Columbia, Education, Title IX, Athletics, Education & Title IX | Add new comment

One Lesson From Yesterday’s Poverty Numbers: Don’t Play Politics with the Social Safety Net

Posted by
Emily Wales, Fellow
Susanna Birdsong, Fellow
| Posted on: September 18, 2013 at 10:37 am

In 2012, 46.5 million people, including nearly 17.8 million women and 16 million children, were living in poverty, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau yesterday. Numbers that big are often difficult to comprehend, but the message is clear: we have a long way to go to end poverty in America.

Although these new data confirm that the poverty rate remains stubbornly high, it is also important to note that without key safety net programs, the statistics would be far worse. What we know for sure is that programs like Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps (SNAP), and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), lift millions of people out of poverty and reduce hardship for millions more.

SNAP benefits are not counted as income in Census Bureau’s official poverty numbers—but we know they make a real difference to struggling families. For example, the Census Bureau reported today that if SNAP benefits had been counted as income, the 2012 poverty rate would be 1.3 percentage points lower—and four million more people would be above the poverty line.

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Tags: Census Bureau and Census Data, Family Support Programs, Family Support Programs, Poverty, SNAP (Food Stamps), Data on Poverty & Income, Poverty & Income Support | Add new comment

Let’s Talk About Choices

Posted by Beccah Golubock Watson, Fellow | Posted on: September 18, 2013 at 10:11 am

Not too long ago, employers advertised for higher-paying jobs in a section of the newspaper labeled, “Help Wanted—Male.” When Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O’Connor graduated from law school, they got no job offers. And, in the more recent past, when Michele A. Roberts went to court as a public defender, she was often mistaken for someone charged with a crime, a mistake she attributes to her race and gender. Ms. Roberts is now a Partner at Skadden.

These attitudes about women in the workplace have not gone away. Their vestiges can be seen today in women’s continued lower pay for the same job; segregation into a set of jobs that are perceived as “women’s work,” the vast majority of which are low paying; and exclusion and underrepresentation of women in high-wage jobs. And that doesn’t even cover the severe penalty that mothers face in the workplace, simply for being mothers. Each of these factors depresses women’s wages, and each is linked to practices and policies that are woven into the fabric of the American workplace.

So it’s hard not to feel a little bewildered when discussions about the wage gap—which has stayed stagnant at 77 cents for over a decade—devolve into assertions that we should chalk it all up to women’s choices and go home.

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Tags: Employment, Equal Pay, Wage Gap, Equal Pay and the Wage Gap, Employment | Add new comment

Women's Health Insurance Coverage Remains Steady

Posted by Stephanie Glover, Health Policy Fellow | Posted on: September 17, 2013 at 05:20 pm

Today, the Census Bureau released new data on the rates of health insurance coverage in 2012. Overall, the percentage of uninsured Americans decreased from 15.7 percent in 2011 to 15.4 percent in 2012, which represents over 600,000 newly insured Americans.

Rates of health coverage increased slightly or remained steady for women aged 18-64:

  • The rate of women without health insurance declined slightly, from 19.6 percent in 2011 to 19.2 percent in 2012. But, over 18 million women still remain uninsured in 2012.
  • Medicaid continued to provide health insurance to about 12 percent of women in 2011 and 2012.
  • And, health coverage for young adult women ages 19 to 25 also remained steady, with about 25 percent lacking health coverage in both 2011 and 2012.

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Tags: Census Bureau and Census Data, Health Insurance, Health Insurance, Medicare, Expanding Health Coverage, Health Care Reform, Medicaid & Other Public Funding, Health Care & Reproductive Rights | Add new comment

THIS JUST IN: Women and Families Face a 23-Cent Wage Gap Again This Year

Posted by
Beccah Golubock Watson, Fellow
Katherine Gallagher Robbins, Senior Policy Analyst
Liz Watson, Senior Counsel
| Posted on: September 17, 2013 at 04:29 pm

77 cents on the dollar – does that have a familiar ring to you? You guessed it—it’s the amount that women working full time, year round typically made for every dollar that men made in 2012. It’s now been more than a decade with no progress on narrowing the wage gap. That means that American women have been working for over a decade without seeing the wage gap diminish. The wage gap typically cost women $11,608 in 2012. Based on the 2012 wage gap, over the course of a 40-year career a woman would lose $464,300.

The wage gap is even worse for women of color:

  • In 2012, African-American women working full time, year round were typically paid only 64 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.
  • Hispanic women working full time, year round were typically paid only 54 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.
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Tags: Census Bureau and Census Data, Employment, Equal Pay, Wage Gap, Equal Pay and the Wage Gap, Employment | Add new comment

New Rule Brings Home Care Workers One Giant Step Closer to Fair Pay

Posted by Liz Watson, Senior Counsel | Posted on: September 17, 2013 at 01:57 pm

Because of a new rule out today from the Department of Labor, home care workers will no longer be left out of the basic wage and hour protections guaranteed by the FLSA. Today’s rule extends wage and hour protections to all direct care workers employed by home care agencies and other third parties. This is excellent news, and it’s about time!

The exclusion of home care workers from the FLSA is emblematic of all that is wrong with the way our society values (or doesn’t value) women’s work. This 90% female workforce does vitally important work for their clients, such as bathing, clothing, and administering medication. Yet, this work – like work in many female-dominated jobs – is among the most poorest paid. Home care workers typically earn below $10 an hour.

In 1975, only one year after Congress extended the FLSA’s protections to domestic workers employed by individual households, the Department of Labor took these protections away from home care workers through an expansive reading of the “companionship” exemption. This interpretation was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2007, and home care workers and their advocates have been clamoring for the rule released today ever since.

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Tags: Department of Labor, Employment, Equal Pay, Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Wage Gap, Equal Pay and the Wage Gap, Employment | Add new comment

Being a Woman Means You’re More Likely to Be Poor – and 3 Other Things You Should Know about Women and Poverty

Posted by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security | Posted on: September 17, 2013 at 01:10 pm

More than 1 in 7 women live in poverty.

The Census Bureau just released new data on poverty in the U.S. in 2012. We’re continuing to crunch the numbers (we’ll have other blog posts and analyses), but here’s a first look at the numbers for women and families:

  • More than one in seven women, nearly 17.8 million, lived in poverty. The poverty rate among women was 14.5 percent in 2012, statistically unchanged from 2011, and the highest rate in two decades. 
  • The poverty rate for men in 2012, 11.0 percent, was lower than for women, and also was statistically unchanged from 2011. Although men’s poverty rate in 2012 was higher than in 2007, before the start of the recession, it was lower than women’s poverty rate in 2007—and lower than women’s record-low poverty rate (11.5 percent in 2000).
  • Poverty rates were particularly high for women who head families (40.9 percent), black women (25.1 percent), Hispanic women (24.8 percent), and women 65 and older living alone (18.9 percent).
  • More than one in five children, 21.8 percent, lived in poverty. More than half (56.1 percent) of poor children lived in female-headed families.

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Tags: Census Bureau and Census Data, Family Support Programs, Family Support Programs, Poverty, Data on Poverty & Income, Poverty & Income Support | 1 comment
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