Mira Nair, Outreach Intern

Welcome to another roundup! This week we have stories about gender-based wage discrimination for physicians, one popular website’s efforts to transform the male-dominated engineering field, and a 1963 PSA depicting Batgirl battling unequal pay…which is awesome.

The 49th Anniversary of the passage of the Equal Pay Act (EPA) 1963 has led to the internet re-circulation of this 1963 PSA promoting the EPA. The clip features Batgirl coming to the rescue of Batman and Robin. Before saving them, Batgirl takes the opportunity to voice her concern for gender-based wage discrimination: “I've worked for you a long time, and I'm paid less than Robin! Same job, same employer means equal pay for men and women!”

Unfortunately, Batgirl would be disappointed that 49 years after the EPA, American women are still a far cry from achieving equal pay for equal work. The wage gap has narrowed (in 1963, women earned 59 cents to every dollar earned by a man. Today, women earn 77 cents to a man’s dollar) but the 18 cent shift over 49 years just isn’t enough.Batgirl would also be up to her Bat Utility Belt in  outrage to know that on June 5, the U.S. Senate failed to move forward the Paycheck Fairness Act (PFA), a bill intended to update the Equal Pay Act of 1963. Learn more about how the PFA would strengthen the EPA.

This has been quite a week! On Tuesday the Senate voted on the Paycheck Fairness Act (unfortunately opponents blocked the bill on a procedural vote) and on Thursday Judy Waxman, our VP of Health and Reproductive Rights, spoke on a panel at a White House town hall on women’s health. For your end-of-the-week reading we’ve got stories on new research on how emergency contraception works, a new book from ROC United, and an inspirational story of how teen athlete Meghan Vogel helped an opponent in need. Let’s get to it!

New research out this week shows that emergency contraception pills don’t work the way we think they do – and the way they really work should help squash some anti-abortion qualms about them.