Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Ruth Garner on Gender Equality
Today's economy is a point of obsession- talked about by every news station, and worried about by nearly every person in the country. But when I follow recession news, there's one big question on my mind: How are women being affected differently than men?
In today's recession, more jobs are being lost by men than women. This is because more jobs are being lost in the construction field, where the typical worker is male, and because it costs less to keep a woman on as they are payed less. To give you an idea, the median annual income for an unmarried woman is $12, 900 and $26, 850 for a man. This is part of the reason single mothers need more government assistance, such as food stamps, than single fathers.
However, while men are losing more jobs, women are still having a harder time in the recession. People are falling back on savings when they can't pay the bills with a paycheck, and women have less savings because they make less. To this day women make only 76% of what men make, and face discrimination in the workforce when applying for jobs. A decrease in salaries across the board isn't helping: Men's earnings are down .5%, and women's down 3%.
It's shocking to read these facts knowing the progress we have made-- why is it so hard to make the final leaps towards equality? Why is equal pay still a problem in today's modern society? But I think the bigger question is, in the face of statistics like these, why have women's rights become such a tired topic?
Ruth Garner tells me that when she started thinking about a career in the 1930s, a woman could be only a teacher, secretary, or nurse. And while those continue to be the most common jobs for women, they are no longer the only options. However, being allowed to apply for the same job as a man does not mean gender doesn't play a role. Look at the new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and how much focus was put on the fact that she is a woman, instead of simply her ideas.
One thing I realized when talking with Ruth is that we have made immense progress in the past seventy years. Ruth has broken the glass ceiling three times over: She opened a hairdresser's business, a funeral home, and became mayor.
Click on the audio player to hear a story about unequal pay from Ruth's life. And to hear more of Ruth's story, come to our final event on Friday at the Silas Wright House from five to eight p.m.
Labels: Brenna, cwcw, Entrepreneurship, gender, geofeed, Ruth Garner
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