Women's Equality Day is August 26

Women's Equality Day is August 26

Friday, August 26 marks the 96th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment which prohibits any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex.

The women's suffrage movement organized after the Civil War, during Reconstruction (1865–77). During this period, women's rights leaders advocated for inclusion of universal suffrage as a civil right in the Reconstruction amendments (the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments). However, these amendments did not include women's suffrage.

The Nineteenth Amendment was first introduced in Congress in 1878, following Reconstruction. That attempt failed. Congresswoman Jeanette Rankin reintroduced it on Jan. 20, 1918. After passing in the House of Representatives that year, the suffrage amendment failed by two-thirds majority it needed to pass in the Senate. Reintroduced again in 1919, the “Susan Anthony Amendment” passed in June and the ratification process began.

The 19^th amendment effectively overruled Minor v. Happersett, when a unanimous Supreme Court had ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment did not give women the right to vote.

It was ratified by the requisite number of states a year later, with Tennessee's ratification the final vote to add the amendment to the Constitution. In Leser v. Garnett (1922), the Supreme Court rejected claims that the amendment was unconstitutionally adopted.

Note: The make up of the Supreme Court has always mattered!

However, many Southern states soon passed laws designed to disenfranchise women of color. It wasn't until the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that their voting rights were fully ensured once more. Yet the right to vote is still threatened, as we discussed in my Voting Rights Act blog post on Aug. 4.

Since 1971, America has observed Women's Equality Day on Aug. 26. One way to mark the anniversary is to fly your flag on Women's Equality Day to honor the generations of Americans who worked for 72 years to win the right to vote for women.

Another good way to mark the day is to check your voter registration status and encourage family and friends to register to vote. National Voter Registration Day takes place on Tues., Sept. 27. According to the NVRD website, www.NationalVoterRegistrationDay.org, "6 million Americans didn't vote because they missed a registration deadline or didn't know how to register,” in 2008.

Women's Equality Day is a time for all of us to remember that women weren't "given" the vote; they fought fiercely for that right. And women's votes are a vital tool we can use to shape the policy issues that affect us everyday.

The early suffragists believed that once women could vote, they would be able to right all the things that were wrong with society. They reasoned that “with how much was accomplished without the vote - how much more would be accomplished with the vote.” They though this might take five years.

But 96 years later, elected bodies in America haven’t changed all that much. They still don’t look much like the people they serve. Those elected are invariably too white, too male, too old, and too well-off to reflect their constituents, for the most part.

In fact, America is falling behind on electing women to government. In 1997, the United States ranked 52nd in the world for women’s representation in government. In 2016, we fell to 97^th place. We simply have not experienced the influx of female legislators into our political system in the way dozens of other countries have, even though for the first time there is a woman at the top of a presidential ticket.

The truth is, if you don’t have a seat at the table, you don’t have a voice. And that lack of a voice is reflected across the spectrum of social, economic and legal aspects of life.

We passed a lot of socially progressive legislation 50 years ago in the 1960s. Medicare, for example, enacted in 1965, is the nation’s health insurance program for seniors and younger adults with permanent disabilities. More than half (56%) of all Medicare beneficiaries are women.

Yet Medicare is an area where women are still shortchanged. In a new analysis of Medicare reimbursements, women physicians were reimbursed less than men across specialties. In a single year, Medicare reimbursed female physicians almost $19,000 less than male doctors, according to a new study published in Postgraduate Medical Journal.

And speaking of the pay gap, it is one of the most egregious of the economic injustices for women. According to AAUW’s The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap, the pay gap affects women from all backgrounds, at all ages, and of all levels of educational achievement, although earnings and the gap vary depending on a woman’s individual situation.

The wage gap affects every aspect of a women’s life – and that of her family. It means less money for essentials such as groceries or student loan payments. It affects where she can afford to live and if she can afford adequate transportation to get to work. It means less ability to save, compounding the significant the gender wealth gap, and a less secure retirement.

Since 1935, Social Security has been the bedrock of older women’s financial security – virtually the only source of income for 3 in 10 women 65 and older – and a critical source of disability and life insurance protection throughout their lives. Yet Social Security – the nation’s premier insurance plan for children, the disabled and older Americans – is again a target during this (and nearly every) political season.

Today's 65-year-olds can expect to spend an average of $130,000 on health care during retirement, from premiums to co-payments to eyeglasses, according to new estimates.

The average single 65-year-old woman can expect to need $135,000 to spend on health care in retirement, while a man will spend $125,000, according to estimates from Fidelity Investments. Figuring out how to afford retirement is even more difficult for women after a lifetime of lost wages (and Social Security benefits) due to the pay gap.

Needed changes won’t occur when, according to a recent Pew survey, 56 percent of American men believe that “the obstacles that once made it harder for women than men to get ahead are now largely gone.” By contrast, 63 percent of women believe that “significant obstacles still make it harder for women to get ahead than men.” 

The 19^th Century women who began the long road to suffrage knew that breaking down barriers – and attitudes – was key to moving women into full citizenship and participation in society. They knew that women’s issues are human rights issues. Women have never fought just for themselves. Our issues address larger injustices, wrongs that need righting, and ways that need to be changed so we can realize our full potential.

August 23 is #BlackWomenEqualPay Day 2016

August 23 is #BlackWomenEqualPay Day 2016

Here’s a sad truth in 21^st Century America: Race and gender both impact how much people get paid.

According to AAUW’s The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap (Spring 2016), the pay gap affects women from all backgrounds, at all ages, and of all levels of educational achievement, although earnings and the gap vary depending on a woman’s individual situation.

Among full-time workers in 2014, Hispanic, African American, American Indian, and Native Hawaiian women had lower median annual earnings compared with non-Hispanic white and Asian American women. But within racial/ethnic groups, African American, Hispanic, American Indian, and Native Hawaiian women experienced a smaller gender pay gap compared with men in the same group than did non-Hispanic white and Asian American women.

August 23 is the symbolic day that the earnings of African American women will catch up to their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts’ earnings from last year.

African American women have to work nearly an additional 8 months, or 238 days into the next year, to earn as much as white, non-Hispanic men did in the previous year alone. And based on today’s wage gap - that means African American women lose a staggering $877,480 over the course of a 40-year career compared to white, non-Hispanic men.

So if you think the 79 cent pay gap for white women is bad, the pay gap is worse for women of color at 63 cents. And the gender pay gap is worse for mothers; more than 50% of married African American mothers bring in 1/2 or more of their families' income.

Thanks to the pay gap, women struggle to pay off student loan debt even more than men do. Women in every state experience the pay gap, but in some states it’s worse than others. And women face a pay gap in nearly every occupation.

When we look at the pay gap for Black women, we find:

·       Women of color are more likely to work for minimum wage than white Americans;

·       Black women are more likely to work in the lowest-paying occupations;

·       Black women are underrepresented in the top-earning end of the labor force;

·       Black women less likely to work in the high-pay engineering & tech fields;

·       Black moms are more likely to be the sole breadwinner for their family; and

·       Black women are paid 60 percent of what male servers are paid.

And this pay gap is not a result of lack of education. While more education does help to increase women’s earnings, but it still doesn’t close the gender pay gap. Black women with BAs on average earn $10,000 less that white men with an Associate’s degree.As a result, Black women who complete college degrees are less able to pay off their student loans promptly, leaving them paying more and for a longer time than men.

This lack of opportunity is especially stark at our nation’s private and public research universities. Out of 176,468 tenured full professors, only 2% are women of color (Black, Hispanic or Native American). By contrast, white men make up 72%, white women another 17%, and men of color 8%.

If the gender and racial wage gap was eliminated tomorrow, an African American woman be able to afford 153 more weeks of food for her family. Talk about leveling the playing field!

And the situation is even worse for Hispanic and Latina women, who were paid only 54 percent of what white men were paid in 2014.

This gets to the heart of racial and gender social justice inequities for African-American and women of color in our society.

The pay gap for all women is a huge economic drag on our economy that covers the lifespan. It won’t fix itself. And while some states are working to address equal pay, that is not the whole answer. Congress can and should do more. And if Congress won’t tackle this problem, let’s tackle Congress. It is an election year after all.

The Voting Rights Act

The Voting Rights Act

On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, which outlawed the discriminatory literacy tests that had been used to prevent African Americans from voting and suffrage was finally fully extended to African American women.

The Voting Rights Act (VRA) was designed to enforce the voting rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the Act secured voting rights for racial minorities throughout the country, especially in the South. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Act is considered to be the most effective piece of civil rights legislation ever enacted in the country.

That was then, but the Act has been systematically gutted in recent years by a Supreme Court ruling (Shelby County v. Holder  - 2013) and some state legislatures that have worked to put back in place many of the barriers the VRA was designed to break down.

The 2016 election is the first presidential one in 50 years without the Voting Rights Act in full effect.

Given the current 8-member Supreme Court which has been reluctant to take many cases until a 9th Justice is appointed and confirmed, lower courts have again found their mojo and have been combating these state laws designed to limit voting. Section 2 of the VRA has a general provision that prohibits every state and local government from imposing any voting law that results in discrimination against racial or language minorities. But while the literacy tests have gone out, state governments interested in limiting voting have found new ways to disenfranchise potential voters.

Lower courts have been rejecting these laws and reaffirming rights last month, however in places like Wisconsin, Texas, North Carolina, Michigan, and Kansas. In all, voters in 17 states have faced new restrictions that ranged from photo ID requirements to cutbacks on early voting and same-day registration in 2016.

Recently, courts found that Wisconsin’s voter ID law placed an undue burden on voters; struck down Michigan’s ban on straight-party voting, and reversed a Kansas ruling that suspended the registrations of 17,500 voters.

The Fourth Circuit voided all of North Carolina’s challenged provisions — restoring a week of early voting, same-day registration, provisional ballots and pre-registration as well as getting rid of the photo ID requirement; finding that the state legislature had intended to discriminate against Blacks when its Republican majority passed a sweeping rollback of voting provisions and instigated a photo identification requirement in 2013.

In Texas, a federal appeals court ruled against Texas’ voter ID law, knocking down what was considered the most restrictive law of its kind in the country. Texas’ law allowed seven forms of valid state or federal ID, and no exceptions for those who lacked an ID or the underlying documents, such as a birth certificate, to obtain one. According to the federal district court, about 600,000 registered voters did not have an ID that would be acceptable under the new law — and a disproportionate number were black or Latino.

Who can vote matters, as anyone who remembers the 2000 election between Al Gore and George W. Bush. That election was decided 5-4 by the Supreme Court. SCOTUS scholars and watchers shudder to think what would happen in 2016 with the Court operating with only 8 members.

Voting matters, because who can vote helps to determine who makes laws. In 1776, only white, male property owners were permitted to vote. By George Washington’s election in 1789, only 6 percent of the population was permitted to vote.

Voting was the privilege of America’s white, wealthy, and elite men. A look at almost every elected body in this country tells us that legislatures are still too male, too white, and too well-to-do to broadly reflect the populations they “represent.”

By the Civil War, most white men could vote regardless of property ownership, although some state laws required literacy testing, poll taxes, and religious tests that intentionally denied legal immigrants, newly naturalized non-white citizens, and Native Americans the right to vote.

Voting rights have gradually expanded. Constitutional amendments enacted after the Civil War extended the right to vote to various segments of the American population. Additional amendments forbade the denial of a person’s right to vote based on birth, race, color, previous condition of servitude, failure to pay poll or other taxes, or duration of residency in a voting district.

Women’s suffrage was granted by the Nineteenth Amendment in 1919. In 1971, the voting age was lowered to 18 years of age by the Twenty-Sixth Amendment.

And while some states don’t enact restrictions on voters, they also don’t go out of their way to make things easy. New York is a good case in point, as was demonstrated by the presidential primary vote back in April.

Just some of the issues were New York’s closed primary system, an absurdly early change-of-party deadline, the lack of uniform voting hours, problems with polling places, and lack of an automatic voting registration process or same-day registration. Some of New York’s voting problems are now under official investigation by both Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer.

“New York is really notorious in terms of having difficult obstacles for voters to surmount in order to vote,” said Blair Horner, with the New York Public Interest Research Group. New York is one of the most restrictive in the nation that “contributes to New York having one of the lowest voter participation rates in the country.”

New York needs laws and procedures that encourage, rather than discourage, voting.  The Attorney General has opined that allowing online voter registration is legal and could be done statewide under existing law.

Other states are making changes that empower voters. In Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown signed a first-in-the-nation bill to automatically register all eligible Oregonians to vote when they obtain or renew a driver’s license or state identification card. If they do not opt out, the secretary of state’s office will mail them a ballot automatically 20 days before any election.

Four other states — California, Connecticut, West Virginia, and Vermont — have voted to put this innovative system in place, while 27 other states and the District of Columbia have been considering the idea. Officials in Vermont estimate that their new system could add as many as 50,000 voters in the next four years. California officials estimate that there are 6.6 million eligible voters now unregistered, with many due for license renewals.

Given the gridlock in Congress, there won’t be any good legislation coming out of Washington to ensure voting rights for all, and given the sentiments in state capitals, voting remains a case-by-case issue. Don’t throw away your vote; you might just lose it.