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Legal Momentum In Brief, November 2010

Paycheck Fairness Act Fails in Senate

In November, the Senate failed to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, a statute that would have implemented harsher penalties against employers who discriminate against workers on the basis of gender.

Millions of families now depend on women for household income, yet most women earn just 77 cents on every dollar men make, an income gap that translates to a loss of over $10,000 per year. The gender wage gap is even more striking for women of color: African-American women make 61 cents and Latinas make 52 cents for every dollar white men earn.

The Paycheck Fairness Act would have strengthened the Equal Pay Act, signed into law by President Kennedy in 1963. While the Equal Pay Act was a major victory for women, it is in dire need of updates to ensure that women have full equality. The Paycheck Fairness Act would have given women the same remedies for gender wage discrimination that are now available to victims of discrimination based on race or national origin. It would have also barred employers from retaliating against employees for discussing their salaries with each other—a problem that continues to plague many women.

The Senate’s vote stood in sharp contrast to the White House’s strong support for the bill. President Obama described the Paycheck Fairness Act as a "common sense bill" that would have helped "ensure that men and women who do equal work receive the equal pay that they and their families deserve." Following the vote, President Obama gathered with leading advocates to discuss next steps.

• To read Legal Momentum’s blog piece on the Senate’s failure to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, click here.
• To learn more about President Obama’s support for the Paycheck Fairness Act, click here.
• To learn more about Legal Momentum’s work on employment rights for women, click here.

Working in the Shadows: Immigrant Women Sexually Victimized on the Job

Over four million undocumented immigrant women currently live in the United States. Many of these women are employed in the U.S. food service industry, and, according to a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), many of these women suffer sexual harassment and sexual violence on the job.

The report, Injustice on our Plates, demonstrates what Legal Momentum’s Immigrant Women Program has often found in its efforts across the country: that undocumented immigrant women are forced to work for little pay in a shadow economy, exploited by their employers while remaining invisible to most Americans.

In June, Legal Momentum released Reforming America’s Immigration Laws: A Woman’s Struggle. We noted that undocumented women migrants are "vulnerable to sexual violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and other gender-motivated exploitation in the workplace. Absent any fear that employees will report these actions and crimes, employers continue to take advantage of immigrant women."

Injustice on Our Plates echoes Legal Momentum’s findings in the U.S. food service industry. The SPLC interviewed 150 immigrant women working throughout the United States. The vast majority of the women the SPLC interviewed said that they suffered sexual harassment and/or sexual violence on the job.

• To read Legal Momentum’s blog piece on the sexual victimization of immigrant women at work, click here.
• To read the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Injustice on our Plates, click here.
• To read Legal Momentum’s Reforming America’s Immigration Laws: A Woman’s Struggle, click here. 
• To learn more about Legal Momentum’s Immigrant Women Program, click here. 

Senate Judiciary Committee Debates CEDAW

On November 19th, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to debate the Convention for Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Legal Momentum strongly advocates that the U.S. ratify this treaty.

The United States has long been recognized as a leading voice for women’s rights and human rights, which makes our failure to ratify CEDAW all the more troubling. The U.S. is one of only seven countries in the world that has failed to ratify this landmark international human rights agreement. The United States’ absence from this global consensus undermines both the ideals of opportunity and equality set out in CEDAW and our own position as a global leader standing up for women and girls. By ratifying CEDAW, we would strengthen our global voice to the benefit of women and girls around the world.

CEDAW unquestionably embodies American values. Most fundamentally, it recognizes that women’s rights are human rights, and that societies that empower women are prosperous, stable societies.

• To read Legal Momentum’s full letter in support of CEDAW, click here.
• To learn more about CEDAW and the U.N.’s role in supporting the treaty, click here.
• To learn more about Legal Momentum’s work on International Human Rights for Women at Home, click here.

Administration's Guide to Ending Child Hunger Neglects Poverty, the Leading Cause of Hunger

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently published the Obama Administration's "Stakeholder Guide" to end childhood hunger by 2015. The guide advocates for increasing the rate at which eligible children participate in Food Stamps and other child nutrition programs. While this is a praiseworthy goal, children in food insecure families—many of which are led by single mothers—suffer from hunger not because they lack nutrition programs—in fact, most of these children already participate in Food Stamps and/or related programs—but because their family's income is too low.

While President Obama's anti-hunger campaign recognized poverty as the "primary cause of hunger"—and the USDA reiterated these sentiments—the Stakeholder Guide makes no mention of child poverty.

• To read Legal Momentum’s full piece on child hunger and child poverty, click here.
• To read the Obama Administration’s “Stakeholder Guide,” click here.
• To learn more about Legal Momentum’s advocacy for women and their families in poverty, click here.

Confronting Street Harassment with Technology

Legal Momentum applauds the work of Hollaback, an organization that combats street harassment by using smart phones and other technology. Hollaback has created a movement by urging women to document street harassment with mobile technology like cell phones and smart phones. Women then submit their stories, pictures, and videos to the Hollaback website, shifting the power dynamics of street harassment from the harasser to the victim. By collecting and distributing women’s stories and videos, Hollaback seeks to encourage police, policymakers, and other legal authorities to take the issue of street harassment seriously.

Women's Economic Security: The Opportunity Series

Legal Momentum co-sponsors New York University's Women of Color Policy Network's Opportunity Series, a semester-long program of panel discussions, webinars, and lectures about women's economic security in a changing economy, with a focus on women of color.

The Opportunity Series is convening a range of experts to examine these issues from the perspective of women of color and explore opportunities to develop and maintain women's economic security over the long term. The series has included discussions on wealth disparities, the impact of the economic crisis and the economic recovery on low-income women and their families, child care subsidies, and quality employment benefits.

• To read Legal Momentum’s blog piece on the Women of Color Policy Network’s Opportunity Series, click here.
• To learn more about the Women of Color Policy Network at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service, click here.