Advocacy

What do windshield wipers, Kevlar, Monopoly, and stem cell isolation all have in common?

They were all invented by women! February is well known as Black History Month but it is also National Women’s Inventors month. We’ll spend the month honoring women who have helped shape today’s world.

February 1st marks the first day of Black History Month. Acknowledging the triumphs and obstacles that African-Americans have experienced is important, as Black history is American history. Critical race theory being under attack in several states and cases of police brutality frequently dominating headlines is a sad but powerful indicator where we are as a country. Join us this month as we highlight inspirational Black leaders you should know! 

NFBPWC-NYC stands with the women of Iran.
Woman, Life, Freedom.

As the 2022 FIFA World Cup kicks off in Qatar, thousands of people have signed a petition urging players and coaches to show a sign of solidarity with the women of Iran.
You can show solidarity too by adding your name to this petition. Let's make it known that we stand with the women of Iran and will not back down until women and human rights are upheld!

https://www.change.org/p/solidarity-with-womanlifefreedom-in-worldcup-2022

This week we observed Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, marking the day black women finally achieved the same pay for their work that non-Latin white males made in 12 months last year. That means it takes 578 days for a black woman to make the same amount of money a white man earns in 365 days. This is nonsensical. There is no justification for such blatant racism and sexism. How can we claim we have achieved equality in this country with this mass injustice staring us right in the face? This gap in pay means less money to pay rent, buy food, invest in education, and save for retirement. We know that these wage gaps exist, so what are we doing to fix them? Why are issues that affect women, particularly women of color, consistently acknowledged and then set to the side? Worse, why is the government expected to make up the difference with subsidies from our collective tax payments? By continuing to placidly observe these days of inequality, we are allowing this problem to compound. We have set these women up for failure and then stigmatized them for relying on support from social programs, programs that would not be necessary if women were paid their fair share. 

The proposed NYS Salary Range Transparency Law will help curb these inequalities. If passed, it would require all employers in New York State to disclose the salary and benefits of any position they are hiring for. As far as I’m concerned, this seems like an absolute no-brainer. I wouldn’t purchase something blindly without knowing the price first. How on earth does a company expect me to fine-tune my resume, write a cover letter, and go through the stress of an interview, all without knowing how much money they will pay me?

Somewhere down the line, I learned it was impolite to ask how much a position pays. How dare I be so bold as to ask how my time will be compensated? If I intend to devote my time to a place, I should be well within my right to ask for what I am worth. But why does it still make me so uncomfortable? Why do I feel inappropriate asking for how much a company will pay me when the purpose of me taking the job is to earn money? Men often have no trouble negotiating their salaries. They are taught to take risks and make waves and are often rewarded for this behavior. Women, on the other hand, are taught to be agreeable. If a woman is outspoken, she is called aggressive or confrontational. Does this mean we are worth less than men, deserve less than men?

At the end of the day, when companies do not have to disclose salaries for open positions, the companies win. They are taking money out of our pockets, and there is nothing to stop them. If companies were required to disclose salary ranges for open positions, women would be better prepared to request the compensation they deserve, ensuring more equitable wages. 

The Salary Range Transparency law makes sense. It’s good for all workers and people searching for jobs. While this certainly won’t close the egregious wage gap affecting black women, it is a good place to start. We’ve got to do better. Black women should not have to work 213 days more than white men to earn the same wage. Instead of talking about how terrible the wage gap is, let’s fix it. Let’s start by calling on New York to pass the Salary Range Transparency law. We must have equal pay for equal work.

Y’all, what a day to be alive, New York is being governed by a sexual predator. Remember a few months ago when multiple women came forward claiming Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed them? Well, New York Attorney General Letitia James just released her report into these allegations concluding that Cuomo did indeed sexually harass multiple women. These acts included unwanted groping, kissing, hugging, and inappropriate comments. There was further evidence that Cuomo and his staff retaliated against one woman who shared her story. How absolutely shameful!

Not only do women have to work twice as hard to break into circles that have traditionally been a man’s industry, but we also must deal with sexual harassment when we get there. Our Governor has broken the law and abused his power. He has inflicted suffering on multiple women. One quote from the report states the Executive Chamber was “rife with fear and intimidation” and was a “hostile work environment overall.”.

But this seems like business as usual for Albany. Cuomo is certainly not the first elected official there to be convicted of sexual misconduct. He’s not even the first governor. Former Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned in 2008 after his involvement in a prostitution ring became public. Eric Schneiderman, former New York Attorney General, resigned in 2011 after multiple women accused him of verbal, emotional, and physical assault. Albany has also produced a registered sex offender, former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, who plead guilty to exchanging sexts and explicit content with a 15-year-old. What is going on here, New York?

I still cannot believe that women have trouble getting elected to office and are passed over in favor of these scumbags. A woman exercises her right to get an abortion and is politically untouchable; a man assaults women and gets elected to just about every high office in the country. Yay, America.

At this point, I’m not even surprised anymore when high-level officials are found guilty of sexual harassment. It wasn’t so long ago that men would scoff if you told them that unwanted sexual attention was inappropriate. I have been accused many times of not knowing how to take a compliment; “relax, jeez, it was just a compliment.” Right. Why don’t you tell me I should smile more while you’re at it?

I’d really like to know what goes through these men’s minds when treating women in such a deplorable fashion. Do you look into the eyes of these women and see your daughters? Your sisters? Your mothers? We are all someone’s daughter. We all deserve to live free from assault and harassment. Stop treating women like they are little more than sexual objects ripe for your picking. Women should not have to deal with sexual harassment period, especially in the workplace—shame on you.

In the past few months, I’ve read a lot about rising crime levels. Reports of increased gun violence and murder have captivated audiences and led national conversations. It was even a hot topic of debate during the primary elections in New York City. Why am I not as worried as perhaps I ought to be? Is it because I have limited my hours away from the safety of my home during the COVID pandemic? Or is it because I have been raised as a woman, constantly conscious of risk, unmitigated by a sense of entitled protection? I want to be alarmed by the thought of my city becoming more dangerous, but I am all too aware of the dangers that already exist and have persisted for decades. Let’s talk about some hard facts.

Somewhere in America, a woman is raped every two minutes. One out of every five women in the U.S. has been the victim of completed or attempted rape. One out of every six women in the U.S. has been a victim of stalking. One in four women has experienced intimate partner violence.  (CDC, 2018)

These figures are distressing. They are disappointing. They are unacceptable. Yet, none of these issues are a topic of national debate. I am more interested in understanding why we are not outraged by persistent violence against women than in being outraged by the recent rise in crime.

Being a woman, I have learned to be acutely aware of my surroundings at all times. There is a constant fear of being the victim of a violent crime that I know many women also have. This fear goes beyond the possibility of a crime occurring - it extends to how we are handled after the crime has been committed. We have been forced to watch in horror as women are ridiculed with accusations of being provocateurs of violence. What were you wearing? Were you drinking? Did you fight back? These questions have become a sort of mantra. I have a different question. What if we were just living? Why is our society teaching girls it is our responsibility to protect ourselves from ‘boys being boys’? Should the male be asked whether he felt inadequate? Was showing off? Is a pathetic creep? It is far past time that violence and assault are written off as a hazard of womanhood. We need protection. We need the Violence Against Women Act. 

VAWA was initially passed in 1994 and has been reauthorized in 2000, 2005, and 2013. When passed in 1994, this piece of legislation was the first federal acknowledgment of domestic and sexual violence as crimes, a fact that truly dumbfounds me and is emblematic of the lack of widespread concern regarding violence towards women. The main goals of VAWA are to enhance the investigation and prosecutions of offenders and provide funds to holistically address the issue of violence against women. The funds authorized under VAWA go towards domestic violence shelters, legal support for victims, and training for police officers and prosecutors. Since its passing, it has dramatically reduced instances of violence against women, proving its importance. Why the need for this piece, then? Because VAWA is being threatened. 

VAWA is back on the table, having expired during the 2018 government shutdown. While it passed through the House with bipartisan support in March, it has been languishing in the Senate, fending pushbacks. This is due to a new provision in the bill that will bar individuals who have been convicted of misdemeanor assault or stalking from purchasing a gun. Let me reiterate that. While the country is concerned about rising crime levels and gun violence, there are people actively opposing a bill because it dares to ban convicted assaulters from purchasing the very weapons they are raising concerns about. A Republican representative had this to say of the bill, “This legislation makes it clear that Democrats consider gun ownership a second-class right.” The pushback against this gun provision sends a pretty clear message to me: owning a gun is a more important right than a woman’s freedom from violence and assault.

I am tired of women being blamed for being targets of assault and violence. We should no longer have to bear the burden of this issue because it is uncomfortable or inconvenient to address. If you haven’t already, write to your Senators and tell them to pass the Violence Against Women Act. Women’s lives depend on it.

Follow the link below to use our OneClickPolitics tool, which prefills a message to send to your Senators.

https://www.nfbpwc.org/event-4394130

Smith, S. G., Zhang, X., Basile, K. C., Merrick, M. T., Wang, J., Kresnow, M., & Chen, J. (2018). The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey: 2015 data brief – updated release. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

When I was 20, I asked for a promotion at work, one that I well and fully deserved. I was told I was “too emotional” for the role. Had I been a man, perhaps my “emotionality” would have been called “passion,” and I would have received the promotion. Unfortunately for me and millions of other women in the U.S., this type of behavior in the workplace is rather unremarkable. In fact, this type of behavior, and blatant gender discrimination, is common in many different settings within the U.S. During NYC primary election campaigning just last month, many said Democratic mayoral runner-up Kathryn Garcia would make a great deputy mayor, already relegating her to a support role before voting had begun. 

Did you know that the American Constitution still allows this type of discrimination against women? Indeed, the American Constitution provides women only ONE guarantee of equality, the 19th Amendment, which guarantees the right to vote. Unsurprisingly, the writers of the Constitution made no mention of women within the document. In a nation where ‘all men are created equal,’ where do women fit in? Nearly 100 years after securing the right to vote, American women are still fighting for a right men granted themselves in the founding of our nation, equal legal rights.

Shortly after the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920, advocacy groups focused on writing legislation to Constitutionally protect women from discrimination. The resulting bill, known as the Equal Rights Amendment, demanded, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” While this movement gained traction, it fizzled out with the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, an amendment many claimed ensured equality for women. Nearly 60 years later, the effectiveness of the Civil Rights Act on the advancement of women’s equality can be summed up by the current 82 cents on the dollar women make compared to men; an inequality that is exacerbated when intersected with racial minority status.

A renewed push for the ERA in the 1960s led to its eventual passing through Congress in 1972. However, to amend the Constitution and fully grant women freedom from discrimination, three-quarters of states needed to ratify the document within the specified deadline. By its expiration date, 35 states had ratified, three short of the amount required. While I won’t discuss the concerning fact that 12 states STILL have not ratified the ERA (looking at you, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah), it is certainly worth noting.

(On an equally concerning note, five states have voted to rescind their ratification of the ERA: Nebraska, Tennessee, Idaho, Kentucky, and South Dakota. These votes all occurred in the 1970s, and as there is no wording in the Constitution about a states’ ability to rescind ratification of an amendment, it is fortunately not likely to happen.)

After four long decades of inaction, Nevada ratified the ERA in 2017, followed by Illinois in 2018 and Virginia in 2020. Why, then, are we not all enjoying our Constitutional protection from discrimination? Under the direction of the U.S. Attorney General under both the Trump and Biden administrations, U.S. Archivist David Ferriero has refused to publish the ERA as the 28th Amendment, blocking it from becoming law. I’m not saying the leaders of our country want women to face discrimination; they just aren’t entirely interested enough in making it ILLEGAL to discriminate against women.

New bills regarding the ERA were proposed in January of 2021. One of these bills, the “Three-State Strategy,” suggests removing the original time limit for ratification while the other, a “do-over” bill, would start the process from scratch. Regardless of how we get there, women must be protected in the Constitution. After the COVID crisis in which women faced setbacks unseen in decades, we must not allow ourselves to be relegated to a second-class citizenry. We are not meant to merely serve support roles while men make decisions for us. How many times must women prove our value to this country before we are afforded the fundamental rights we deserve? Isn’t it time women were guaranteed Constitutional Equality?

Emily VanVleck

Student Member NFBPWC-NYC