In his most extensive remarks about feminism, President Obama wrote an essay for Glamour magazine in which he reflected on American women’s long fight for equality and called on men to fight sexism and create equal relationships.
In the 1,500-word essay, which was published online Thursday and will appear in the September print magazine, the president argued that “when everybody is equal, we are all more free.” He praised the progress of American women over the past century while pledging to work on securing equal pay and reproductive rights. The president also warned against “dated assumptions about gender roles.”
The president said that it was important to his daughters that he be a feminist, “because now that’s what they expect of all men.”
“We need to keep changing the attitude that raises our girls to be demure and our boys to be assertive, that criticizes our daughters for speaking out and our sons for shedding a tear,” he wrote. “We need to keep changing the attitude that punishes women for their sexuality and rewards men for theirs.
“We need to keep changing the attitude that permits the routine harassment of women, whether they’re walking down the street or daring to go online. We need to keep changing the attitude that teaches men to feel threatened by the presence and success of women.”
http://www.masslive.com/politics/index. ... assac.html
https://blog.dol.gov/2016/08/04/massach ... equal-pay/BOSTON — For nearly two decades, Dorothy Simonelli worked in the cafeteria at Everett High School. She and her colleagues cooked turkey and big vats of pasta and made their own sauce.
When the cafeteria workers asked for a raise, their request was denied.
"Management said...they're just women, they're working for pin money, money for jewelry," recalled Barbara Rice, a union representative at the time.
In 1989, the cafeteria workers sued. They argued that the female cafeteria workers were earning less than the male custodians, in violation of Massachusetts' equal pay law. A ruling in their favor was overturned by the Supreme Judicial Court in 1998, which found that the positions were not considered comparable, so there was no requirement for equal pay.
On Monday, Simonelli and Rice watched Gov. Charlie Baker sign a law updating Massachusetts' equal pay law to better define comparable work and to put in place other protections to ensure that women are paid equally for equal work.
"There are no words," said Simonelli, now 83. "I just feel so wonderful. I'm so happy for my coworkers and all the ones that have passed on."
The new law updates Massachusetts's equal pay law, which was passed in 1945. The 1945 law was the first in the country to require comparable pay for comparable work. A federal equal pay law was passed in 1963.
The new law will prohibit employers from requesting salary history during a job interview — although a job applicant can voluntarily disclose that information. It says businesses cannot forbid workers from discussing their salaries with each other. It provides a clearer definition for what criteria employers can use to determine what is "comparable work."
It extends the statute of limitations for bringing an equal pay claim from one year to three years.
"Today in Massachusetts, we can say equal pay for equal work is not just a slogan. It's the law." — Sen. Pat Jehlen
The bill also includes provisions sought by businesses. For example, if an employer does a self-evaluation to determine whether there are compensation differences then takes steps to eliminate them, the employer will be protected from equal pay lawsuits for three years.
The bill passed both the House and the Senate unanimously. It goes into effect Jan. 1, 2018.
Supporters of the new law cite a study showing that women working full time in Massachusetts earn 82 cents for every dollar men earn.
I'm proud of my President, and of my Commonwealth!This was truly a historic week in Massachusetts. After decades of work and coalition building, the state legislature unanimously passed the strongest equal pay law in the country.
As I watched Gov. Baker sign into law the new act to establish pay equity, I reflected on the long road that led us here. I first testified on equal pay at the Massachusetts statehouse in 1983, and over the course of my career, I’ve negotiated pay equity upgrades for thousands of female state employees and worked with women’s and civil rights organizations on gender-neutral job evaluation guide charts.
Then-State Rep. Pat Jehlen started filing an equal pay bill every year since 1998. At the signing ceremony on Monday, it was truly thrilling for me to hear Jehlen, now a state senator, announce, “Today in Massachusetts we say: Equal pay for equal work is not just a slogan, it’s the law.”
The new Pay Equity Act provides employers with a much needed definition of comparable work entitled to equal pay, prevents them from firing employees for discussing their compensation with coworkers, and makes Massachusetts the first state in the nation to ban employers from asking for salary history as part of the interview process. That last provision is an important one, because hiring female employees and paying them at a rate based on their former earnings only perpetuates the wage gap.
The law also provides incentives for employers to conduct salary reviews without fear of lawsuits if gender disparities are found. And it includes a provision that that no employee’s pay can be reduced in order to correct any violations of the act.
This new law is another step in the growing effort to achieve equal pay in Massachusetts, where so many businesses, advocates, and state and local leaders recognize the importance of closing the pay gap. Nationally, full-time working women earn on average 79 cents for every dollar white men earn; in Massachusetts, women earn 82 cents on the dollar.
Gov. Baker signs the law.
Gov. Baker signs the law.
This year, the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women, the Women’s Bar Association and Mass NOW organized a coalition of 50 organizations to advance equal pay that also included the Massachusetts Caucus of Women Legislators, the Alliance for Business Leadership, the Boston Mayor’s Office of Women’s Advancement and the Massachusetts AFL-CIO.
Boston has actively addressed the wage gap since 2013, including encouraging companies to conduct internal pay audits. More than 100 employers voluntarily signed Boston’s 100% Talent: the Boston Women’s Compact. Employers who sign the compact agree to assess their wage data to see if gender pay gaps exist, take steps to address any gaps, and anonymously provide aggregate data to assess the city’s progress as a whole. Mayor Walsh and the city’s Office of Women’s Advancement have also partnered with the American Association of University Women to host free salary negotiation workshops with a goal of training 85,000 women in the next five years.
Massachusetts businesses know that equal pay is good for the bottom line. The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, the Massachusetts Business Roundtable and the Associated Industries of Massachusetts all supported the final bill. At the Department of Labor, we’re excited to see Massachusetts leading the way on equal pay, and we are confident that these efforts will pay dividends to working women, their families and the Massachusetts economy for generations to come.
For more resources, check out the Department of Labor’s equal pay page and the Women’s Bureau equal pay and pay transparency map.
