Womenstake

Two Down, Three to Go.

by Fatima Goss Graves, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

Ward Connerly. In some ways, Connerly introduced me to activism. In 1995 I was a student at UCLA (Go Bruins!) when he announced his campaign to eliminate affirmative action in the University of California system. At the young age of 19, I attended my first protest and learned to articulate the many reasons that Connerly’s initiative would be bad for California and bad for UC students. Unfortunately, despite the strong efforts of students and activists throughout California (and indeed the nation) Connerly succeeded first in implementing anti-affirmative action measures in the UC System and then, through the passage of Prop 209, throughout the state of California. 

Connerly followed up his “success” in California with statewide initiatives in the state of Washington (Prop. 200) and most recently in Michigan (Prop. 2). The California and Washington initiatives have been in place long enough that we can measure their detrimental effects. And our fears about these initiatives have come true – we now know that the passage of these initiatives resulted in a decrease in the percentage of women working in the skilled trades, fewer valuable science and math programs that target women and minorities, and fewer government contracts for women and minority small businesses.   

Update on the Fair Pay Act

by Fatima Goss Graves, Senior Counsel
National Women's Law Center

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is scheduled for a vote next week, possibly as early as Wednesday, April 23. As we’ve explained before, the bill would overturn a recent Supreme Court ruling, Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., which made it virtually impossible for women who face pay discrimination to take action against their employers.

Unfortunately, Ledbetter is already being implemented. Just last month, a district court judge dismissed the Title VII claim of an African-American school principal who earned between $5,000 and $10,000 less than two males hired after her, as well as more than $18,000 less than her male predecessor, saying that her claims were barred by Ledbetter. 

The next week is critical and we need your help. Find out how you can support the bill.

Single-Sex Schools -- It's All About Context

by Robin Reed, Online Outreach Manager
National Women’s Law Center

There’s been a lot of discussion lately about single-sex education. NWLC Senior Counsel Fatima Goss Graves recently appeared on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” to discuss the impact of separating boys and girls in school.

Watch the video.

SBA Erects Another Roadblock For Women-Owned Businesses

by Fatima Goss Graves, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

This week the Center joined together with a diverse group of organizations to file comments protesting the Small Business Administration’s proposed rule to implement the Women’s Procurement Program. Women-owned businesses contracting with the federal government have been waiting for years for the SBA to finally implement the Women’s Procurement Program, which increases the ability for women-owned businesses to gain contracts with the federal government.

There is no doubt that women-owned small businesses have been largely shut out of federal contracting. Indeed, the federal government has been unable to implement even a limited goal of awarding five percent of federal contracts to women-owned small businesses. And Congress continually receives evidence of discrimination against women-owned small businesses. But after dragging its feet for years (you may recall that the SBA was ordered by a federal court to develop a plan for implementation way back in 2005), the proposed rule would do nothing to implement the program and instead would undermine Congress’ attempts to provide women-owned small businesses with a fair chance to participate in the federal procurement process.

Education That Leaves Too Many Children Behind

by Fatima Goss Graves, Senior Counsel
and Jocelyn Samuels, Vice President for Education and Employment
National Women’s Law Center

The walls of the boys’ classroom are painted blue, the light bulbs emit a cool white light and the thermostat is set to 69 degrees. In the girls’ room, by contrast, the walls are yellow, the light bulbs emit a warm yellow light and the temperature is kept six degrees warmer ...

Boys don’t hear as well as girls, which means that an instructor needs to speak louder in order for the boys in the room to hear her; and ... boys’ visual systems are better at seeing action, while girls are better at seeing the nuance of color and texture.

You may think that we’re quoting from some educational primer left over from the 1950s. Would that that were the case. Instead, these descriptions come from this weekend’s New York Times Magazine, which had a lengthy piece on single sex schools. The article lavished considerable attention on the theories of Leonard Sax, who founded something called the National Association for Single-Sex Public Education — an organization that encourages schools to solve their educational problems by devising sex-segregated programs, classrooms, and schools based on unproven stereotypes about boys and girls.

Sax spends much of his time emphasizing selected developmental and brain research about boys and girls. But most experts agree that the evidence shows nothing about the likely educational achievement of boys and girls, much less justifies Sax’s boosterism about single sex programs. For example, there may be differences in male and female brain size, but that does not mean that boys and girls need different learning environments. What’s more, even where there are differences between boys and girls on average, there are too many students who — as individuals — will deviate from Sax’s supposed “norm.” Sax would have schools exclude from all-boy classrooms even those girls who could do better with cooler room temperatures, and from all-girl programs boys who prefer a cooperative, “warmer,” learning style.

7 Questions with NWLC's Fatima Goss Graves

by Jessica Lauredan, Outreach Intern
National Women’s Law Center

This post is part of a weekly series profiling our blog authors.

Fatima Goss Graves, Senior Counsel at NWLC, works on ensuring gender equality in education through litigation, legislative policy, and public education.

Q: Your mother, Carol Goss, is President and CEO of the Skillman Foundation, a private organization working to improve schools and neighborhoods for children in southeast Michigan. How has her work influenced your career and goals?
Fatima: Both of my parents emphasized a commitment to public service from a young age. I have two sisters, and they always instilled in all of us the importance of being involved in issues that we’re passionate about — and about giving both our time and talents to those issues. In addition to my work here at the Center, one sister directs philanthropic affairs and urban renewal for the City of Detroit, and, while still in school, my other sister has always been heavily involved in community activities.

Also, I come from a long legacy of civil rights activists. My father and aunt were the named plaintiffs in a significant post-Brown Supreme Court ruling that desegregated schools in Knoxville, Tennessee, during the height of the civil rights movement.

Q: Over the years, the civil rights movement and the women’s rights movement have coincided and sometimes clashed. As a woman of color, do you ever feel torn between your loyalties as an African-American and as a feminist?
Fatima: I’m not sure I’d put it exactly that way — these are movements that have benefited from and fostered each other. And these movements continue to work in strong coalitions together; I work with many civil rights organizations on a regular basis and our work often overlaps.

That said, I strongly believe that feminists have a duty to be committed to racial and broader social justice, and there is a similar duty for civil rights activists to advocate on behalf of women and girls. And in so doing, feminists have to ensure that their advocacy takes the needs of all women into account, not just white women. Similarly, civil rights activists must ensure that their advocacy does not focus on progress for only men of color.

Congress Introduces Civil Rights Act of 2008

by Fatima Goss Graves, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

Last week I told you we’d heard that Congress was planning to introduce legislation to address a number of Supreme Court decisions that undermine civil rights laws. And just days after MLK Day, the House and Senate introduced the Civil Rights Act of 2008.

As a refresher, the Civil Rights Act of 2008 would ensure that federal funds are not used to subsidize discrimination, hold employers accountable for age discrimination and improve accountability for violations of civil rights. Not bad for one bill!

Restoring Order and Fairness to the Workplace

by Fatima Gross Graves, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

Today I attended the Senate HELP Committee hearing on the Fair Pay Restoration Act where Lilly Ledbetter and two other witnesses testified in support of the bill. The room was packed and silent as everyone listened to Ms. Ledbetter tell her story of nearly 20 years of harassment and pay discrimination.

I was particularly struck by an exchange between Ms. Ledbetter and Sen. Barbara Mikulski. The Senator made the very real point that it isn’t easy for plaintiffs to bring discrimination lawsuits — Ms. Ledbetter had personal, financial and psychological costs for sure. Now I know the anti-trial lawyer mantra is that “frivolous lawsuits” are destroying the economy — the world even. And even I followed the sensational story of the $67 million dollar lawsuit over lost dry cleaning.

But Ms. Ledbetter’s story points out how the odds were already stacked against plaintiffs in pay discrimination suits and now the Supreme Court has made it even harder. Unlike many forms of discrimination, pay discrimination is not announced. Yet the Supreme Court has held that plaintiffs must bring pay discrimination claims within 6 months of the discriminatory pay decision. Could you imagine that being your first act as an employee on the job?

The Fair Pay Restoration Act would reverse the Court’s nonsensical decision and restore order and fairness to the workplace by reinstating the “paycheck accrual rule,” under which each discriminatory paycheck is treated as an act of discrimination that triggers the 180 day statute of limitations under Title VII. After hearing the compelling testimony, let’s hope the Senate acts swiftly.

Looking to weigh in? Our legal community letter in support of the Fair Pay Restoration Act is the perfect way to become involved. Our goal is to gather support from 1,000 lawyers (and law students) before this bill is debated on the Senate floor.

Looking for a Way to Honor Dr. King? Support Civil Rights Legislation

by Fatima Goss Graves, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

Every January our nation pauses to remember and celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Some communities hold marches, rallies or vigils. Here in D.C. there are countless concerts and one theater is even showing a film to commemorate Dr. King’s legacy. 

Another important way to honor Dr. King’s legacy is by further promoting civil rights. You may know that Congress has long outlawed discrimination based on sex, race, national origin, disability, and age in employment and by recipients of federal funds. These statutes have opened opportunities in every facet of our lives and have ensured that federal funds do not subsidize discrimination. But a series of Supreme Court decisions has steadily weakened these basic civil rights protections. For example, Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination, including sexual harassment, in education, may be enforced by individuals, including in law suits for damages. But the Supreme Court held in the late 90s that individuals cannot fully hold schools accountable if a teacher or classmate harasses a child unless the school had actual notice of the abuse and did virtually nothing to correct the problem. What does that mean in practical terms? In the Court’s upside-down decision, students have fewer legal protections from harassments than adults. It also means that schools have incentives to turn a blind eye to clear signs of harassment. Bad news for civil rights plaintiffs.

Yes — It Is Possible to Recruit and Retain Girls in Nontraditional Career and Technical Education Programs, Despite "Choices."

by Fatima Goss Graves, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

Wednesday we held a webinar on the impact of the high school dropout crisis on girls. We thought it was worth sharing one of the questions we got here, because it’s one that we receive quite frequently from well-meaning educators and advocates alike:

How do we get girls to enroll in nontraditional CTE programs, when girls do not “choose” to get involved in the programs?

Reading between the lines, what this caller might have been saying is something like: “The reason for the vast under-representation of girls in CTE programs that are nontraditional for their gender is that they do not choose to enroll in these high-wage and high-skill programs — and there’s not much I can do to challenge these ‘choices.’”

But the magnitude of the enrollment disparities in nontraditional CTE programs — female students make up only 15 percent of students in high school level nontraditional CTE programs (including construction, automotive, engineering, agriculture) — and the evidence of sex stereotyping, steering, and harassment in many programs, disproves the theory that it all comes down to girls choosing programs that limit their future economic outlook. So, before we even begin to answer this question, we must frame it in the right way. How about — what steps can we take to recruit and retain students in nontraditional programs given the many school-based and cultural barriers that may exist?

Now that we have that straight, let’s see if I can address the question. The truth is, it is not easy and there is no silver bullet. But progress on this issue is possible — indeed, there are programs that are making progress in this area. 

Here are some simple tips to get you started:

• Conduct nontraditional support groups and peer counseling.
• Evaluate school counseling and recruitment materials — do they affirmatively reach out to the nontraditional gender?
• Develop and promote policies to prevent sexual harassment and effectively address it when it occurs.
• Introduce students to role models, including professionals who have nontraditional careers and peers who participated in nontraditional CTE programs.
• Provide hands-on opportunities for students to learn about and apply skills.

These are just a few strategies we’ve learned from promising programs. And if you know of other promising programs, submit a nomination for consideration in the 2008 Programs and Practices that Works Award.

We’ll be waiting to hear from you.

To learn more about CTE, register for our next webinar, Career and Technical Education Programs for High-Wage, High-Skill Jobs: Eliminating Barriers & Improving Access for Girls, to be held on Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern.