Womenstake

7 Questions with NWLC's Taryn Wilgus Null

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

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

Taryn Wilgus Null is a MARGARET Fund Fellow for the Education and Employment team at NWLC working on employment discrimination and Title IX issues.

Q: It’s been 45 years since the Equal Pay Act was passed, yet women still earn 77 cents for each dollar earned by men. Why has this travesty gotten so little public attention?

Taryn: I think there is a misconception among many people that the wage gap between the sexes is based entirely upon choices that men and women make about the jobs that they take. Unfortunately, it’s difficult for them to see that sex discrimination is at the root of much of the sex segregation in employment and the pay differential between the jobs held primarily by women and those held primarily by men.

Q: What are the biggest obstacles women face in earning equal pay?

Taryn: Many jobs are largely segregated by sex and have been for a long time. This is not inherently problematic, but many of the jobs held primarily by women pay much less money than primarily male jobs that require similar levels of training. There is no reason that, for example, a cosmetologist should earn much less than an auto mechanic, but it’s hard to change things once salary levels are so entrenched.

Q: You’ve previously worked at the American Civil Liberties Union and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. How have those experiences influenced the work you do here?

Taryn: At both the ACLU and the EEOC, I got a lot of wonderful legal research and writing experience that has been invaluable here. I also worked on sex discrimination cases in both positions, so I learned some substantive law that has proved very useful.

Creative Solutions to Keep Girls in School

by Taryn Wilgus Null, MARGARET Fund Fellow
National Women’s Law Center

Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend the National Dropout Prevention Center/Network’s  At-Risk Youth Forum in Myrtle Beach, SC. This was a wonderful experience for a couple of different reasons. First, Myrtle Beach is a much nicer place to be in February than Washington, DC, as I was reminded when I flew back from sunny weather in the upper 50s to snow and freezing rain in DC. The view of the ocean from my hotel room wasn’t too shabby, either.

More importantly, though, I was able to meet numerous educators doing interesting and innovative work to help keep students in school. I attended the conference to speak about our report, When Girls Don’t Graduate, We All Fail: A Call to Improve High School Graduation Rates for Girls. I was really pleased that people seemed to find our report interesting, thought-provoking, and useful.

Discrimination Against Male Athletes? Really?

by Taryn Wilgus Null, MARGARET Fund Fellow
National Women’s Law Center

Over 35 years after Title IX was passed, misconceptions about Title IX’s implications for school sports still abound. Sometimes, unfortunately, these misconceptions turn into lawsuits. Yesterday, the National Women’s Law Center filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in a case alleging that Title IX discriminates against men.

First, here’s a little background on what the law actually says. Title IX requires schools to treat male and female sports teams equally and to provide students with an equal opportunity to participate in athletics, regardless of their sex. Department of Education policies state that a school can show that it is providing female students an equal opportunity to play sports in any one of three ways – that is, through the famous “three-part test.” The test is flexible and fair, and has been found to be lawful by eight of the eight federal circuit courts that have considered it. 

Despite these facts, the drumbeat of unfounded allegations – that Title IX results in discrimination against men – has continued for Title IX’s whole history. The most recent foray into the field is the effort by the misnamed “Equity in Athletics” organization to challenge a decision made in September 2006, by James Madison University (JMU) in Virginia, to eliminate three women’s sports teams and seven men’s teams. 

We’re truly sorry that JMU opted to make its athletics program “lean and mean,” rather than making broad-based opportunities available to both men and women on campus; we wish it had decided differently. But Title IX is simply not the culprit here. 

Reflections on Juno

by Julia Kaye, Program Assistant
and Taryn Wilgus Null, MARGARET Fund Fellow
National Women’s Law Center

Over the holidays, several of us from the Center took a field trip to see Juno. We laughed, we cried, we debated its implications for minors’ access to contraception– it was a roller-coaster of emotions. For those of you who have not made it to a theater recently, Juno tells the story of a sixteen-year-old girl named Juno who gets pregnant and decides to give up her baby for adoption to an adorable but seriously flawed yuppie couple. The breakout indie film deals with a number of issues that NWLC holds dear; nevertheless, we’ve had more conversations about it than can probably be justified. And after all the talk, we are, in conclusion…ambivalent. 

On the one hand, we were dismayed by the disdainful and inaccurate portrayal of the abortion clinic, with its inappropriate and apathetic receptionist and all-female waiting room (Arthur Shostak from RHReality Check wrote an insightful—and scathing—blog post on these two points). We also fear that this movie might mistakenly convince young women that all abortion clinics are as unpleasant and sleazy as the one Juno encounters (they are most decidedly not). On the other hand, anyone who has seen the film would surely agree that Juno’s decision to continue the pregnancy and put the baby up for adoption was anything but political. It was personal, as the decision to have or not have an abortion should always be.

Beyond the abortion scene, there were two elements of the movie that directly spoke to our work at the Center: minors’ access to contraception (and comprehensive and accurate information about contraception) and Title IX protections of pregnant students.

Maternity Leave Causes Teen Pregnancy? Someone Really Needs More Sex Ed!

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel
and Taryn Wilgus Null, MARGARET Fund Fellow
National Women’s Law Center

We cheered it.

Women’s eNews cheered it.

So it’s no surprise that Concerned Women for America thinks it’s the downfall of a moral society.

A Denver High School is taking steps to make sure young women aren’t punished for taking time off to give birth and care for their newborns. Concerned Women for America claims that this new student maternity policy promotes out-of-wedlock births, teen pregnancies and sexual irresponsibility. Just listen to the interview with CWFA’s Janice Crouse. She describes the effort to ensure student maternity leave as a harmful social policy that “accommodates a change in culture.”

Hmmm… the same could be said of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (you know, that neat little law that said employers can’t fire pregnant women just because they are pregnant). Didn’t that accommodate a “change in culture”? And doesn’t Title IX also provide similar protection to pregnant and parenting students already?! 

Just yesterday, the NCAA voted to prohibit colleges from yanking athletic scholarships from students due to their injury, illness or medical condition — including pregnancy. Evidence of more cultural decline? Perhaps Ms. Crouse would assert that Title IX causes pregnancy?

Denver High School Students Seek Maternity Leave

by Taryn Wilgus Null, MARGARET Fund Fellow
National Women’s Law Center

Students at a Denver high school are advocating for a policy that would allow pregnant students to have four weeks of maternity leave after giving birth. According to the Denver Post, the current policy at East High School charges new mothers with unexcused absences unless they return to school the day after being discharged from the hospital. Yes, you read that correctly – after they give birth, teen mothers are required to return to school the day after returning from the hospital. If they fail to do so, they start racking up unexcused absences.

Fortunately, at least some guidance counselors and school board members have recognized that this policy is both unfair and counterproductive. Like all students, pregnant and parenting students should be encouraged to stay in school. As reported in When Girls Don’t Graduate, We All Fail, the National Women’s Law Center’s groundbreaking report on the dropout crisis for high school girls, about one-third of female dropouts cite pregnancy and parenting responsibilities as a major reason that they dropped out. Of dropouts, these students were most likely to say that they would have stayed in school if their schools had done more to support them. And because the economic consequences for female dropouts are especially severe, it is critical that young mothers complete their educations, so that the cycle of dropout and poverty does not continue with their children.

Girls Continue to Struggle for an Equal Playing Field

by Taryn Wilgus Null, MARGARET Fund Fellow
National Women’s Law Center

Thirty-five years after Title IX was passed, complaints of Title IX violations still abound. This month, officials from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights are investigating allegations of Title IX violations at Scotts Valley High School in Scotts Valley, California. The allegations center around inequities in treatment of the boys’ baseball team and the girls’ softball team. The former coach of the girls’ softball team says that the boys’ baseball team receives preferential treatment, noting that “I do think the girls need to have better equipment and a better field. They work and play as hard as the boys. They don’t get the credit and the support that the boys do.”

Some girls who play on the softball team, however, deny that there is a problem and attribute any differences in facilities to the fundraising efforts of the boys’ baseball team. Senior Audrey Payne noted that, “As far as I know the boys did so much fundraising; they spent their money well.” Both Audrey and her father believe that the district should not be held responsible for providing the girls’ and boys’ teams with equal facilities if the boys’ team was able to raise more money.

Who Says Girls Aren't Good at Math and Science?

by Taryn Wilgus Null, MARGARET Fund Fellow
National Women's Law Center

Take note, Larry Summers.

Less than three years ago, then-president of Harvard Larry Summers stated at an academic conference that the paucity of women at the highest levels of math and science might be a result of innate differences between men's and women's abilities. We were dismayed at his comments then and now there is further evidence that he didn't quite know what he was talking about. Yesterday, for the first time in the history of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology, girls placed first in both the team and individual categories. First prize in the team category went to Janelle Schlossberger and Amanda Marinoff, who created a molecule that helps block the reproduction of drug-resistant tuberculosis bacteria. The seventeen-year-old girls will split a $100,000 scholarship. Isha Himani Jain, who is sixteen, won a $100,000 scholarship in the individual category for her studies of bone growth in zebra fish.

Wow.

On a day when it was reported that the math and science skills of American teens lag behind those of their peers in many other industrialized countries, we can be heartened that these young women are excelling in spite of stereotypes and biases about the science and math abilities of girls and women.

These girls have already set ambitious goals for themselves in their chosen fields. Ms. Schlossberger plans to study physics in college while Ms. Marinoff plans to study both biology and French and hopes to become a doctor for Doctors Without Borders. After studying biology and math in college, Ms. Jain aspires to lead a lab focused on those disciplines. Given their accomplishments thus far, the sky is clearly the limit for these talented young women. Harvard may want to keep an eye out for these girls.

Teen Pregnancy Rate Still Too High for Latinas

by Taryn Wilgus Null, MARGARET Fund Fellow
National Women’s Law Center

As recounted in this blog last week, the Washington Post recently reported that the teen pregnancy rate has dropped significantly in the District of Columbia over the last decade. This is good news.

There are, however, troubling facts that should not be lost in the celebration. First, there are still too many teens who get pregnant. In addition, the teen pregnancy rate among Latinas, in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, remains alarmingly high. Nationwide, the Latino teen pregnancy rate is almost twice the national average and has declined only about half as fast as the national rate. Moreover, the birthrate among Latinas aged 15-19 actually increased in the District of Columbia and 17 of 47 reporting states between 1995 and 2003.

The explanation for this disturbing trend is no doubt very complex. According to a Newsweek article from last week, various advocates believe that current pregnancy prevention campaigns targeting the Latino community have failed to connect culturally with young Latinas. A new initiative launched by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy is working to bridge this cultural gap.

The potential impact of a teen pregnancy on a young woman’s life and future was highlighted by the findings of When Girls Don’t Graduate, We All Fail: A Call to Improve High School Graduation Rates for Girls, a groundbreaking new report released last week by the National Women’s Law Center. The report found that approximately one in four girls fails to complete high school within the standard four year period. The dropout rate is higher for Latinas; in 2004, 37 percent of Latina girls failed to graduate from high school within the standard four year period.

There is a strong link between teen pregnancy and high school dropouts. Of girls who do not complete high school, one-fourth to one-third cite pregnancy or parenting responsibilities as an important factor in their decisions to drop out. Only one-third of teen mothers receive a high school diploma and only 1.5 percent have a college degree by age 30.

Thus, it is critical that pregnancy prevention campaigns effectively reach all girls, and we salute the National Campaign’s efforts to meet this goal. It’s also essential that schools do their part to offer students who are pregnant or parenting the support they need to stay in school. This is because girls who drop out of high school are likely to face a host of challenges over the course of their lives, such as extremely low employment rates and wages, dependence on public support programs, and health problems.

With the commitment of schools and advocates to ensure that every student is able to get an education, together we can work to reduce the dropout rate for Latinas and other students.

NWLC Releases Report on Girls’ High School Dropout Problem

by Taryn Wilgus Null, MARGARET Fund Fellow
National Women’s Law Center

If you listen to the media, you might think that boys are the only ones dropping out of high school.

Wrong.

Girls, and especially female students of color, are failing to graduate at alarmingly high rates, too. On Tuesday, the National Women’s Law Center released When Girls Don’t Graduate, We All Fail: A Call to Improve High School Graduation Rates for Girls. Here are some of the startling statistics from that report:

• Almost half of the estimated 1.2 million high school dropouts from the Class of 2007 were female students; overall, an estimated one in four female students will not graduate with a regular high school diploma in the standard, four-year time period.

• The rates are even worse for girls of color. Nationwide, 37 percent of Hispanic, 40 percent of Black, and 50 percent of American Indian or Alaskan Native female students respectively failed to graduate in four years in 2004.

• Girls who fail to graduate from high school face lower employment rates than boys. In 2006, for example, 77 percent of adult male dropouts were employed, while only 53 percent of their female peers had jobs.

• Female dropouts who do get jobs make significantly lower wages than their male counterparts. Female high school dropouts earn only 63 percent of male earnings — or about $9,100 less annually than male high school dropouts.

• Female dropouts struggle with worse health conditions and less access to health coverage to address their needs. They also are more likely to need to rely on public support programs.

It’s clear that more research must be done to identify the reasons that girls, as opposed to boys, drop out – and to determine whether there are targeted interventions that will be more effective for some groups of students than for others. The research that has been done shows that gender does matter in the dropout crisis. For example, pregnancy and parenting responsibilities have a considerable impact on the ability of female students to stay in school. Additionally, low attendance rates, the impact of sexual harassment, and academic concerns may be more influential factors for girls than for boys when deciding whether to drop out.

When Girls Don’t Graduate outlines specific proposals to help reduce girls’ dropout rates, many of which are likely to help boys as well. These recommendations include: conducting more gender-based research; improving data collection; increasing school accountability for dropouts; providing additional support for pregnant and parenting students; ensuring that girls have equal access to career and technical education and training for high-skill, high-wage jobs; ensuring that girls have equal access to after-school programs, including athletics; protecting students from sexual harassment and bullying; and ensuring that students know how to report sex discrimination. The Center has also prepared a number of tools that schools can use to implement the recommendations of the report.

High school dropout is a serious problem for girls as well as boys. All of our nation’s students deserve the dedication and attention of schools and policymakers to ensure that each of them has an opportunity to get an education.