Paradigm Shift

Retailers are paying female employees significantly less than male employees, according to new data released by the Retail Action Project and Stephanie Luce of the City University of New York Murphy Institute. Because retail is a growing industry that predominantly employs women, hundreds of thousands of women workers will be working long hours this holiday shopping season for less pay.

When hundreds of stock, sales, cashier, and workers at national retail companies in New York City were recently surveyed about their wages and other benefits, it was discovered the median wage gap between women and men was the difference between $9.00/hr and $10.13/hr. For low-wage hourly workers, that difference of 12% adds up fast. Further, women were found to be less likely than male co-workers to be promoted, or to have health benefits. This has huge implications for women’s health, as uninsured and underinsured women are less likely to receive routine care that can be lifesaving. Furthermore, taxpayers are subsidizing retail giants whose low-wage employees qualify for public benefits.

The Retail Industry Leader’s Association, a powerful retail lobby group of retail corporations – such as WalMart, Target, Best Buy, JC Penney, Lowe’s –  reports that retailers greatly benefited from early Black Friday sales, as evidenced by the surge in hiring and record profits. But the experience for women workers was far from positive. Women were paid less while many were forced to work on Thanksgiving Day, spending the holiday apart from their children and families because several giants opened on the holiday for the first time.  So if retailers are thriving despite the current downturn, why are retail giants paying women less?

Retail businesses such as Old Navy, Target, Toys R Us, and Sears plan to capitalize on the holidays even further by instituting around-the-clock sale hours as Christmas approaches. Since women are the majority of the retail workforce across the country, it is women who will be working extra, for less pay than their male counterparts.

Closing the gap in wages, promotions and health benefits between men and women retail workers would be a first step to addressing continuing patterns of inequality in the workplace. Tell the President of the Retail Industry Leader’s Association, Sandy Kennedy, to ensure that retailers pay equal pay for equal work! Together we can hold retail corporations accountable for perpetuating the gender wage gap.

Sign the Change.org petition started by Retail Action Project

Last week the Retail Action Project and the City University of New York released preliminary data from an upcoming report showing that women retail workers in NYC make significantly less than men (the mean wage for women is $9 and $10.50 for men) Check out the coverage in Crain’s,  Huffington Post, Jezebel and Colorlines.

The Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act, recently endorsed by the NY Times, would help more women earn a livingwage by guaranteeing that the jobs subsidized with our tax dollars pay a wage of $10 an hour plus benefits of $11.50 without.

Help the Living Wage NYC Campaign close the gender gap in the retail industry by passing the “Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act.”

Retail is an industry dominated by women, yet these poorly paid jobs are exploiting women. Not only that, men are more likely than women to receive raises and promotions as well as health benefits and paid time off. Women are bearing the brunt of the growth but not seeing any of the rewards.

Please help the Living Wage NYC Campaign make a change for the hard working women of New York City by call your Council Member and ask them to support the “Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act” now!

Please visit: http://www.livingwagenyc.org

Opening online registration for our 8th Annual National Young Feminist Leadership Conference!

The conference is March 31 – April 2, 2012 at the Crystal City Hilton (5 minutes from the National Airport). Our workshops will include the latest developments in feminist political activism around domestic and global women’s health, reproductive rights, student voter participation, violence against women, and more. At the conference, you’ll trade feminist organizing tips with youth activists from across the country, and get their advice for making your feminist group even stronger on campus.

Early Bird Registration (through February 1) is only $25 for individuals and $20 for groups of 4+. After that, those rates will go up to $35 for individuals and $25 for groups, so take advantage of the early bird rate and register today! The conference registration fee includes a full weekend of workshops and a Congressional Visit Day on Capitol Hill on Monday, April 2.

Check out the conference website to start planning your trip to DC – it will be helpful to you as you organize registration, transportation, lodging, and food costs, and which members of Congress you’ll contact while you’re here.

The largest 3 groups to register by March 15 will receive prizes like free “This What A Feminist Looks Like” t-shirts, totebags, and Ms. magazine memberships for each member, so start recruiting today!

To take advantage of the group registration discount, call our DC office at 703-522-2214 and ask to speak with a campus organizer. Don’t hesitate to call or email nyflc@feminist.org if you have any questions or concerns. We’ll see you in DC!

For equality,

duVergne, Francesca, Jacqueline, Laura, Meghan, Myra, and Sarah
The FMF Campus Team

P.S. Be sure to keep checking our conference website over the next few weeks as we continue to add the schedule, speakers, and more content!

Tangled in
her innocent
flower embroidered
nightmares
little girl
strung inside
my cage

you bang your
soft little
fists
scratch the walls
of my subconscious
call out
at the bottom
of the stairs
at the top
of my lungs

I cradle you
in my
sleep paralyzed arms,
interlocking
my grown woman
writers hands with your
feeling finger mitts

we both
love
and
fear
the
water

fighting
to keep out
night gowns
out of the toilet
our legs
out of the
sewer drains
but gulping
it down
in wonder
wandering
to the edge
of the ocean
staring
as a leak
springs into
a flood

try to tie up
the shoe strings
they are
undone

there are ghosts
at the tippy top
of the matching
curtains

there are men
under the bed
a betraying boy
in the closet
we tried to
make safe

burn candles
in the pockets
of my skull
so we can
make
brighter
the room
where we
meet each
other

welding
bravery
to the
terror
waning
between us
wax tears
will have to
suffice
the
suffering

Franca Ogbu was the first person in her family to attend college, but her education was cut short when another student at Nigeria’s Federal University of Technology attacked her with acid after she refused to date him.

Franca has spent the last year in a hospital bed recovering from her extreme, disfiguring injuries. She’s undergone 11 surgeries and needs at least 13 more. Meanwhile, her attacker, Chibuzor Bright Nkire, has walked free because Nigerian prosecutors refuse to hold him accountable.

Now, Busayo Obisakin (a Nigerian woman who grew up in a poor family similar to Franca’s)

The attack against Franca wasn’t unique — “acid baths,” meant to disfigure or kill women who are thought to have scorned men, have been described as “incessant” and “disturbingly common” by Nigerian newspapers.

Busayo knows that the longer Franca’s attacker goes unprosecuted, the less likely he is ever to face consequences for his actions. And more women like Franca will be in danger if the criminal justice system lets men think they can get away with acts of violence.

Nigeria’s First Lady has recently taken a stand against violence targeting women and girls, so Busayo and other local activists believe an international outcry about Franca’s attacker will force the government to take action. Please sign Busayo’s petition right now demanding the Nigerian government prosecute Franca’s attacker and regulate the sale of acid as a weapon:

http://www.change.org/petitions/demand-justice-for-brutal-acid-bath-attack-against-nigerian-student-franca-ogbu

Thanks for being a change-maker,

– Shelby and the Change.org team

• Nilton Deza has seen whole communities destroyed by toxic waste, displacement and abusive labor practices associated with gold mining. Join his campaign asking Macy’s to join the “No Dirty Gold” campaign this holiday season.
• Photoshopped images of models are nothing new, but H&M has taken the practice a step further and started computer-animating images of perfect bodies and pasting on real models’ heads. Join a group of young women calling on H&M to drop the fake bodies.
• Alex Sahlen, a defender for the Western New York Flash, launched a petition to save Women’s Professional Soccer from being disbanded.
• D.C. college student Katie Breslin is petitioning to get Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence (SAFE) kits and trained staff in every D.C. hospital so no sexual assault survivor is turned away without treatment.
• Two men in Cameroon were just sentenced to five years in prison for the “crime” of being gay. Now petition starter Stephane Koche is asking Cameroon’s president to drop the charges and let the men go free.

Something like this should not happen with a pro-choice president in the White House.

The Obama administration officials have blocked a change in policy that would have helped prevent unintended teen pregnancies.

I’ve already called the White House, but our leaders need to hear from you. Add your name to my letter to express your strong disappointment.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was planning to make Plan B®, a brand of emergency contraception, available to all women without a prescription.

But at the last minute, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius intervened and blocked the FDA from removing an age restriction on Plan B®.

What’s worse is that this interference means a policy put in place by the Bush administration will continue.

Add your name to my letter to say that it is unacceptable that this administration chose to follow this path.

Plan B® is emergency birth control that works after sex, and could be used, for example, when the condom breaks or in the cases of rape. Medical experts agree that improving access to Plan B® by making it available over the counter for young women could help reduce teen-pregnancy rates.

When emergency contraception was first approved for over-the-counter sales, anti-choice politicians in the Bush administration intervened and blocked access to women under 18. Medical experts never stopped advocating to remove the age restriction because Plan B® is proven to be safe for women of all ages.

As we predicted, the Bush administration-imposed barrier was unworkable. For example, the rule poses a terrible problem for a young woman who is a survivor of rape or incest and does not have the option of talking with her parents if she is from a violent home or was attacked by a relative. Under the Bush-era policy, many teens still may be blocked from accessing the medication – and could face unintended pregnancies as a result.

We had every confidence that this Bush-era policy would come to an end.

That’s why today’s news is so shocking. The Obama administration has broken a key promise to the American people that it would base its decisions on sound science and what’s in the best interest of women’s health.

Help me tell the Obama administration that it has failed to deliver change – add your name to my letter today.

In solidarity,

Nancy Keenan
President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

The Obama administration interfered in a policy that would prevent unintended teen pregnancy.

This is not the kind of action we come to expect from a pro-choice administration.

Take Action.