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Feminist Majority Foundation's Recommendations to
the President's Interagency Council on Women: Economic Security
and Justice
Provide Women Equal Opportunity In Employment
Measuring Gender Impact of Employment Shifts
Removing Gender Bias In Economic Research and
Policy
Gender Balance in Financial Institutions
International Financial Institutions
Valuing Women's Unwaged Work
Pay Equity
Developing a Feminist Federal Budget
Poverty
ECONOMIC SECURITY/JUSTICE
PRIORITY: PROVIDE WOMEN EQUAL
OPPORTUNITY IN EMPLOYMENT
The Platform for Action states:
Para 178(c)
Enact and enforce laws and develop workplace policies against
gender discrimination in the labor market,, especially considering
older women workers, in hiring and promotion and in the extension
of employment benefits and social security, as well as regarding
discriminatory working conditions and sexual harassment; mechanisms
should be developed for regular review and monitoring of such
laws.
Status:
The Department of Labor's Glass Ceiling Commission report shows
that while white men are only 43% of the workforce, they hold
95% of the top management jobs at Fortune 2000 industrial and
service companies. Women are also shut out of well-paying blue
collar jobs: women comprise only 3% of firefighters, 8% of state
and local police officers, and 2% of construction workers. In
fact, women are underrepresented in 95% of job categories.
At the same time, anti-discrimination laws and affirmative action
programs designed to remedy the exclusion of women have come under
attack across the country. Affirmative Action does work: a 1995
study by Rutgers University law professor Alfred Blumrosen, a
U.S. Labor Department consultant on affirmative action issues,
revealed that an estimated six million women would not have the
jobs they have today were it not for affirmative action programs.
Further, the percentage of contracts awarded to women and minorities
drops and employment opportunities decline without affirmative
action.
Actions
- The Administration should continue to work through the courts,
the legislature, and the executive branch to defend and strengthen
affirmative action.
- The Department of Labor (DOL) must conduct extensive studies
on affirmative action in the workplace, detailing programs and
how well they have worked.
- DOL should create and maintain a central database should be
kept of programs that have worked in the past to serve as a
resource for employers.
PRIORITY: MEASURING GENDER IMPACT
OF EMPLOYMENT SHIFTS
The Platform for Action states:
Para.58(h)
"Generate economic polices that have a positive impact on the
employment and income of women workers in both the formal and
informal sectors and adopt specific measures to address women's
unemployment, in particular their long-term unemployment."
Paras. 67 (a)(b)
"Develop conceptual and practical methodologies for incorporating
gender perspectives into all aspects of economic policy-making,
including structural adjustment planning and programmes. Apply
these methodologies in conducting gender-impact analyses of all
policies and programmes, including structural adjustment programmes,
and disseminate the research findings."
Para. 206.
"Ensure that statistics related to individuals are collected,
compiled, analyzed and presented by sex and age and reflect problems,
issues and questions related to women and men in society."
Status:
Contrary to popular belief, increasing numbers of women workers
have become the victims of downsizing, plant closings, and corporate
restructuring. Wedged between the creases of economic studies
and labor histories lie the myriad numbers of women who have been
laid off as a result of company restructuring. Corporations rely
on a disproportionately female contingent workforce that is ineligible
to receive most benefits and thus costs employers less to maintain.
Actions
- Collect and make available gender disaggregated data on the
impact of downsizing, plant closings, and corporate restructuring
on women workers.
- Assess whether the 48 percent increase in the number of pregnancy
discrimination complaints filed with the EEOC in recent years
reflects whether pregnant women have been especially disadvantaged
by downsizing.
- Amend the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 to close the
loopholes that are costing pregnant women their jobs.
- Increase the resources of the Women's Bureau at the Department
of Labor to conduct the research examining the impact of downsizing
on women.
PRIORITY: REMOVING GENDER BIAS
IN ECONOMIC RESEARCH AND POLICY.
The Platform for Action States:
Para. 68
Collect gender and age-disaggregated data on poverty and all aspects
of economic activity and develop qualitative and quantitative
statistical indicators to facilitate the assessment of economic
performance from a gender perspective
Para. 63
Commercial banks, specialized financial institutions and the private
sector should:
(a) Use credit and savings methodologies that are effective
in reaching women in poverty and innovative in reducing transactions
costs and redefining risk;
(c) Simplify banking practices, for example by reducing the
minimum deposits and other requirements for opening bank accounts
Para. 64
Support, through the provision of capital and/or resources, financial
institutions that serve low-income, small-scale and micro-scale
women entrepreneurs and producers, in both the formal and informal
sectors
Para. 65
Support institutions that meet performance standards in reaching
large numbers of low-income women and men through capitalization,
refinancing and institutional development support in forms that
foster self sufficiency
Status:
Institutions responsible for formulating economic policy such
as the Federal Reserve do not consider gender impact as a factor
in formulating monetary as well as fiscal policy, despite the
fact that many areas of economic policy such as banking and credit
known to have a disparate gender impact. (GAO studies on CRA)
Actions
- The Federal Reserve and analysts of monetary policy must reexamine
the economic indicators that they use to determine the health
of the economy . Does the consumer price index accurately represent
the "basket of goods" that women are purchasing? Are women (both
as private individuals and as business owners) hurt more severely
by rising interest rates because of their traditionally limited
access to credit which forces them to rely on credit sources
such as credit cards?
- The Federal Reserve must train staff in feminist economic
theories and gender analysis to ensure that this kind of research
is included in the recommendations made to the Board of Governors.
- In addition, allow the General Accounting Office, which already
audits the policies and actions of most federal agencies, to
critically analyze policy decisions made by the Federal Reserve.
GAO can highlight the gender impact of the Fed's policies and
advise the Fed on how to incorporate gender analysis into monetary
policy decisions. Currently, the Federal Reserve is one of the
few government financial institutions outside the GAO's jurisdiction.
- Federal law must require the Internal Revenue Service to keep
data about income taxes disaggregated by gender.
- Defeat the Regulatory Relief Bill which dilutes the Community
Reinvestment Act (CRA). The CRA charges financial institutions
with "a continuing and affirmative obligation to help meet the
credit needs of their entire communities, including low- and
moderate-income neighborhoods, consistent with safe and sound
operation." It was created in response to the "redlining" phenomenon,
in which banks were rapidly moving out of low-income neighborhoods.
Banks are evaluated by the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller
of the Currency, and the Office of Thrift Supervision on their
level of compliance with the CRA. CRA must be strengthened by
increasing the incentives to receive positive CRA evaluations.
- Amend the CRA to address the unique obstacles that women face
when trying to obtain credit. Require the CRA evaluation process
to measure how many loans each bank has made to women. Similarly,
use the CRA evaluation process to encourage banks to provide
special credit opportunities for women, such as those that are
found at women-owned banks.
PRIORITY: GENDER BALANCE
IN FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
The Platform for Action states:
Para. 192
(b) "Create or strengthen, as appropriate, mechanism to monitor
women's access to senior levels of decision-making"
(c) "Review criteria for recruitment and appointment to advisory
and decision-making bodies and promotion to senior positions to
ensure that such criteria are relevant and do not discriminate
against women"
Status:
Currently, only two of the seven members of the board of governors
of the Federal Reserve System are women. A 1993 report of the
House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs found that
"minorities and women are consistently underrepresented in the
highest paid and most important decision-making positions at the
Board and Reserve Banks, a condition that unfortunately also exists
at other Federal banking regulatory agencies." The affirmative
action plans of the Reserve Banks are not subject to evaluation
by the EEOC because the banks are regarded as private institutions
in this area. Their plans are reviewed by the Federal Reserve
Board which uses a subjective and non-formalized grading method.
Actions
- The Board and the Reserve Banks must design and publicize
a plan of action for increasing the number of women and minorities
in upper-level positions throughout the system. This should
include a focus on on-campus recruiting at predominately minority
and women's universities. As the House report suggested, "the
Board's grading system must be comprehensive, uniform, consistent,
objective and formalized." It is unacceptable for the Board
to continue to base its grades on goals that they themselves
set.
- Congress must define the Board and the Reserve Banks as "executive
agencies" under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to
ensure compliance with this act, rather than continuing to consider
the Banks to be private employers.
- Other major financial institutions must increase the number
of women in decision-making positions. At the World Bank, for
example, only 12.7% of senior positions are filled by women.
The proportion of women in top positions must continue to increase
in the World Bank, the U.S. Treasury Department, the Congressional
Budget Committees (which are both currently less than 20% women)
and the International Monetary Fund. Top-level positions (and
entire divisions) must be created in these institutions that
directly focus on gender-related analysis and policy.
- In the World Bank, the Asia and Africa divisions currently
have full time, regular staff dedicated to gender issues. All
regions should be required to include these positions. Specialist
staff will be needed to support managers in the integration
of social policy into economic reform and to enhance staff capacity.
PRIORITY: INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL
INSTITUTIONS
The Platform for Action states:
Para. 58 (b)
Analyze, from a gender perspective, policies and programmes --
including those related to macroeconomic stability, structural
adjustment, external debt problems, taxation, investments, employment,
markets and all relevant sectors of the economy - with respect
to their impact on poverty, on inequality and particularly on
women;
Status:
At the Beijing Conference, women's groups presented a petition
to James Wolfenson, President of the World Bank. The petition
addressed the negative impact that many of the Bank's policies
have on women. (See attached copy of the petition.) The Bank has
responded to the Beijing Petition by beginning the process of
integrating gender into their research and policy in a variety
of programs. The World Bank needs to:
- Develop a plan which ensures the protection and increase of
social sector resources in reform packages.
- Increase credit for women by monitoring the banks in the countries
it supports and demanding that women have access to credit.
- Poverty assessments must monitor and measure the feminization
of poverty. These assessments as well as other gender-focused
impact indicators must be used in all decisions about program
and project lending.
- Extend the "Africa initiative" to all regions. This would
require all regions to include at least three strategic gender
objectives in each Country Assistance Strategy plan.
- The Bank's central budget should include increased resources
for gender programs and research.
- All staff should be trained in gender analysis of macroeconomic
policy.
- All qualitative and quantitative data-including case studies,
surveys, etc.-must be disaggregated by gender and this information
must be used in developing macro-economic and sectoral policy.
- Direct links must be established between the Bank staff and
women's organizations, as well as organizations that work directly
with the poor. There must be regularly scheduled meetings with
these non-governmental organizations to discuss potential policy.
PRIORITY: VALUING WOMEN'S UNWAGED
WORK
The Platform for Action states:
Para. 68 (b)
"Devise suitable statistical means to recognize and make visible
the full extent of the work of women and all their contributions
to the national economy, including their contribution in the unremunerated
and domestic sectors, and examine the relationship of women's
unremunerated work to the incidence of and their vulnerability
to poverty."
Para. 206(f)(iii).
"Developing methods , in the appropriate forums, for assessing
the value, in quantitative terms, of unremunerated work that is
outside national accounts, such as caring for dependents and preparing
food, for possible reflection in satellite or other official accounts
that may be produced separately but are consistent with core national
accounts with a view to recognizing the economic contribution
of women and making visible the unequal distribution of remunerated
and unremunerated work between women and men."
Status:
Women perform crucial unwaged work including housework, childcare,
and eldercare which is not reflected in the national accounts
and is therefore unvalued in our society.
Actions
- Unwaged work must be regularly measured qualitatively and
methods must be developed to accurately assess its value.
- Alternative, but parallel accounts to the core national accounts
must be developed and they must include the value of unwaged
work to demonstrate its effect on the economy. Similar practices
must be encouraged in developing countries and countries with
economies in transition.
PRIORITY: PAY EQUITY
The Platform for Action states:
Para. 165(a)
"Enact and enforce legislation to guarantee the rights of women
and men to equal pay for
"Increase efforts to close the gap between women's and men's pay,
take steps to implement the principle of equal remuneration for
equal work of equal value by strengthening legislation, including
compliance with international labor laws and standards, and encourage
job evaluation schemes with gender-neutral criteria."
Para.178 (o)
"Review analyze and, where appropriate, reformulate the wage structures
in female-dominated professions, such as teaching, nursing and
childcare, with a view toward raising their low wages and earnings."
Status:
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 1993, women were paid
72 cents for each dollar paid to men. For women of color, the
wage gap is even more severe. This pay discrepancy causes a "domino
effect" leaving women with less property, less access to credit,
lower pensions and social security, and a lower standard of living.
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Rights
Act have not closed the wage gap that results from the sex-based
occupational segregation of the workforce. The Fair Pay Act that
has been introduced in Congress is an important first step to
achieving the goal of equal pay for work of equal value. The Act
requires equal pay for workers in equivalent jobs, "even when
the work performed is different." The act prohibits wage discrimination
based on race or national origin as well as gender and requires
employers to disclose information about wages.
Actions
- Enactment of the Fair Pay Act should be an Administration
priority.
- However, the Fair Pay Act is only the first step in achieving
pay equity and implementing the Fourth World Conference on Women
platform. The next step is encouraging "job evaluation schemes
with gender-neutral criteria," as the platform recommends. The
gender neutrality criteria requires that white male jobs, female-dominated
jobs and significantly minority jobs be compensated on a consistent
basis for job content characteristics such as similar skills,
education, working conditions, and responsibilities. The standard
of gender neutrality also requires that job content characteristics
associated with predominately female and significantly jobs
must be positively valued and compensated. The federal government
should strive to achieve gender neutrality in its compensation
systems and should encourage and assist government contractors,
states and municipalities in removing gender bias from wage-setting
practices.
PRIORITY: DEVELOPING A FEMINIST
FEDERAL BUDGET
Para. 58(b)
"Analyze, from a gender perspective, policies and programs-including
those related to macroeconomic stability, structural adjustment,
external debt problems, taxation, investments, employment, markets
and all relevant sectors of the economy-with respect to their
impact on poverty, on inequality and particularly on women; assess
their impact on family well-being and conditions and adjust them
as appropriate, to promote more equitable distribution of productive
assets, wealth, opportunities, income and services."
Para. 58(d)
"Restructure and target the allocation of public expenditures
to promote women's economic opportunities and equal access to
productive resources and to address the basic social, educational
and health needs of women, especially those living in poverty."
Para. 58(h)
"Generate economic policies that have a positive impact on the
employment and income of women workers in both the formal and
informal sectors and adopt specific measures to address women's
unemployment, in particular their long-term employment."
Status:
Women are hurt disproportionately by cuts in social spending
and increases in military spending. Jobs in the social sector
are predominately women's jobs while jobs in the military sector
are predominately men's jobs. When money is taken from the already
meager social budget, it is primarily women who are cut from the
payrolls. Women are also disproportionately the recipients of
social spending: 58% of Medicare recipients are women, 85% of
Medicaid recipients are women and children, 97% of Aid to Families
with Dependent Children (AFDC) recipients are women and children,
75% of Earned Income Tax Credit recipients are women, 85% of food
stamp recipients are women and children, 68% of SSI funds go to
women and children, etc. Cutting these critical social programs
for the benefit of the already-bloated military budget is a women's
issue.
Actions
- The particular impact of the federal budget on women must
be examined.
- Data on the gender impact of all federal expenditure, revenue,
and monetary programs must be collected, made available, and
taken into consideration in policy design.
PRIORITY: POVERTY
Para. 58(c)
"Pursue and implement sound and stable macroeconomic and sectoral
policies that are designed and monitored with the full and equal
participation of women, encourage broad-based sustained economic
growth, address the structural causes of poverty and are geared
towards eradicating poverty and reducing gender-based inequalities
within the overall framework of achieving people-centered sustainable
development."
Para. 58(j)
"Provide adequate safety nets and strengthen state-based and community-based
support systems, as an integral part of social policy, in order
to enable women living in poverty to withstand adverse economic
environments and preserve their livelihood, assets and revenues
in times of crisis."
Actions
- Rather than eliminating a guarantee of financial assistance
to women with dependent children, the federal government needs
to increase aid in order to bring families above the poverty
level. Job creation, childcare, and health care should form
the core of the federal government's anti-poverty policy.
- The elimination of corporate welfare is crucial to narrowing
the gap between the richest and the poorest in this country.
Instead of gutting the social welfare system, the federal government
should increase corporate taxes and reduce corporate subsidies.
"The Corporate Responsibility Act" presented by the House Progressive
Caucus in 1995 that will eliminate $800 billion in tax subsidies
and other benefits for the upper class and corporations should
be passed. The money that will be saved by suspending corporate
welfare should be invested in the development of human capital
(i.e. nutrition, housing, education). Military spending, which
currently accounts for over 50% of the discretionary budget,
has to be cut.
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