My friend Marion did a little research to see how women are standing in this country. Here are the statistics she found and resources she used.
1. MONEY: Women earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. Wage equality has not been achieved 45 years after the Equal Pay Act.
2. WORK: Women are 47% of the labor force.
3. EDUCATION: Women were NOT allowed to attend college until 1833. While women now outnumber men in college, they earn less in the workplace.
4. HEALTH INSURANCE: From 1980 to 2005 health insurance coverage has fallen for both men and women. By 2007, 43 Million Americans had no health insurance.
5. HEALTH: Not until 1973 did women have their own reproductive rights. Before 1991, many prescription drugs were not widely tested on women.
6. CREDIT: Until 1974, a woman had no right to credit in her own name. A woman could not borrow for a car, home or other property without the signature of a man.
7. RETIREMENT: Women’s median Social Security is 70% of men’s. The overall value of women’s pensions is 50% that of men’s.
8. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: Nearly 5.3 Million intimate partner victimizations occur yearly among women 18 and older. Violence results in nearly 2 Million injuries and 1,300 deaths.
9. RIGHT TO VOTE: For 219 years White Men have been granted the vote -- Women for the past 88 years. [Voting Rights: White men: 1789. Black men: 1870. Women: 1920. Native Americans: 1924.]
FACTS: 1. U. S. Census, 2007; Equal Pay Act 1963; 2. U. S. Department of Labor, 2007; 3. Oberlin College became coeducational in 1833; U. S. Department of Labor 2005; 4. U. S. Census 2005; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2007; 5. U. S. Supreme Court, Roe v Wade; National Institutes of Health; 6. Equal Credit Opportunity Act, U. S. Department of Justice; 7. U. S. Government Accountability Office (GAO); 8. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Center for Disease Control and Prevention; 10. U.S. Constitution.
America and American women have come far.
We need to keep moving forward.
A vote for Democrats is a vote for women and men.
10 comments:
This is so sad...we still have a long way to go.
For all of the great women who have been "First Lady" I would think the country would be further along.
I am quite up on the election but I sure get tons of insight from Girlfriend who knows her politics.
My Vote: Barack Obama
Thanks Carleen and Marion for the eye opening statistics. This is why we can never forget where we came from -- or how recently we were there.
Vote vote vote!!!
Very important . . . thanks for sharing this.
Let's turn a few more red states blue!
I am so with you on this! We need a change in the government. But we should remember, the odds are better in the US - but when I think of the discrepancy of how women are treated in other countries, I feel sick.
We've come a long way, but have a long way to go!
My thought is women aren't the only ones whose lives depend on Obama being elected. But I do agree that he does seem to understand our issues. And the issues of the poor. And the small business owners. And the veterans. And...
It shook me up how many of those advances have come during my lifetime.
I'm not sure we have a right to our own name in every state yet. Here in California my husband and I were able to buy a house under our own names without a single comment, but in Louisiana every legal paper we signed, they would type in my husband's last name after mine, no matter how we filled out the original paperwork. I would always correct it and sign with my real name, but one bank employee told me they were required on the forms they typed up to add the husband's last name to the wife's name.
Wow Shauna. I'm shocked, but then I realize I shouldn't be. An ex-boyfriend & I bought a house together & our male real estate agent refused to deal directly w/me. If the one with the penis wasn't home, he'd just call back.
Thank you for reminding us that although we've come a long way (baby), there is still much work to be done.
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