“You Don’t Own Me” PSA from You Don’t Own Me on Vimeo.
Women constitute more than half of the population. In 2008, 60% of voters were women. It is estimated that 10 million more women than men will vote in this election. Despite this, women make up only 16% of Congress. Women earn only 70 cents to each dollar men make. Women of color and undocumented women make less than white citizens. Mitt Romney and the Republican Party are determined to overturn Roe V. Wade. Romney has not supported equal pay for women (The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act). Romney has vowed to defund Planned Parenthood. Romney has vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Romney doesn’t want health care to cover birth control. Romney says same sex marriage should be banned with a Constitutional Amendment.
To all those who want to ridcule and mock, screw you. It really is a war over economic power. Unless women have total control over their own reproduction, they will never have economic equality.
To the men who want to belittle and who are doing a last grasp at their own place in the world, you were a majority for ever so long. Bend over, tell it good bye. It’s now time to share the power and the glory.
When you are a vintage woman you can say what you want, when you want, and for as long as you want.
Ha ha ha…I remember that song from high school and when it merely applied to the current boyfriend. My friends and I never thought it would have to be sung to a bunch of pot-bellied, balding, priggish old white guys who were determined to get in our pants!
or control your ovaries.
Boy that brings back memories. My friends older sister has all of Lesly Gores 45’s. Tenefly High, Tenefly NJ
Are any of you still in the actual work force, because theLily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is a red herring in my view.
I can tell you from experience that business and the military work very hard to hire and promote women. In ALL the cases that I have observed over the last decade, the failure to keep pace with salaries is related mostly to the career choices of the women themselves. Women are given opportunities (just like men are) to assume roles/positions that build experience and responsibility, but they decline these opportunities at a much higher rate than the men do. When the time comes to make a choice for promotion, the number of women in position to be chosen can be very, very low.
This is personally very frustrating, because I have had some terrific female colleagues that simply refused to make the aggressive career choices necessary to get the big promotions and big raises in a competitive environment. When you tell them this, they say that they understand, but emphasize that their career is not always their primary focus.
So I am not sure how the Lilly Ledbetter Act could possibly change anything.
Government and military are under the microscope. There are small businesses all over the United States that don’t provide equal pay for equal work.
Lilly Ledbetter addresses the fact that she was only given a brief period of time to appeal. Her time was up before she even realized she wasn’t getting equal pay. Let’s face it, how many people compare paychecks? The SOTUS upheld that statute of limitations. She was screwed. Her pension is now 40% less than some guy working right next to her. She is woman hear her roar.
Is that what you would want for your wife or daughters or sisters if any worked in a less visible area?
Red Herring my tail! Walk a mile in someone else’s moccasins.
If women don’t want to go for those high paying jobs and career moves you have described, thats fine. As long as women are the primary care givers you are going to find what you described to be the case. That isn’t what this is about. This could be about factory work or plucking chickens. Women and men should make the same salaries. Kelly, you have on middle class blinders.
@kelly, no I am not still in the work force. Jesus, how many more years must I put in ……????
I also worked most of the time in PWC in a professional field where salaries didn’t get quite as exposed to gender discrimination. In the early days women weren’t hired UP. That changed.
However, go down to the Northern Neck…see if you see the same thing. A few good ole boys can change the channel on that scene.
Kelly, the reason some of those women don’t take those career-enhancing opportunities may be because they’re stuck with the majority of the domestic and childcare chores already. That’s changing but this country is still a backwater when it comes to providing childcare and ,therfore, career opportunities for women.
I’m still astounded that some man would dare to tell a women he doesn’t know, doesn’t support, and has never seen what she can do with her body.
I never started accumulating any sick leave until my children were old enough to stay home alone…aka mid high school.
@Censored you better save a little of that sass for Cargo who thinks he should be the boss of all fertilized eggs.
Funny, I don’t think its any of my business what other women do about planned or unplanned pregancies as long as they are within the guidelines.
Strange how men are so fetus focused until it comes time to change a dirty diaper.
@kelly_3406
I would agree except I see from first hand knowledge that military and para-military organizations are still structured around male employees preventing many women to have to chose between parenting and opportunities that require different or rotating shifts, training demands that require long periods of time away from the family and uncertainty regarding schedules. More and more men are taking on larger roles with families and many have tabled their careers for spouses.
But the basic structure in place in these organizations is focused on those that can meet those flexible, longer days and absent from home requirements.
Perhaps that explains those 19,000 rapes in the military. I find that appalling. All that glitters isnt really gold.
I was just watching the latest episode of Boardwalk Empire. Margaret has gotten very interested in women’s issues as they relate to child birth.
What she is running in to are women desperately wanting contraception information. She has this ladies group but the hospital isnt allowing her or the sponsoring doctor to tell the ladies how to prevent pregnancies.
One of the poor women who got Margaet interested in helping women in the first place came to see her and wanted a diaphram. Margaret told her that a doctor had to give her one. The woman told Margaret that no doctor would give a poor woman one, only women like Margaret (wealthy-wife of a gangster)At that point the woman revealed to Margaret that when she had first seen her, she was suffering from a self induced abortion, not a miscarriage, as everyone thought.
In 1920, doctors wouldn’t give poor women contraception. How absolutely horrible.
The Comstock Act at its worst. And yet people vilify Planned Parenthood.
Check out Boardwalk Empire on hbogo.com. You can pick up past episodes.
This episode reminded me of why it is so important to vote for reproductive freedom.
Opposed to abortion–don’t have one.
Opposed to contraception–don’t use it.
Then mind your own business.
I have gotten zero get out the vote calls from Planned parenthood. I have gotten at least 13 calls from various Right to life groups. I only wish I had a real person on the other end.
👿
@Censored bybvbl
So I am guessing that you think the tax payer should subsidize child care so women can get ahead?
kelly, would you rather subsidize child care or have the woman sit at home and get paid welfare? I know which *I* would chose for both the short run and the long run.
That is, unless you are in the business of homeless children starving to death…..
@Lyssa
Military organizations are structured to get the job done, not to be family friendly. It is no easier for men to deploy or work rotating shifts than it is for women.
We’ve watched a few British detective series lately. One, Inspector George Gently, is based in the mid-Sixties and one of the shows illustrates how hard it was for a single woman to get contraception at that time and how underground any abortion provider – even an MD – had to be.
I’ve avoided most of the political calls. My family knows the secret code to get me to pick up the phone. My friends can email. (Caller ID isn’t good enough since I’d have to round up the phone anyway to see who it is.)
@Moon-howler
I am sure there are pockets of discrimination, but good, well-trained employees are hard to acquire and retain. I just do not believe that there is widespread sexism that causes women to be paid less. Companies that engage in such practices are unlikely to survive and be competitive for very long.
In any business, you can always find the “doormats” that do not stand up for themselves and get taken advantage of, be they men or women. Their salaries tend to be lower, but I do not see any evidence that the doormats are predominately women.
As for ”good ole boys’, networking is here to stay. It is just human nature to prefer people that are recommended/introduced by friends and colleagues rather than to accept a stranger off the street. I am teaching my daughter to embrace networking by introducing her to my colleagues and friends in high places. “Sales” (i.e. selling your capabilities) are an important part of your professional responsibilities.
It has been been a long practice in small communitities for women to be paid less than male counterparts. The reasoning is that the men have families to support.
Perhaps because you are male and a suburbanite, you are unaware of these practices.
Networking is not the same as the ‘good ole boy network.’ The good old boy network is exclusive and you must be a member to play. Networking welcomes new members. Good ole does not.
There is a huge, yet obviously subtle difference.
Kelly, you are going to have to take my word for it regarding pay. Yes, it is getting less prevalent but its still out there. Its more prevalent in small business than it is in corporate America. It is generally more small town and rural.
In Lilly Ledbetter’s case, she was unaware that she was making less. When she realized it and sued, she was told that the statute of limitions had run out. You would be surprised how many Lilly Ledbetters there are in this country.
@kelly_3406
Think about what you’ve just said – “So I am guessing that you think the tax payer should subsidize child care so women can get ahead?”
Who’s doing the childcare now so that men get ahead? Women for the most part. How about a little equal opportunity while knowing that the kiddos are well cared for? Many European countries have better arrangements so that both spouses have an equal shot at advancement.
@Moon-howler
The attitude that men had to support their families was prevalent 20 years ago, but i do not think it’s true anymore. Those ideas just won’t fly in modern society. Small communities are no longer separated from the ideas/ norms of the wider world due to the Internet and other mass communications. That’s why I asked how long it had been since you were in the work force.
How much money would you like to put on that? There are place in the West that don’t even have electricity.
It doesn’t matter how long I have been out of the work force. I never personally experienced it. However….I do get around and in some areas, women still don’t get equal pay. They will now. If its not a problem, then nothing chances. If it is, then women have the protection and some recourse. What the big deal?
You sound like my father on the subject of the ERA and that is not a compliment, Kelly.
The big deal is unintended consequence. When Title IX was applied to NCAA sports, it did not result in gender equality, but it did lead to many colleges dropping a large number of sports for men. Do we really want to take the chance on a law that meddles with private salaries to fix a problem not proven to exist and which could lead to really bad results …. like even more jobs exported to China and higher unemployment?