Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Issue of the Week: Helping Working Women Helps Us All
Gov. Scott Walker, the son of a minister who believes his current political troubles are part of "God's plan" for him, spent part of his Good Friday quietly signing four pieces of legislation that show no compassion for Wisconsin women, especially working women.
Three of the bills limit the role of women in their own health decisions because Walker believes that career politicians like him know best.
The fourth makes it more difficult for women to sue an employer for illegal wage discrimination.
Apparently, Republicans don't believe that the gender wage gap is a problem, even though the U.S. Census showed that, as of 2009, a full-time working woman in Wisconsin earned just 75 cents for every full-time working man's dollar.
Tellingly, Walker's ideological twin, state Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend), explained that the attack on pay equity is just fine with him because "you could argue that money is more important for men."
Oh, really?
According to the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Women's Policy Research, "nearly two-thirds of all households in poverty in Wisconsin are headed by single women and, across the board, women are more likely than men to be poor."
Tell the women and kids who are struggling just to get by that money is less important to them.
Unfortunately, instead of helping working women earn more money and succeed in the workplace, Walker, Grothman and the rest of the Republicans in Madison have done everything they can to restrict women's earning power. In addition to siding with employers who illegally discriminate against their female employees, they've cut wages for public employees (the majority of whom are women), eliminated collective bargaining for home health care workers paid by Medicaid and family child care workers (the vast majority of whom are women), repealed Milwaukee's paid sick days ordinance, tried to weaken Wisconsin's strong Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and have made historic funding cuts to public education at all levels, even though education is the best way to boost a worker's earning power.
While women are taking the brunt of the hits from Republicans, the GOP's attack on working women affects everyone. It tells employers that they don't have to pay fair, competitive wages in Wisconsin. And that weakens the earning power of all workers throughout the state, whether you are a woman or a man.
Heroes of the Week: Cuts 4 A Cause Volunteers
On April 15, Roots Salon looks to create awareness of diseases and treatments that result in hair loss and provide an opportunity for the public to donate hair or money for sick kids with its fifth annual "Cuts 4 A Cause."
Roots stylists will be volunteering their talents from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, when those with at least 6 inches of unbleached hair to donate can receive a free one-hour cut and style. All hair donations go to Locks of Love and Wigs for Kids, which provide hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children suffering from long-term medical hair loss. You can also receive a free haircut with a minimum $20 donation, with 100% of funds going to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and Penfield Children's Center.
Appointments are recommended at each of Roots Salon's three locations, 17000 W. Bluemound Road, Brookfield (262-780-1429), 5711 Broad St., Greendale (414-235-9415), and 525 E. Chicago St., Milwaukee (414-988-4165).
Three of the bills limit the role of women in their own health decisions because Walker believes that career politicians like him know best.
The fourth makes it more difficult for women to sue an employer for illegal wage discrimination.
Apparently, Republicans don't believe that the gender wage gap is a problem, even though the U.S. Census showed that, as of 2009, a full-time working woman in Wisconsin earned just 75 cents for every full-time working man's dollar.
Tellingly, Walker's ideological twin, state Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend), explained that the attack on pay equity is just fine with him because "you could argue that money is more important for men."
Oh, really?
According to the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Women's Policy Research, "nearly two-thirds of all households in poverty in Wisconsin are headed by single women and, across the board, women are more likely than men to be poor."
Tell the women and kids who are struggling just to get by that money is less important to them.
Unfortunately, instead of helping working women earn more money and succeed in the workplace, Walker, Grothman and the rest of the Republicans in Madison have done everything they can to restrict women's earning power. In addition to siding with employers who illegally discriminate against their female employees, they've cut wages for public employees (the majority of whom are women), eliminated collective bargaining for home health care workers paid by Medicaid and family child care workers (the vast majority of whom are women), repealed Milwaukee's paid sick days ordinance, tried to weaken Wisconsin's strong Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and have made historic funding cuts to public education at all levels, even though education is the best way to boost a worker's earning power.
While women are taking the brunt of the hits from Republicans, the GOP's attack on working women affects everyone. It tells employers that they don't have to pay fair, competitive wages in Wisconsin. And that weakens the earning power of all workers throughout the state, whether you are a woman or a man.
Heroes of the Week: Cuts 4 A Cause Volunteers
On April 15, Roots Salon looks to create awareness of diseases and treatments that result in hair loss and provide an opportunity for the public to donate hair or money for sick kids with its fifth annual "Cuts 4 A Cause."
Roots stylists will be volunteering their talents from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, when those with at least 6 inches of unbleached hair to donate can receive a free one-hour cut and style. All hair donations go to Locks of Love and Wigs for Kids, which provide hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children suffering from long-term medical hair loss. You can also receive a free haircut with a minimum $20 donation, with 100% of funds going to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and Penfield Children's Center.
Appointments are recommended at each of Roots Salon's three locations, 17000 W. Bluemound Road, Brookfield (262-780-1429), 5711 Broad St., Greendale (414-235-9415), and 525 E. Chicago St., Milwaukee (414-988-4165).
If women would learn the art of fellatio they would find that they are unlikely to get pregnant, promotions and pay increases will come faster at work, and they can always earn a little extra cash when they are in a pinch.
I agree, good fellatio is a common form of currency. It is used to pay rent, get a discount on a used car on S. 27th, free car repairs, free computer repairs, a ride to work or school, a promotion at work, avoid a layoff at work, get time off at work, keep your kid from getting expelled, getting your kid a passing grade, heck, you name it. Yes, I am a struggling single mom who just did what I had to do for my kids. Anonymous above is a jerk, but he does make a good point.
Unbelievable. Hard facts are a myth, eh? If a woman is running out of the building like it's on fire because it's 5 p.m. chances are she's running home to take care of her kids or fix dinner for her family - a role that was so graciously thrown upon her by generations upon generations of men believing women to be too incapable to handle anything else.
Want to know why women spend money? They need to go grocery shopping and take children to the doctor. Many women handle the bill paying in their homes and also do the clothing shopping for the men. Why? Most men would rather sit and watch whatever game is on TV after a hard week of work, which is apparently something women know absolutely nothing about.
You want mandatory paternal custody for men? Maybe you should then educate men on how to properly use condoms and stay out of trouble with the law. Do you honesty think that the majority of women-headed households happen because of what the woman wants? No. Women step up to the place and accept responsibility for their children while men go off and get another woman pregnant.
I'm assuming since you seem to have all the answers to women's problems that you also want to restrict abortion rules, forcing more women to seek illegal and dangerous methods or creating an additional woman-headed household.
Thank you for your fantastic insight into women. It's no wonder you had to become a millionaire for someone to take a second look at you.
Both of the above are in agreement. Women don't work overtime like a man because women usually leave work when their shift is done in order to perform domestic stuff like cook and shop.
Look men know how to put on a condom but by the time you get the thing out of the wrapper and unrolled, the horse is back in the barn. Women who choose to fornicate might wish to have a medical procedure or just stick to oral sex to keep from getting pregnant.
I believe women earn less because its a choice they make. They are not willing to sacrifice their lifestyle in order to earn more. We all have our limits on what we will do to earn money.
Women opt out of the work force for a lot of reasons, usually related to pregnancy, child rearing, or a husband's job transfer. Hard to earn as much as a man if you arn't at work.
Also women will routinely forgo taking higher paying jobs such as working on oil pipelines, off-shore rigs, fishing in Artic Oceans, deep underground mining, etc. So you are damn right women will earn less than men because that is the choice they make.
Men love to show off by making lots of money. Men are success objects. When I guy goes out and makes a million a year, he's just showing off for the girls the way a 13 year old does skateboard tricks. Women, they like to get boob jobs and wear hooker high heals. If you asked a 16 year old girl who you rather be known as the smartest girl in school or as the prettiest, what whould she say? Would you like a four year full ride major university scholarship or would you like to be skinny for life? By the way, have you ever known a skinny, pretty women, with a boob job, who wore hooker high heels, and was unemployed? I haven't.
Back when my father was away for his 2 years military service, and his girlfriend was waiting for his return so they could marry, my mother had a job as a secretary. Upon her getting married, the expectation was that she would quit her job. This was not my parents' expectations, this was the expectations of her employer and the rest of Wisconsin society. Unfortunately, men back then were expected to stay in their place, shoemaker's kids became shoemakers, farmer's kids became farmers, business leaders kids became business leaders. He was betrayed when his daddy would not let his oldest son takeover the farm as he was told. Here was a man who worked hard with expectations right up to the point he was forced out, now to support a stay at home wife with no plan B skills, it would have been nice if she had the option to keep working while he went to school. Instead, he had 3 part-time jobs along with his night school.
I can understand that the current TEA Party, Paul Ryan, Scott Walker, Ron Johnson, Glenn Grothman "God's way" is to return to at least as far as 1954's School Integration, undo Civil RIghts of 1964, undo Roe v. Wade of 1973, undo the affirmative action that many think put Obama through Harvard, undo the EPA, perhaps even to undo the break-ups of AT&T and Standard Oil. But, isn't the "package deal" to take it back to what my parents had to suffer through as well? Watch your old TV, the majority of people did not live in suburb homes like the Brady Bunch or Ward Cleaver, most lived in city apartments like Jackie Gleason and Art Carney on the Honeymooners!
But, mind you, that the US no longer has the advantage of being the only industrial power that was left after the obliteration of England, Europe, Japan. We still need to survive with all the out-sourcing that has moved production to Mexico, Brazil, Singapore, China, Korea, India. Not just hard labor production, but much of the knowledge-work as well. We no longer have the monopoly of engineering talent, science and math skills.
Of course, we have different labor "necessities" today, I can understand the desire to remove large numbers of people from the workforce. Some recent documentaries have said we only need 17% of the people in manufacturing to produce all the other 83% need. We only need 2% of the people working in food production to grow all that the remaining 98% need to eat. That covers about 20% of the people, 80% of the people do not even need to work anymore! Unfortunately, those 80% of the people need an income in order to buy their food and goods. Tell me how that's going to work?