| OCR Text |
Show PVR Al16 The Salt Lake Tribune NATION/WORLD Sunday, September10,1995 ie Unity in China Prompts Women To Expand Into Global Networks By Marcus Eliason ‘THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HUAIROU, China — In the muddy,spartan surroundings of a small town in China, the world women’s movement may have been transformed. In the past 10 days, more than 25,000 women came together at Huairou from every continent, trading ideas, exchanginge-mail addresses, findingallies for their causesin the unlikeliest piaces. Duringnine full days of seminars and workshops, American women were exposed to the horrors of women being killed in Algeria. Korean feminists learned about how American campuses combat sexual harassment. American Indians compared notes with Australian aborigines on claiming landrights. Now,as more and moreof these womenpluginto the Internet, they are poised io form truly global pressure groups, which in turn means moreeffective lobbying of national governments and the United Nations. “T don’t think the world will ever be the same again,” said Brownie Ledbetter, an activist from Little Rock, Ark. “Here we have women networking from all over the world, across incredible barriers. And with faxes and the Internet, it will grow even more.” ThatIsraelis and Palestinians could attend workshops without waging shouting matches; that black and white South Africans coulddiscuss the pros and cons of unmarried motherhood; that Russian and American women could talk about the career-orfamily dilemma — all these were reminders of how muchthe world has changedsince thelast such conference in 1985. The 1985 conference,in Nairobi, was attended by delegates representing 300 non-governmentalorganizations recognized by the United Nations. At Huairou there were morethan 3,000. It was the United Nations that drew them to Huairouby holding the Fourth World Conferenceof Womenin Beijing. Many came specifically to lobby the world body. Others in Huairou felt the U.N. meeting, an hour’s drive away, was the sideshow. “The outcome of the U.N. conferencewill be sweet nothing,” said Hema Goonatilake, a Sri Lankan gender studies expert. ‘The realaction is here, sharing and learning, forming networks.” The sheer enormityof the gathering makesits lessons difficult to assess so soon. For many, it was a moving, sometimes wrenching experience. Poignant images, sad and happy, tumble from a reporter’s notebook: @ As a workshoponbirth control broke up, black and white womenfrom South Africa suddenly erupt- “{ don't think the world will ever be the same again ... Here we have women networking from all over the world, acressincredible barriers. And with faxes and the Internet, it will grow even more.?? BROWNIE LEDBETTER, Activist ed inte a joyous Zulu fe’ < song called “Honor the nameof the woman.” @At a seminar on Algeria, a woman burst into tears. She had just been told that a close woman friend had been slain by Islamic militants back home. Ancther woman took her in her arms. @ At the women-in-politics discussion, the moderator asked how manyof the 100 womenin the audience hadrun for office. No hands wereraised. How manyhad worked on a political campaign? Almost every hand went up. Questioned at random, every woman described an idea she picked up from someoneelse. Judi Fortuin heard a Nigerian gynecologist describe a survey he conducted in his country on abortion and society's attitudes to it. Fortuin resolved to do the same whenshe got hometo South Africa. “I was very excited,” she said. Elizabeth Sinclair, an American working for the Body Shopchainofstores, learned about connecting the Internet through ham radio operatorsto villages that have no phone lines. She plans to suggest her company donate computers to Third World women’s groups that cannotafford them. She said it was vital for nongovernmental groups to keep in touch electronically. ‘‘There are groupsin different countries doing the same work who've neverheard of each other. They can’t wait another five years for the next conference.” Jelica, who withheld her surname, met Asianlesbians and discovered they were more organized than in hernative Serbia. ‘‘We found thatothers have built a skyscraper while we'restill building the first step.” Linda Julien, a Canadian lawyer, found that her problemspale in comparison with some women. “It hit me the hardest when I heard an Ethiopian woman stand up and say she wasirritated ai how muchattention was being paid to lesbian rights while there were women who werejust trying to survive. ... Here weare talking about getting more women into parliament, and they are struggling just to stay alive.” Male-Female Pay Gap Remains Wide Banking and Insurance Industries Least Prone To Offer Equal Pay Thursday, find out that an emergency is an urgent incident which provides the people involved with the rare opportunity to discover what theyreally believe in, what they really cherish, and who they By Sonia Nazario LOS ANGELES TIMES Even as women have become nearly half of America’s work force, a large gender gap persists in their pay. In 1990,full-time women workers earned an average of 86 percent of what men were paid, an increase from the 59 percent they earned a decade earlier, according to U.S, Census data. Women with college degrees earn, on average, only slightly more than men with high school diplomas, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. ‘The gap continues even in oceupations in which women and men have about the same average education and age. In administrative jobs, white women whoare about the same age as white men and have slightly lower education levels earn 58 percent of what their white male counterparts do — the same percentage as in 1960. The pay for women tends to drop with each child they have. While white female administrators with no children make 67 percent of what their white male counterparts earn, those with two children make only 55 percent. Conversely, men with children experience no drop in earnings. Employers least prone to pre- vide comparable pay for women: banking and insurance. The most equitable: government and the military. really are. But the pay gap has narrowed sharply for younger women, who now earn 85 percent of what men are paid. Professional white women 30 years or younger in 1990, for example, garnered 84 percent of what their white male counterparts were paid. Among younger women workers — who now have about the same educationlevel as young men — the pay gapisleast in technical jobs and greatest in service jobs. . One reason the gap has narrowed, the Labor Department said, is that the earnings of men havedrifted downwardin the past two decades. Women also have improved their education levels relative to men and have fewer career interruptions to have children. As older female workers who entered the job market with much less education and experience thantheir male cohortsretire, experts say the gender gap is expected to close further. What causes the gap? Overall, the education differences for adults 25 years and older remain significant: 24.8 percent of men have 2 bachelor's or advanced degree, compared with 19.2 percent of women. One governmentsur- vey showed that women on average spend 15 percent oftheir potential work years away from the job, disrupting careers. ‘They are heavily clustered in female-domi- nated fields such as teaching and nursing that are more conducive to a family life but pay less than male-dominated fields such as Jaw, business and engineering. But a National Academy ofSciences study found that up to half of the pay gap probably is the result of discrimination. The Glass Ceiling Comission pointed to a 1990 study that tracked graduates from the nation’s top 20 business schools and found that in their first year out, men earned 12 percent more than women. The gap, other studies have found, widens as men and women progress in their careers. Wi The Assessment To assess the impact of affirmative action, the Los Angeles Times: @ Measured changes in the employment, occupations andsalaries of women and minorities in the United States since 1960, using computerized data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Archives and the EEOC. @ Studied additional EEOC reports from UCLA’s Maps and Government Information Library, scholarly studies from other major universities and congressionalreports. @Using detailed questionnaires, interviewed officials of more than 130 smali and large businesses throughoutthe country. Mi Visited seiected workplaces throughout the nation to interview workers and employers and others affected by programs designed to diversify work forces. Female-dominated jobs, sueh as food preparation, often require the same level of skill as male-dominated jobs, such as custodial work, but often pay much less, said Diane Crothers, a policy analyst with the Labor Depart- ment’s Women’s Bureau, '““Women’s kinds of jobs are perceived as less valuable orless difficult than men’s jobs,” Crothers said, add- ing that in many jobs, womensimply are hired forless pay. Often, experts say, women are given the same duties as men but with a lessertitle and pay. Hillary Clinton Still Refining New Role THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ULAN BATOR, Mongolia — Nine thousand miles from home,in a nation where goats and horses far outnumberpeople, Hillary Rodham Clinton heard a question that has confronted — and confounded — her countless times. é You are a powerful wornan, a Mongol journalist told the visiting first lady. Will you run for president? “Reporters are the same the world over,” Clinton laughed in amazement. The answer — as always — is “no” but the question won't die. It underscores Clinton’s difficuity in finding an appropriate role for herself, one that Americansare comfortable with, after her preminent leadership of the administration’s failed health-care reform camign. . In the aftermath of that bactie and the GOP election sweep last November, Clinton has adopted a lower profile, largely avoiding the front-line fights confronting President Clinton on issues such as the budget and welfare 1 >form as befights for re-election. “People are much more comfortabie having her not delve into the legislative give-and-iake and not havirig that kind of hands-on,negotiating,” said Me- lanne Verveer, the first lady’s deputy chief of staff. “They are more comfortabie with her as an advocate.” Noonedoubts that Clinton has the president's ear or that shestill is the key adviser she’s always been in his political life. Senior White House vfficials know it would he suicide to cross swords with thefirst lady. But in public, Clinton is concentrating on tasks more traditionally associated with first iadies, such as her crusade to improve the lives of women, chil- dren and families. That was her focus last week as she led the American delegation to the Fourth World Conference on Women last week in China, and then visited with a nomadic family on the windswepthills of Mongolia. Clinton has been m the forefront of women’s batties for 25 years, but these efforts were overshadowed in her first years at the White House as she pushed the health campaign. Now, by focusing on children, sheis accentuating a popular themein presidentia! politics, the so-called famiiy-values issue that pol cians are racing to embrace. While Americans debate what the first lady's roie should be, women in other countries delight in her prominence. |
