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Kingston AAUW Calendar
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Wed., Nov. 5, AAUW Conversations: Why Vote? Woodstock TV and Ustream.com, 8:30 pm Thurs. Nov. 6, AAUW Post-election conference call with the AAUW public policy staff. RSVP here or listen to the recording. available on the national site for 30 days. See the calendar for details.7pm Sat., Nov. 8, 9:30-10:30 am RSS for Beginners sponsored by the Communications Committee. Muddy Cup. See article for details. Sat. Nov. 8, 10:30 am - Public Policy Meeting at the Muddy Cup. Sunday, Nov. 9: Potluck and a Film, See below. Vivi's, 5 pm, Tues. Nov 18, Book Discussion, The book for November is Memories, Dreams, Reflections, by C.G. Jung. 1 pm, Kingston Library. Tues. Nov. 18, Branch Meeting, Jane Austin and Her Sequels- Anne Gordon and Garnette Arledge. New! Holiday Fundraising sale of member created items. Kingston Library, 7 pm. Tue. Dec. 2 - UN Conference on the Impact of Global Warming on Women and Girls Around the World all day at the United Nations Tues. Dec. 2 - Public Policy Meeting 5:30, KAL Tues. Dec. 4 - Hacking Democracy: view and discuss the HBO documentary and the 2008 elections. 7 pm, KAL. Make the KAAUW google calendar a favorite and you'll always know what's happening. Integrate it with your own google calendar. Print it. |
Potluck and a Film
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 "The Clearing" with
Helen Mirren, Robert Redford and Wm DeFoe, a 2004 film directed by
Pieter Jan Brugge. Wayne and Eileen Hayes live the American Dream.
Together they've raised
two children and struggled to build a successful business from the
ground up. But there have been sacrifices along the way. When Wayne is
kidnapped by Arnold Mack, and held for ransom in a remote forest, the
couple's world is turned inside out. Nov. 9th, 5pm at ViVi Hlavsa's.
We will also be viewing a short documentary by Mitchel Resnick called
"Luck of the Draw...the one lottery you don't want to win." It's about
1972, when the military draft was to be decided by a lottery on Live
Television.
Sunday, Nov. 9th, 5 pm
Hope you can make it. ViVi
Directions to Vivi's
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Winter Trips
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| Recent Blog Posts |
Are girls more violent today? This OJJDP report is just one of our posts on the Kingson Branch blog this month.
Our two websites are updated regularly.The first has AAUW news -- local, state, and national. You'll also find great member profiles with pictures.
The second,Unofficial Passions, includes a patchwork of things we care about. A sample from this month:
Any member can submit items any time. Send them to any Communications Committee member.
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Kingston AAUW Branch Communication Committee
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Garnette Arledge
Doris Goldberg
ViVi Hlavsa
Susan Holland
Doris Licht
Irwin Rosenthal
Ruth Wahtera, Editor
If you have something you would like posted on either the Kingston AAUW or the Unofficial Passions site, e-mail the information to a committee member.
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| Greetings! |
Once the election is over this week, we roll into a busy month -- a few post-election items, a computer lesson -- RSS for Beginners, a fun branch meeting and sale of member-created items.
Early December brings the annual trip to the United Nations Conference and a public policy meeting about voting machine issues.
Please note -- both the November and December branch meetings are on the third Tuesday instead of the fourth.
The editor
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President's LetterJane Austin Wrote Sequels?
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"What do you mean, Garnette, Jane Austen's sequels? She only wrote six
books and died in 1817. " Well, technically that's still true but many
writers, from respected Oxford and Cambridge graduates to Valley Dolls
have turned out more than a bookshelf of continuations. There's even
one called "Jane Austen in Boca" and it's very well written. I would
call them 'knock-offs' but one would not wish to use such a word about
Jane. Anne Gordon and I will present the branch program at 7 p.m.
Tuesday, November 18 at KAL, open to members, guests, and public. I have
read most of the 'sequels' all based on the modern author's best
guesses of what happened to Mr and Mrs Darcy, their daughters, Jane
Fairfax, Mrs. Elton, etc. The Austen industry is a goldmine in
publishing, and some of the writing is very good. And
then there was the movie Clueless... Join us for an evening of tea and
the Austens. Holiday ShoppingBring your cash and do some Holiday shopping that night, too. (Or let Susan Holland know you'd like a table to sell your wares.) Members will be selling their art, quilts, fiber creations, books they've authored, whatever...all with 10% to the Branch to support our activities (15% for non-members if you know anyone who would like a table). Come early or shop during the refreshments. Voter Education
Branch members have been very busy with Voter Education activities. Several people registered new voters , thank you. Janine Mower and I have had a wonderful time interviewing branch members on our AAUW Conversations: Why Vote? broadcast on Woodstock CATV. We may extend our series. We'll let you know. Irene Miller, Susan Holland, and Ruth Wahtera worked hard to get the Meet the Candidates for State Legislature event together. The candidates noted that there are fewer and fewer opportunities for them to talk about issues. It was a fascinating evening which has been rebroadcast on Kingston CATV. You can read about all our voter education activities here on the blog.December in NYCThis year December offers two very different opportunities to spend the day in the City. If you've never visited the United Nations, I heartily recommend the Dec. 2nd conference on the Impact of Global Warming on Women and Girls Around the World. We'll be coordinating transportation, so let Susan Holland know if you're interested. Those of us who attended last year's conference felt the day more than fulfilled our expectations. And, on December 18th, of course, Vivi Hlavsa has arranged our traditional trip to the Metropolitan Museum or spend the day meeting friends, holiday shopping, enjoying the high spirits that Christmas in NY inspires. Just leave the driving to us. For reservations call Pat Whalen.I look forward to seeing you this month. Garnette |
Pregnancy Penalty and Maternal Profiling
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 Women may average 77cents for every dollar a man makes, but sub-groups within the ranks of women average even less. One of those sub-groups is mothers.
Last week I posted an article on the blog about the motherhood penalty -- estimated to be 5% for every child a woman has. Still. And it's now 30 years since the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed. You can read it here.
The next day I received an email in response from a woman in Pennsylvania. Kiki Peppard has been fighting to get legislation passed in the state of Pennsylvania that would make it illegal to ask job candidates about their marital/family status during a job interview. It's been illegal in NY and 21 other states for many years.
She sent me an article about the PA battle. I share excerpts of it with you here because women we know --our daughters, granddaughters, nieces, friends, and other young women who live in the other 28 states -- live with this daily.
Mom
fights for law against 'maternal profiling' by Kathy
Lauer-Williams Of The
Morning Call,
March 17,
2008.
When Kiki
Peppard applied for a secretarial job, her prospective employer asked if she
was married and had children. After the single mother of two answered, she was
told she wouldn't be hired because she would cost the employer too much in
health insurance.
At her next interview, the same questions come up and the Monroe County
mom was turned away again because, she was told, "mothers take too many
days off."
But the biggest surprise for Peppard, 53, of Effort, was learning this type of
questioning is not against the law in Pennsylvania.
Employers can and do ask questions about marital and family status and make
decisions based on the answers.
Peppard said in more than a dozen job interviews in a row, she was rejected
because she was a single mother. She ended up supporting her two children with
temporary work supplemented by welfare and food stamps.
"It's Pennsylvania's
dirty little secret," Peppard said. "I was forced into poverty
because of an archaic law."
Federal laws prohibit discrimination based on sex, age, race, religion,
national origin and disabilities, but not marital or family status.
...For a
decade, state legislators have submitted a bill that would make such
protections statewide, but it hasn't been brought to a vote.
...According to a recent study published in the American Journal of Sociology,
mothers are 79 percent less likely to be hired than non-mothers with equal
resumes. A Cornell
University study found
that mothers were offered $11,000 less in starting pay than non-mothers with
the same resumes and job experience, while fathers were offered $6,000 more.
...Furious, she [Peppard] contacted the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to file
a complaint and was told there is no federal or Pennsylvania law prohibiting questions about
marital or family status. She also learned Pennsylvania employers may refuse to hire or
promote women or men with families, even if their responsibilities do not
interfere with their work.
"They said they couldn't do anything unless I could prove a man had
applied for the same job and wasn't asked the same questions," she said.
Peppard discovered the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, which oversees hiring
practices, had been amended to protect against discrimination in hiring on the
basis of sex and disability since its inception in 1955, but not for marital or
family status.
..."When I started doing this, my daughter was in seventh grade and I thought
it would be passed by the time she was in high school," Peppard said.
"Now, she has graduated from college and has been working two years, and
it's no closer to passage."
In January, Peppard's first grandchild, a girl, was born. "I thought,
she's going to be discriminated against if the bill is not passed,"
Peppard says. "How sad to be born into a state where she doesn't have
rights because she has ovaries."
...
I've responded to Kiki with a few questions about the PA fight -- perhaps there's a way we can help. I'll share her responses when I get them.
The editor
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News, Transitions, and Celebrations
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Coffee and Computers - Next Saturday morning, Nov. 8th, enjoy coffee and a bagel while you learn about RSS feeds. If you would like an alternative to email as a way to stay up to date with your favorite sites on the web, but you don't use RSS (and, maybe don't know what RSS is), spend an hour discovering RSS for Beginners. Ruth Wahtera will discuss what RSS is, the benefits of using it, two typical readers, and how to get started. Please RSVP so we know how many to expect. Muddy Cup in Kingston, 9:30 - 10:30 am.
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Remember to watch Why Vote? -- our cable and internet TV program on www.woodstocktv.com or ustream.com on Nov. 5 -Wrap Up: Voting Experiences This Year
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Legal Action Fund - on the Supreme Court docket - Vicki Crawford lost her job, she believes, as retaliation for substantiating sexual harassment allegations. While Title VII contains an anti-retaliation provision, two lower courts narrowly interpreted the law ruling that Title VII doesn't apply to an internal investigation. As 'leciaimbery' points out in her AAUW Dialog post, so many recent cases have been decided by 5-4 rulings that we cannot underestimate the importance of each high court justice when it comes to issues that are central to women's safety, economic security, and equity. AAUW has filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief for the plaintiff in Crawford v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County.
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