MisInformation Exchange

Women Lose More Jobs in Recessions

2008-08-08T10:55:00.002-04:00

The U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee recently released a report confirming that women are more vulnerable to job loss during recession. Unlike the economic downturns of the 1980s and 1990s, the 2001 recession was particularly detrimental to women because they not only lost more jobs than men but also did not see their employment rates recover to their pre-recession peak. Since women bring home more than one-third of family income and single mothers are often the sole breadwinners, women’s unemployment also has harsh implications for the economic security of families and communities. Greater job losses for women translate into reduced government revenue and cuts in spending on programs and services that benefit women and their families.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/business/22jobs.html?scp=1&sq=women+and+jobs&st=nyt
http://jec.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=80a7a0cd-6125-495d-bca5-09af2c0393f9

Girls Can Do Math

2008-08-08T09:23:00.002-04:00

A new study published in Science magazine has debunked the myth that boys are better than girls in mathematics. Janet S. Hyde of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her colleagues compared the standardized test scores of more than seven million girls and boys from second through eleventh grade and found no difference in their performances. Studies twenty years ago showed that although girls and boys performed equally well on math in elementary school, girls fell behind in high school. The researchers attributed the advance to increasing numbers of girls taking advanced math classes such as Calculus.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25836419/
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/321/5888/494

Study Suggests Strategies for Hiring Women in Sciences

2008-08-07T12:01:00.003-04:00

A recent study tracking the career paths of more than 3,000 male and female applicants for jobs in science, mathematics and engineering fields found that women were less likely to apply and more likely to decline job offers than men. The study, conducted by sociologists Christy M. Glass of Utah State University and Krista Lynn Minnotte of the University of North Dakota, suggested strategies for recruiting more women into science and technology jobs. Although they determined that employers were willing to hire women, there was a lack of understanding of where and how to market jobs to female candidates. Recommendations ranged from advertising job postings in publications specifically geared towards women in the sciences to including at least one woman on search committees.
http://insidehighered.com/news/2008/08/05/women
http://aaa.main.usu.edu/Assessment/Fac_Vitas/SSWA/GlassChristy.pdf http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/leaders_entry.php?id=6453&area=All

Bush Abortion Proposal Sets Conditions on Federal Aid

2008-07-21T16:55:00.003-04:00

In an effort to strengthen the capacity of health care providers to deny abortion services, the Bush administration recently proposed the introduction of a new rule that would require hospitals, clinics, researchers and medical schools to sign “written certifications” that they do not discriminate against hospitals and other institutions that have policies against providing abortion. Such certification would be a prerequisite to receiving funds under any program run by the Department of Health and Human Services. It would also be required of state and local governments, forbidden to discriminate, in areas like grant-making, against hospitals and other institutions that have policies against providing abortion. The administration stated the proposal is necessary to ensure that federal money does not “support morally coercive or discriminatory practices or policies in violation of federal law.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/washington/15rule.html?ei=5124&en=0eb76de0ec6ae964&ex=1373860800&adxnnl=1&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink&adxnnlx=1216673737-QZ/a+/6fuaBD6RFcGuARlQ
http://www.nationalpartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=newsroom_pr_PressRelease_080715

Women Leaving Science Careers

2008-06-30T10:29:00.000-04:00

The Center for Work-Life Policy has found that more than half of women who choose careers in science, engineering, and technology drop out. The study identifies five major causes—hostile “macho” work environments, severe isolation, lack of career path guidance and orientation, systems of reward that emphasize risk-taking, and extreme work pressures—and proposes fourteen new initiatives to address these challenges. The paper “Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering, and Technology,” is published by the Harvard Business Review.

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3100

http://www.worklifepolicy.org/index.php/section/research_pubs

http://www.worklifepolicy.org/documents/AthenaPressRelease-April30.pdf

High-Ranking Women Lose Jobs on Wall Street

2008-06-23T12:21:00.003-04:00

Recent instability in the financial services sector has had a negative impact on women in corporate leadership. One of the highest-ranking women on Wall Street, Lehman Brothers chief financial officer Erin Callan, was recently removed from her post after the company suffered a $2.8 billion loss in the second quarter. The change came just months after Morgan Stanley forced the retirement of co-president Zoe Cruz. While no one should be allowed to remain in a job just to fill a quota, experts say that the expectations for women executives are higher and that women have to be “twice as credentialed” to even be considered for top jobs. Although women make up 46% of the workforce, only 15.4% of them hold Fortune 500 senior officer positions. “There’s so few women [that] when one of them gets fired [from an executive position], the percentage drops 10 percent,” said Gail Evans, former CNN executive vice president.
http://www.mainstreet.com/wall-street-women-under-siege

UN Security Council Declares Rape a Weapon of War

2008-06-23T12:17:00.001-04:00

The UN Security Council passed a resolution last week classifying rape as a weapon of war. The resolution was unanimous and describes rape as "a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, instill fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate civilian members of a community or ethnic group.” In the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone, approximately forty women are raped each day, sometimes by the peacekeepers who are supposed to be protecting them. In addition to harming the health and safety of women, sexual violence also destroys the economic and social stability of war-torn nations.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7464462.stm
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/06/20/1213770867927.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=91692457&m=91692436

The Myth of Women "Opting Out" of the Workplace

2008-06-20T11:36:00.003-04:00

When Lisa Seftel was planning for her first child, she and her employer made a deal that she would work three days in the office and two days at home. This arrangement would allow her to have full employer benefits and share the childcare with her husband. In 2003, however, her employer went back on his word, telling her she could work five days a week in the office or three days at home. Like so many other women, Seftel was forced to quit her job because she could not afford to pay for childcare and would lose her family’s health insurance if she worked only three days. While a plethora of news reports has explained the recent trend of women leaving the workforce as "opting out," new research has emerged showing that the workplace is at fault for failing to meet women’s needs.
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=3640

Forced Unpaid Maternity Leave for Detroit Police Officers

2008-06-10T15:41:00.002-04:00

Female police officers in Detroit often hide their pregnancies because they face the prospect of unpaid leave. The Detroit Police Department designates pregnancy an “off the job injury” and requires pregnant officers to leave their positions until after they have given birth. A state legislator has introduced a bill that would overturn the policy and the department faces possible legal action by an officer who was forced to take unpaid leave.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080606/METRO/806060360/1409/METRO

Women Denied Health Coverage Over C-Section

2008-06-10T15:27:00.002-04:00

A Colorado woman who had given birth by Caesarian section, was denied health coverage based on her likelihood of needing the procedure again. A letter from the prospective insurer, Golden Rule, explained that she would only qualify if she had been sterilized after the Caesarean, or if she were over 40 years of age and had given birth two or more years before applying. With C-sections being performed in the U.S. at an all-time high rate of 31.1%, large numbers of women are now being rendered uninsurable or faced with higher premiums.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/health/01insure.html?pagewanted=1&_r=4

PhD Escort for Hire

2008-04-15T14:43:00.000-04:00

Rhona Reiss, the former Director of Education at the American Occupational Therapy Association, had nearly 35 year in her field when she completed her Ph.D. and could not secure another job. Unemployed and facing the demands of caring for a child and sick parent, Reiss turned to an escort service for a temporary job. Now that the high-class prostitution ring she worked for is under investigation, Reiss’s career is in ruins.
Please click here for more.

Abortion Ban

2008-04-10T13:02:00.001-04:00

POPLINE, a federally-funded data base at Johns Hopkins University, recently banned abortion as a search term. POPLINE is the world’s largest database on reproductive health, providing access to over 360,000 records and articles on family planning, fertility and sexually transmitted diseases. Although the ban has been lifted, questions remain over the process that led to the term’s exclusion. POPLINE is maintained by the INFO Project at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs and is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

For more information please click here.

Women Business Owners Dispute Contracting Rules

2008-03-25T14:15:00.000-04:00

New rules ensuring that 5 percent of all small business contracts go to women has sparked controversy. Female-owned businesses, defined as at least 51 percent controlled or owned by females, were awarded 3.4 percent, or about $11 billion, in government contracts in 2006. The failure to hit the 5 percent mark, according to Congressional figures, deprived female owners of roughly $5 billion annually. For more, please click here.

When Girls Will Be Boys

2008-03-25T14:13:00.000-04:00

Women’s colleges are facing a new challenge, students who enter as female, but become male. Rey, a student at Barnard, exposes the personal and intuitional challenges of becoming transmale at an elite women’s college. For more, please click here.

In Kenya, a refuge from female cutting

2008-03-25T14:12:00.000-04:00

A new tradition is emerging in Kenya to replace female genital cutting, one that incorporates coming of age ceremonies and sex-ed. For more, please click here.

Harsh statistics should propel women to plan ahead

2008-03-25T14:07:00.001-04:00

A recent report shows that women represent an increasing share of bankruptcy filings. Last year, women represented 39 percent of bankruptcy filings, compared with 28 percent for men; 33 percent of the filings were made by married couples. The statistics may be a result of the increasing number of women in the work force or the increasing number of adult single women. For more information, please click here.

Postfeminism and Other Fairy Tales

2008-03-25T14:05:00.001-04:00

Emerging events in politics over the last few months have brought to light the question: where exactly does society stand on gender matters? From Hillary’s campaign to Eliot Spitzer’s resignation, women are standing on both sides of the debate. For more, please click here.

Corner of Finance Where Women Are Climbing

2008-03-25T14:04:00.000-04:00

Women now manage 10 of the 50 largest endowments and foundations. As chief investment officers who handle billions of dollars for big university endowments and private foundations they have made great strides in the past decade.
For more, please click here.

The Feminine Critique

2007-11-02T10:51:00.001-04:00

A steady stream of research on how women are perceived in the workplace concludes that women face an uphill battle. There are still no straightforward answers about why there are not more women in positions of leadership, or why they are perceived differently from men in leadership. Click here for more.

Sierra Leone rape victims neglected

2007-11-02T10:50:00.000-04:00

In Sierra Leone, violations of women’s rights continue unabated. Nearly six years after the end of civil conflict, violence against girls and women is still rampant. Amnesty International has called on the government of Sierra Leone to provide justice and reparations for the victims of sexual abuse. Click here for more.

'One Team, One Book' teaches young athletes about Title IX

2007-10-31T16:12:00.000-04:00

In St. Louis, the Hillsboro High School volleyball team is educating themselves and others about Title IX. With the encouragement of their coaches the team is reading “Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX” and devoting 30 minutes of practice each day to discuss what they have read. The project was started by the school’s librarians in an effort to educate young athletes about the challenges previous generations faced participating in school sports. The project has been a success for this team and has encouraged other teams to take part in similar activities. Click here for more.

Black, female leaders battle Baltimore urban woes

2007-10-31T16:11:00.002-04:00

As of this year, Baltimore’s top elected posts- Mayor, City Council President, Chief Prosecutor and Comptroller are all held by Black women. The jury is still out on how their presence may affect growing crime and poverty rates, but many are hopefully that the shift in leadership is for the better. Click here for more.

Female Baby Boomers Face 'Retirement Gap'

2007-10-31T16:11:00.001-04:00

The first Baby Boomer to file for social security was a woman, highlighting the increasing number of women who will rely on the program in the near future. Thousands of Baby Boomers could apply for social security everyday over the next 20 years, over half of whom will be women. Yet, in the presidential primaries there has been no mention of the retirement gap or the particular needs of women. Click here for more.

Argentina's first lady wins top job

2007-10-29T15:00:00.000-04:00

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, former senator and first lady, won Argentina's presidential election on Sunday. Fernandez won over 40% of the vote and promises to build on the economic legacy of her husband’s presidency. Much of Fernandez’s support came from Argentina’s poor and working class citizens, who credit her husband with generating jobs. Please click here for more.

A woman's supreme right over her own body and destiny is in jeopardy

2007-10-26T15:16:00.000-04:00

Forty years after the passing of the Abortion Act in the UK, women’s rights are still in jeopardy. The debate still rages on about the rights of the fetus and the right to privacy as hundreds of anti-abortion activist gather to demonstrate. Click here for more.

For Women, Greater Obstacles to Retirement

2007-10-24T16:57:00.000-04:00

For many women, retirement is not an option. An increasing number of women can not afford to retire because they have not saved enough money to support themselves after retirement. Even if they have invested in a traditional pension or a 401(k) plan, women consistently enter retirement with about half as much money as men do. Please click here for more.

For Women, a Slow Narrowing of the Pay Gap

2007-10-22T13:31:00.001-04:00

In 1979, women working full time made only 63 percent as much pay as men, according to data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Now working women make 81 percent as much as men. Yes, that’s an improvement, but it still means that median weekly earnings were $600 for women last year, compared with $743 for men. Click here for more

Why Men Dominate Math and Science Fields

2007-10-22T13:27:00.001-04:00

A new study suggests that women are less likely to participate in science and engineering settings where they are outnumbered by men. The study published in Psychological Science notes that in order to bring gender equality to science and engineering, changes must occur in the social and culture aspect of the fields. Click here for more.

House Fails to Override Child Health Bill Veto

2007-10-18T14:35:00.000-04:00

Supporters of the S-chip bill did not muster enough votes in the house to override a presidential veto. The bill to provide health insurance for 10 million children was supported by a vote of 273 to 156, 13 votes short of the necessary two-thirds majority to pass the bill. Recent polls show widespread public support for the measure and the democratic leadership is confidant in its ability to propose a re-drafted version. Click here for more.

System overhaul key to reducing breast cancer deaths for black women

2007-10-18T13:07:00.000-04:00

In Chicago, massive changes to the city’s healthcare system are required for reducing deaths from breast cancer, according to a special task force. African American women there are dying from breast cancer at a rate 68% higher than white women and experts point to a segregated healthcare system as the main cause. Underserved women in the city do not have access to high-quality screening, detection or treatment, causing a high rate of mortality. To improve survival rates, the panel recommends creating a universal, transparent quality-control system for screening and detecting breast cancer. Please click here for more.

Abstinence 1, S-Chip 0

2007-10-18T13:06:00.000-04:00

The House of Representatives is considering increasing funding for abstinence only education by $28 million. Abstinence-only programs, the only form of federally-financed sex education, could receive $200 million a year if the bill passes. In an effort to pass the State Children’s Health Insurance program, democratic leaders are offering a trade off that would increase funding to the abstinence-only programs despite their having been proven ineffective. Please click here for more.

Birth-Control Foe To Run Office on Family Planning

2007-10-17T11:55:00.000-04:00

The Bush administration has appointed Susan Orr, an opponent of contraception, as chief of family planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services. Orr has supported proposals to stop health insurance plans from covering birth control and appears to be as controversial as her predecessor Eric Keroack, who also opposed support for contraception. In her new post, Orr will oversee $283 million in annual grants to provide low-income families and others with contraceptive services, counseling and preventive screenings.

Unilever Shuns Stereotypes of Women (Unless Talking to Men)

2007-10-15T15:20:00.000-04:00

Unilever, makers of Dove and Axe, promote two competing images of women. The Dove campaign celebrates women of all shapes and sizes while the Axe campaign features underfed and over-sexualized images of women. Is this hypocrisy? Some consumer groups say that Unilever should be criticized for its imbalanced messaging. Please click here for more.

Deadly Deliveries

2007-10-15T15:18:00.000-04:00

Maternal mortality is increasing nationally. A total of 54 women died in 2004 and it is estimated that more than 13 women will die for every 100,000 babies born in the United States. A number of factors are contributing to the increase in maternal mortalities, including: the rising age at which women have children, the obesity epidemic, and a decrease of practicing obstetricians. In New York, where rates are among the highest in the country, another leading factor is the growing number of poor and immigrant patients. Please click here for more.

Outlawing Abortion Does Not Lower Rates

2007-10-15T11:59:00.001-04:00

A global study of abortion rates around the world has concluded that rates are similar in countries where abortions are legal and those where they are not, suggesting that banning abortion does not deter women from seeking the procedure. The study shows that in Uganda, where abortion is illegal, the estimated abortion rate is more than twice the rate of that in the United State. The lowest rate was in Western Europe where abortion is legal and contraception is widely available.
Please click here for more information.

Afghan Women Jailed for Safety

2007-10-15T11:58:00.000-04:00

Women in Afghanistan who have been jailed for “moral crimes” such as adultery or being in the company of a man who is not a relative are believed to be safer in prison. The annual festival of Eid, that brings the prospect of presidential pardons, puts these women at risk of being released and put in the custody of relatives who may carry out “honor killings” and other serve punishments. Warnings from international organizations about the risk of releasing these women follows an early September report by the U.N. that found at least half the women in Afghanistan's largest jail are there for so-called moral crimes. Please click here for more information.

M.B.A. Programs Pay Off for Women Seeking a Return to Wall Street

2007-10-15T11:55:00.000-04:00

Women returning to the workforce after leaving to fulfill family obligations are now being aided by executive MBA programs. Programs like Back in Business at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth offer a curriculum that combines academics and career opportunities. With a median age of 47 and an average of eight years out of the workforce more than half of the programs participants found jobs with high-level companies such as Goldman Sachs.
Please click here for more information.

UPDATE: White House Acts to Limit Health Plan for Children

2007-08-20T11:47:00.000-04:00

The Bush Administration has implemented new standards that limit the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The administration has adopted these standards in order to restore the program to its original focus on low-income children. When the SCHIP was created in 1997, the purpose was to provide coverage to children of low-income families, and the execution of this program was to be determined by the state. The only stipulation was that this program could not be a replacement for private coverage. To prevent children from switching from private coverage to the public SCHIP, the administration suggests that states create a waiting period before considering children eligible for the public program.

Now, in order for states to make individual changes to SCHIP, they must first demonstrate that they have enrolled at least 95% of children below 200% of the poverty level. “Deborah S. Bachrach, a deputy commissioner in the New York State Health Department, said, ‘No state in the nation has a participation rate of 95 percent.’” Several states, including New York and New Jersey feel these new standards will be impossible to meet and will hinder efforts to insure more children.

Click here to read the full article.

UPDATE: Women's March Into Office Slows

2007-08-15T11:49:00.000-04:00

Although women represent the majority of votes in major elections, they only hold 1 out of every 6 elected Federal positions and 1 out of every 4 elected State positions. Debbie Walsh, Director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, a NCRW member center, observes, “We’ve hit a plateau.” Although Hillary Clinton could be elected President in 2008, and Nancy Pelosi is in little danger of losing her Speaker of the House title, several other women governors, senators, and congresswomen are at risk of losing their positions in the next election.

This plateau has occurred for a number of reasons, according to experts. Several of the major issues ruling the 2008 elections, including Iraq, national security, and immigration, are issues that have traditionally been gendered “masculine,” and therefore, women candidates are not perceived as desirable or capable. Research by political scientist Jennifer Lawless at Brown University shows that women are less likely than men to enter into competitive races, and women are even less likely to enter into the race when opposing another woman. Despite women’s reluctance to run for office, however, Lawless’ research shows that women candidates are as likely to win as men.

Click here to read the full article.

NEW: The Color of Health Care: Diagnosing Bias in Doctors

2007-08-13T11:27:00.000-04:00

A recent study by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and other Harvard University affiliates reveals evidence that quality of health care is linked to deeply-rooted internalized racial stereotyping. The study showed that doctors with subconscious racial biases were less likely to prescribe aggressive heart attack treatment for black patients than for white patients.

Researchers used the Implicit Association Test to determine doctors’ biases. Doctors were then given a case study of a man who entered the emergency room with severe chest pain. The patient was described as “white” to some doctors and as “black” to others. Doctors who were told that the patient was white were more likely to believe that he was having a heart attack than doctors who were told that the patient was black.

Click here to download the published study.

Click here to read the full article.

NEW: Salary, Gender and the Social Cost of Haggling

2007-07-30T11:12:00.000-04:00

A new study by Linda C. Babcock and Lei Lai from Carnegie Mellon University and Hannah Riley Bowles from the Kennedy School of Government may explain why women’s salaries are still lower than those of their male counterparts. Traditionally, the gender gap in salaries is considered to be the result of men’s aggressivity and women’s passivity. Therefore, according to this theory, women could close the pay gap through assertiveness training.

Babcock, Lai, and Bowles, however, found that the gender gap stems from differences in the way men and women negotiate. Findings indicated that there is a social risk involved in negotiating. The study showed that both men and women perceived women who asked for more as being “less nice” and subtly penalized these women. Men tended to penalize women who asked for more money, but did not penalize other men for doing the same. Women tended to penalize both men and women who negotiated.

Results of this study explain that the social risk of negotiating is higher for women than men; therefore, women are less likely to negotiate salaries because they will be perceived less favorably by their superiors.

Read the full article.

UPDATE: Ex-Surgeon General Says White House Hushed Him & Surgeon General Sees 4-Year Term as Compromised

2007-07-10T09:15:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, former Surgeon General, Richard H. Carmona, testified to a Congressional panel that top Bush administration officials tried to prevent him from speaking out on public health issues they deemed controversial, including abstinence-only sex education, the emergency contraceptive Plan B, and mental and global health issues. He stated that any health information that did not align with the administration’s ideological or political agendas was excluded from or pushed to the fringes of his reports. For example, when Carmona wanted to speak out about scientific research supporting the benefits of teaching about both abstinence and contraceptives in schools, he was silenced. David Satcher and C. Everett Koop, also former Surgeon Generals, attended the hearing, and claimed that although these practices had become worse during the Bush era, previous administrations had also suppressed scientific information that conflicted with political and personal interests. Satcher reported that under the Clinton administration, he was refused permission to publish a report about sexuality and public health due to sensitivities surrounding the Lewinsky scandal. Koop stated that under the Regan administration, he had been dissuaded from confronting the AIDS crisis. For similar reasons, former FDA commissioner, Susan F. Wood, resigned in 2005 because of the administration’s delay tactics surrounding the approval of over-the-counter sales of the emergency contraceptive, Plan B.

Full Articles:
Ex-Surgeon General Says White House Hushed Him
Surgeon General Sees 4-Year Term as Compromised

UPDATE: HHS Hatchet Job on Comprehensive Sexuality Education Deceptive and Politically Motivated

2007-06-21T09:53:00.000-04:00

“Today, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), a division of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a report attacking comprehensive sex education programs.” Eight programs were evaluated—7 revealed the positive impact of condom usage, and 2 revealed the positive impact of delaying sexual initiation. Most importantly, the report revealed that the information presented in the comprehensive sex education curricula is nearly 100% scientifically accurate and effective, despite the report’s original intent to discredit comprehensive sex education programs. The report, however, claims that these curricula do not provide sufficient emphasis on abstinence because the word ‘abstinence’ is used fewer times throughout the report than words like ‘condom’ and ‘contraception’. Martha Kempner, Vice President for Information at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), pointed out that counting words is not a reliable measure of what messages the students are actually learning.

Full Article:
HHS Hatchet Job on Comprehensive Sexuality Education Deceptive and Politically Motivated

UPDATE: Women-owned small businesses victorious in U.S. District Court; Numbers are on the rise

2006-01-26T09:57:00.000-05:00

A Census Bureau study released today found that women-owned businesses grew 20 percent from 1997 to 2002. During that period, women-owned businesses grew at twice the national rate for all private companies and also outpaced the growth of firms owned by men. The report comes as the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce (USWCC) is celebrating a victory for women-owned small businesses around the country. In a case we have been following, the U.S. District Court recently ruled that the Small Business Administration had been “unreasonably” delaying the implementation of the Women’s Procurement Program, resulting in the loss of “billions of dollars in opportunities every year” for women business owners, according to USWCC CEO Margot Dorfman.

Full Article:
Women-Owned Businesses Grew at Twice the National Average, Census Bureau Reports

NEW: Check out NCRW's ResearchforAction Clearinghouse for Information on Judge Alito Confirmation Hearings

2005-12-13T10:15:00.000-05:00

This URGENT ACTION edition of the Clearinghouse features the important work of our member centers and other advocacy groups on the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, providing you with the tools to get involved, learn the issues, and make your voice heard!

NEW: Check out NCRW's Research*for*Action Clearinghouse for Information on Judge Alito Confirmation Hearings

NEW: Timeline shows years of delay by FDA on Plan B

2005-12-01T15:48:00.000-05:00

NCRW has been following the FDA's delay in announcing a decision on the over-the-counter status of the emergency contraceptive Plan B. Recently, the GAO released a report on the "unusual" nature of the FDA's past decisions on the drug. Earlier this week, Mother Jones released a timeline providing a comprehensive outline of years of delay in decisions regarding emergency contraception.
TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE

UPDATE: Senate passes tax cuts; House passes cuts to vital programs

2005-11-21T15:50:00.000-05:00

Last week the House voted to cut $50 billion from Medicaid, food stamps, student loans, and child support enforcement among other programs that provide critical support to low- and moderate-income women and their families. The same night, the Senate passed a $60 billion tax cut bill - more than half of which would go to households with incomes over $1 million.

Read more from the National Women's Law Center and Fair Taxes for All Coalition

Read more on taxes and women from the National Council for Research on Women

UPDATE: Full GAO Report on FDA's "Unusual" Plan B Decision Released

2005-11-14T15:51:00.000-05:00

We reported last month on the intial findings of the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) report on the FDA's decision to deny the sale of Plan B over-the-counter. The full report, titled Decision Process to Deny Initial Application for Over-the-Counter Marketing of the Emergency Contraceptive Drug Plan B Was Unusual is now available on the GAO's website.

TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE (PDF)

MISSING: Women and People of Color in Government Contracts in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina

2005-10-21T15:53:00.000-04:00

Under Executive Order 11246, signed in 1965 by President Johnson, federal contractors having 50 or more employees and $50,000 in federal contracts must prepare a written affirmative action program. In the wake of a large rebuilding effort in areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina and Rita, the Department of Labor has signed a memorandum which allows companies receiving new contracts to be exempt from compliance with the affirmative action program requirements.

TO READ MORE CLICK HERE

NEW: General Accounting Office Releases Initial Findings on 2004 FDA Plan B Decision

2005-10-13T15:56:00.000-04:00

The Washington Post reported today on initial findings from the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) report on the FDA's 2004 decision to reject the over-the-counter status of Plan B. The draft GAO report indicates that the decision was "highly unusual, was made with atypical involvement from top agency officials, and may well have been made months before it was formally announced." The full report will be available by the end of the month.

TO READ MORE CLICK HERE

NEW: VAWA Passed in Senate

2005-10-07T15:56:00.000-04:00

After allowing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) to expire, the Senate passed its version of VAWA 2005 earlier this week. While the Senate version includes many of the provisions excluded in the House version of the Act, it dropped a key program that would have extended unemployment insurance coverage to domestic violence survivors. As we have reported in earlier MISSING pieces, the issue of unemployment insurance is critical to those seeking to leave situations of domestic violence, and, in most states, individuals are ineligible for unemployment benefits if they leave work voluntarily without "good cause" or if they are discharged for "misconduct". Adding such a provision to VAWA 2005 would be a step towards addressing this problem.

MISSING: ATTENTION TO GENDER IN HURRICANE RELIEF EFFORTS

2005-09-13T15:57:00.000-04:00

Women's eNews today featured this report on missing rape reporting procedures in New Orleans. Women's organizations, like NCRW member center Ms. Foundation, have also been working to set up relief funds targeting women, and specifically low-income women of color.

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UPDATE: Loretta Ross offers a feminist perspective on Katrina. To read her article, click here.

MISSING: Department of Education Support for Women and Girls in Sports

2005-03-28T15:58:00.000-05:00

Late in the afternoon Friday, March 18, new regulations weakening Title IX were posted on the Department of Education’s website. The new regulations require a much lower standard for colleges and universities to prove that they are meeting Title IX policy guidelines than was previously required.

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