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News from the Wyoming Women's Foundation
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Did you know in
Wyoming...
Since 2000, a woman has held one of three federal seats (33%). In
the Wyoming legislature, the percentage of women has hovered between 13
percent and 18 percent since 2000, until the last election when the
Wyoming House received a large jump in the number of women elected to 28
percent. In Wyoming counties, women hold between 20 percent and 60
percent of elected offices.
(Data from WY
Council for Women's Issues 2008)
Did you know
nationally...
In Congress:
women hold 86, or 16.3%, of the 535 seats in the 110th US Congress
- 16, or 16.0% of the 100 seats in the Senate and 70, or 16.1%, of
the 435 seats in the House of Representatives.
In Statewide Elective Executive Offices:
In 2007, 77 women held statewide elective executive offices across the
country out of 315 - 24.4%. Among these women, 48 are Democrats, 26 are
Republicans, one is an independent, and 3 were elected in nonpartisan
races.
In State Legislature: In 2007,
1,734, or 23.5%, of the 7,382 state legislators in the United States are
women. Women hold 423, or 21.5%, of the 1,971 state senate seats and
1,311, or 24.2%, of the 5,411 state house seats.
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Lilly
Ledbetter and the Paycheck Fairness Act
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 On August 26th, Women's
Equality Day, Lilly Ledbetter addressed the Democratic National
Convention with her concerns about wage discrimination. Last year,
Ms. Ledbetter was the losing party in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire. A jury
found that Goodyear discriminated against her in pay while she was a
manager at a Goodyear plant in Alabama, giving her smaller raises than
the male managers, and awarded her $3 million in damages. The Supreme
Court, by a 5-4 vote, threw out that award, ruling that Ms. Ledbetter had
filed her complaint too late. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was passed
in the House last year, but failed in the Senate. Now the Paycheck
Fairness Act is heading to the Senate after being passed by the House.
Ms. Ledbetter stated at the
DNC:"We can't afford more of the same votes that deny women their
equal rights... But this isn't a Democratic or a Republican issue.
It's a fairness issue. And fortunately, there are some Republicans - and
a lot of Democrats - who are on our side... My case is over. I will never
receive the pay I deserve. But there will be a far richer reward if we
secure fair pay; for our children and grandchildren, so that no one will
ever again experience the discrimination that I did. Equal pay for equal
work is a fundamental American principle. We need leaders in this country
who will fight for it. With all of us working together, we can have the
change we need and the opportunity we all deserve."
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec08/ledbetter_08-26.html
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Quick Links
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(Next month we should
have our new website up, but for now peruse the old one)
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Do you have
comments that you would like to share about any of the articles in this
newsletter?
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Email Sarah at sarah@wycf.org and let us know if we can print your response
in the next newsletter.
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Give the money
to fuel the change
for women and girls in Wyoming
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Electing Women to Office
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Faith Winter is
the National Field Director of the White House Project which is an
organization that aims to advance
women's leadership in all communities and sectors-up to the U.S.
presidency-by filling the leadership pipeline with a richly diverse,
critical mass of women. As the youngest elected woman of Colorado
she has some advice as to how to get women elected to office.
1. Vote at every
opportunity and act as a role model bringing a
daughter or niece with you to the polls.
2. Step into
leadership by pushing yourself into volunteering for a
board or campaign.
3. Write a check
to a woman candidate you believe in.
4. Help change our
culture by supporting movies, books, and magazines that
show women as leaders.
5. Invite another
woman to run for office.
Her voice was
recently added to the 1000 Voices National Archive, a video content site
produced by Creative Counsel that elevates community voices which
demonstrate solution-based approaches of local efforts nationwide.Go here to watch the whole clip.
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The statistics for
women in office were up for Wyoming in 2007, in 2008 we are loosing three
women in the senate and there is only one woman running,
it is a competitive race. If she wins there will be two
women in our state senate. There are twelve women running
uncontested races in the Wyoming house and eight are in contested
races. If all of these women win their races; women
will represent 30% of the house. It is imperative that like
Faith Winter, we encourage women to run for office, to have a voice in
the policy decisions that affect all of us. Speaking of encouraging
women to vote; the White House Project will be holding a workshop at the
"Got Equality?" event on September 26th at the University of
Wyoming. The workshop is geared toward young women leaders from the
UW campus.
The Wyoming
Women's Foundation will be there too, sharing with all participants what
we are doing to address economic self-sufficiency issues for all
Wyoming's women. If you are in Casper on October 3 or 4, look for
us at the Wyoming Women's Expo. We will have a booth and would
enjoy talking with you about the Wyoming Women's Foundation's mission,
goals and actions as well as to hear your ideas.
WyWF would like to
congratulat our former Exeuctive Director, Laurel Parker West.
Laurel has taken a new position with the Long Island Fund for Women
and Girls in Jericho, New York. Congratulations Laurel! We
are grateful to have you as a collegue and look forward to working with
you in the future.
Richelle
Wyoming Women's
Foundation
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