Somewhere

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• Somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright,
• The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,

Somewhere in heaven my grandmother is smiling through her tears.

She, too, just like me, watched President Barack Obama sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act today.

My maternal grandmother was a teacher in Oklahoma one-room schools from the early part of the 1920's through most of the 1950's. Early in her career she received just a little over $30 per month while her male counterpart was paid almost $50 for the same month. The disparity never changed in her lifetime. It never changed for her daughter either up through the early 1980's.

The school boards would classify my grandmother as a "teacher" while the male teacher in the next school over with virtually the same number of students was referred to as a "Headmaster." For my mother the title "coach" was attached to practically every male teacher whether he ever set foot on a field or a court. Call him a "coach" and he could be paid more. Probably still is.

Do you attend your local school board meetings?

Do you ask questions?

Do you check these things out?

I have a really nasty feeling this sort of thing still goes on in public schools today.

My grandmother was not teaching for fun. She was not teaching to "supplement" the family income--she was the family income. Why did she deserve almost 30% less salary because she had tits?

Please, God, let the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act change this.

Women's Issues & Barack Obama

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WOW ............ the Obama administration has a web site on women's issues.

• Health Care
• Reproductive Choice
• Preventing Violence Against Women
• Economic Issues
• National Security
• Education

WOW

And also, the Senate passed its version of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. It will now go back to the House for final passage and then go to the desk of President Obama. He will sign it.

"We Try to Hire Men"

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Today, 9 January 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to take up for reconsideration the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

For a little background, check out N Y Times opinion piece:

• Senate Republicans blocked the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act last spring. They should consider now whether hostility to civil rights and pay equity for women is really the image they want to project for their party after the losses it suffered in November.

We just keep fighting the same old battles--over and over and over.


But on a happier note, from Connie Schultz at the Cleveland Plain Dealer comes this little tale to delight the heart of all working women everywhere:

• We were driving through Mansfield and decided to pull into a Valvoline Instant Oil Change station. And what to our wondering eyes should appear but the sight of four females yelling, "Pull it in here"
• "Oh, my gosh," I said. "They're all women."
• My husband rolled down his window ... to yell, "Oh, my gosh, you're all women!"
• This was not news to manager Jen Good.
• "We try to hire men, but they usually don't work out," she said. "Too messy. Too many fingerprints on the hoods, too much oil dripping on bumpers. Women just have an eye for that kind of thing, I guess."
• Some manly men take one look at the female crew and pull out in a huff.
• "Sometimes that bothers my crew," Good said. "But I just tell them, 'Let 'em go.' "
• "Think about why they were here in the first place. They can't even change their own oil."

Whee! One must chuckle.
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Update: The House passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act. And now, on to the Senate where there will be much shuffling of feet and gnashing of teeth.

Write your senators and urge them to support these crucial pieces of legislation. Do it NOW.
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