NOT SUCH "A-LONG-WAY-BABY"

by Mary Bugbee

Forty million working women make up 42% of today's workforce. Two out of every five workers are female.

Yes, our traditional role in the family has changed-and not because of "women's lib." We can't afford to stay at home anymore. Most of us must go to work to feed ourselves, our children, our families. Many of us are single parents. Besides, it's close to impossible now to provide a decent family life on one income.

Despite the large numbers of us working outside the home, there are probably millions more who would take jobs-if women could get jobs with an income over and above the cost of childcare, transportation, or wardrobes needed in order to work.

Once in the workforce, full-time working women earn 59° for every $1.00 earned by men. On the average, women workers make $100 less per week than men. Of women who work, 80% are trapped in low-paying clerical and service jobs or doing "women's work" in factories. In 1976 women

BALLAD

It was 50 years ago, an amendment was proposed To make the laws state men and women equal. But little did we know just how long the fight would go,

And even now we're working on its sequel.

(Refrain)

So no more debate because we won't wait.

We demand equality today!

And it's fight we must to make the law just. ERA, ERA, ERA!

"Well, I'm only Adam's rib, keep me safe within my crib,"

This shifty cries while working women labor.

"Any girl who needs to work should find a man or she's a jerk,

And if she don't know her place who cares what they pay her?" We dol

(Refrain)

Sald the man who's been laid off, "How can I support this stuff?

clericals earned an average of $4,200 less than male clericals. As for job security and benefits, less than 15% of today's working women belong to trade unions.

So, who needs the Equal Rights Amendment? Everyone who works for a living. Women especially. "Equality of rights under the law" is no small demand when you consider the estimated 3,000 laws on the books which discriminate on the basis of sex! These include laws which:

• prohibit women from working at certain occupations;

• discriminate in hiring for state and local government;

• establish dual pay schedules;

• restrict married women from engaging in businesses independently of their husbands.

Workers' Compensation laws discriminate, too. If a woman is killed on the job, the family members often must endure a long and degrading process to prove they were dependent on her income.

The ERA in one stroke will knock out all laws that

OF ERA

The boss tells me you make more competition." She said, "Find work if you can, but not just 'cause you're a man.

Let's work side by side in factory and kitchen. " (Refrain)

Said the sergeant with a sneer, "Well then, tell me something, dear.

Are you willing to be drafted with the others?" She answered, "Yes, and more. I will not support your war.

I will resist and fight beside my brothers.'

(Refrain)

Well now, the day is close at hand, that across this lovely land

Those that try to keep us down will be defeated. So help us speed the day. Shout the word: It's ERA! Till the era of equality is greeted.

(Refrain)

-by Kristin Lems

Sexual Harassment in the Justice Department

Washington (AP)—A former Justice Department employee who says she was fired for protesting the advances of her boss appealed to Congress to protect federal workers victimized by sexual harassment.

"Women making sexual harassment complaints, like women who have been sexually assaulted, are treated as the culpable party, rather than as the victim," Diane Rennay Williams told a House subcommittee. "Women complaining of sexual harassment should be given temporary details or transfers until the complaint is investigated and resolved," said Ms. Williams, who was dismissed as a public information officer at the Justice Department's Community Relations Service in 1972. Her remarks came in testimony prepared for a House Post Office and Civil Service subcommittee, which opened hearings on October 23 into sexual harassment of federal workers.

Rep. James Hanley, D-NY, the subcommittee chairperson, said an investigation has shown sexual harassment is an "everyday, everywhere occurrence" in the federal government. He appealed to the Office of Personnel Management to take steps to eradicate it.

Hanley noted that an informal survey taken by a Housing and Urban Development employee recently turned up about 160 women who reported they have

Page 8/What She Wants/November, 1979

been harassed sexually on the job. Other, informal surveys also have turned up large numbers of women claiming similar harassment.

"This type of behavior simply should not be tolerated in the federal workplace," Hanley said. "Managers should be put on notice that a 'boys will be boys' atmosphere will not be condoned in any federal agency.'

11

Federal court rulings have held in the last several years that sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination, and outlawed as a result.

Committee aides say sexual harassment normally takes the form of a male supervisor making advances to a female worker, then taking retaliatory measures such as issuing poor job performance ratings or an outright dismissal notice if the advances are spurned.

Ms. Williams, whose case is expected to go to a new trial in several weeks, was fired on 25 minutes' notice in 1972, several days after filing a sex discrimination complaint against her boss. While her supervisor has remained in his job, her case has been in the federal courts and had a number of ad-

(continued on page 13)

discriminate on the basis of sex, whether on a federal, state or local level. As part of the Constitution, the ERA will provide the needed pressure for effective enforcement of existing anti-discrimination laws.

Too often, the ERA is seen as a threat to men, a "family destroyer," or some sort of movement for co-ed bathrooms. The truth is, these myths are spread by the anti-ERA forces who are also against unions, minimum wage, childcare funding, or any movement that represents the interests of people who must work for a living.

women forces are funded by some of the same corporate interests who want working people (not them) to pay for today's runaway inflation. They want us divided (men vs. women, black vs. white) so we don't organize ourselves to fight them. Vulnerable, underpaid females have often been used to break strikes, undermine union organizing drives, and keep overall wages lower.

That's why unions are taking stronger, more militant stands behind the ERA ratification movement. Unions are finding it increasingly difficult to hold their own against the rapid erosion of working conditions and real wages. Unions need working women, It's no small coincidence that twelve of the fifteen states that haven't ratified the ERA are right-to-work (for less!) states. Right-wing anti-union and anti-

HOW LONG MUST

WOMEN

WNT

FOR LIBERTY?

D. BROWN

and women need union protection. Working women can no longer be dismissed as "too conservative" or "too hard to organize." It's only logical that unions take up the fight for equality-it is the basis for uniting the workforce to fight together for decent lives, and it will provide the incentive for working women to take up the union banner. It's the story of mutual benefit.

Unions in Virginia-the next state to vote on the ERA-have formed Labor for Equal Rights Now (LERN), a labor coalition to mobilize union members, women's groups, and working people to fight for ratification. They have been organizing in Virginia for over a year and are now calling for national mobilization by unions and women's groups for a march in Richmond, Virginia on January 13, 1980.

The LERN Coalition includes the Va. State AFLCIO, United Auto Workers Region 8, Va. Education Association, Teamsters Joint Council 55 and 83, and United Mine Workers of America District 28. It is hoped the turnout will outnumber the 100,000 marchers in Washington D.C. in July of 1978-a demonstration that won the extension of the deadline for ratification to 1982.

Labor and women's groups are currently organizing a Cleveland committee and plan to send buses to Richmond for the march. More details will appear in the next issue of WSW. If you'd like to get involved now, contact Marjorie MacEwan, Chairperson of the N.O.W. Labor Task Force (289-6549).