Women and Power: Tactics for Change

By Loretta Feller

Mary Boyle (D), Ohio State Representative for House District 14, provided a focus for the Women and Power conference at John Carroll University on April 19. Sponsored by the Choices for Women Program, the conference explored avenues for women into decision-making structures.

In her keynote speech, Mary Boyle expressed her belief that self-determination is the basic issue in discussions of women and power. As women, she pointed out, any of us now has a better than 40 percent chance of being a displaced homemaker and a better than 60 percent chance of becoming a minimum income woman alone at the age of 65. We are in a survival battle, she stated, and we must face it both alone and together. We can no longer afford to define ourselves through men.

Resources are available to us, however. Rep. Boyle suggested that organizing and advocacy have been traditional skills of women, which we now need to use on our own behalf. In addition to crediting our volunteer experience as valid job experience, we need also to be aware of our external resources, such as WomenSpace, Cleveland Women Working, and Women Together.

Rep. Boyle concluded by saying that we must not put down other women. When discussing problems, we need to include all women and avoid dividing ourselves. Once we have mastered self-determination, she stated, we may then go on to write further definitions of power.

In addition to Mary Boyle's remarks on selfdetermination, eleven conference workshopsap ap-proached the question of how and where to enter the power structure. Although I was unable to attend all the workshops, the two I did attend provided a large quantity of basic information in an organized, understandable manner.

Dr. Kathleen Barber, Chairperson of the Political Science Department at John Carroll University, in her presentation "Getting Into Political DecisionMaking", asserted that political women do not differ much from political men in factors such as personality, motivation, or background. She did note, however, that certain factors arising out of men's traditional dominance in public politics still hinder women. She cited specifically the "old boys system" which denies access to information, and the tactic of slating women for offices where the odds are stacked against their winning. An example of the latter, mentioned Dr. Barber, was the attempt last year to run a woman against Virgil Brown, a Black candidate for the office of Cuyahoga County Commissioner. Local political women, in this case, had enough savvy to recognize that Mr. Brown was a sure winner and that to run a woman against him at that time could only have been tokenism with possibilities for divisiveness.

Dr. Barber suggested four entry points for women interested in public politics. In the realm of party politics, she suggested working for a candidate and developing a network of support, or running for precinct committeeperson, an elective post which often goes unfilled. Outside party politics, a woman might start by running for a non-partisan office on the school board or local city council. She cautioned that the rule of thumb tells us not to be surprised if we don't win in our first two attempts. A fourth entry level is in the politics of the bureaucracy, in which policy is carried out after elections. Here, an individual may volunteer to serve on a citizen advisory committee, such as NOACA (Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordination Agency), a five-county organization which reviews federal grants.

At the well-attended workshop. "Routes Into the Power Structure Within the Organization", Dr.

Mary Ann Huckabay gave an overview of women's strengths and weaknesses as individuals in an organization, as well as the structural barriers which hold women back. Two characteristics of leadership which women traditionally possess are the abilities to maintain relationships and enhance the self-esteem of others. To make a place for ourselves in an organization, however, Dr. Huckabay suggested that women need to acquire additional skills, such as the ability to take risks, to plan a strategy for our future in the

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organization, and to recognize what behavior gets results. We now know that just doing a good job and waiting to be recognized for it gets us nowhere.

Dr. Huckabay emphasized that structural barriers are still working, against us. With so few women in certain types of, jobs, group dynamics push these token individuals to behave in stereotypical ways. Also, with little opportunity for advancement, we (continued on page 11)

CWW Speaks Out on Wages and Ageism

By Loretta Feller

Fifty-nine cent dollars distributed in the downtown area advertised Cleveland Women Working's (CWW) annual Speak-Out for Higher Pay and Fair Employment, and dramatized the fact that women today earn only 59 cents to every dollar earned by men-an actual drop from the 64-cent dollar earned by women in 1955.

Ione Biggs chaired the Speak-Out, which included a resolution of congratulations to CWW presented

by Cleveland City Councilwoman Fannie Lewis, testimony on the problems of low pay, findings from

"Mr. Wainwright, the Temporary Agency sent over the "girl" you asked for.

Robin Winter/Equal Times/9 to 5/LNS

CWW's report on older women office workers, and an outline of the organization's plan of action for the upcoming year.

In testimony read by CWW members, an insurance industry employee told of the proudly acknowledged policy at her company which held clerical workers' wage increases to the 7 percent federal anti-inflation guidelines, while company executives received salary increases of 18 percent and higher, and while the inflation rate passed 14 percent. Another woman told of taking a $4 per hour housekeeping job after her divorce to support her 5 children and to pay for training in secretarial skills at Cuyahoga Community College. Now, as a trained, experienced secretary, she earns only $4.30 per hour. Her pay in the pink-collar ghetto of "women's work" is still 17 percent less than the pay given to unskilled male janitors at her company.

CWW's report, "Life Begins at 40?" indicted Cleveland area employers for the effects of dual discrimination experienced by older women office workers here. The study showed that older women face greater barriers in hiring and promotion than do their younger and/or male counterparts. Also, wage

disparity between women and men widens with age. Women over age 45, working full-time, currently earn an average of $8,941 annually, or about 55 percent of what men in the same age category earn. In many cases, new employees earn about as much in starting wages as women in the same jobs earn after many years. Older women also face problems with inadequate pensions and with social security laws, so that women now make up about 70 percent of all poor people over 65 in the U.S.

The report pointed to the need for employers to evaluate their employment systems for the effects on older women. Specific recommendations to employers included creating and publicizing career ladders, instituting job posting, providing promotions and acceptance into training programs for older women at rates which reflect their total employment participation in the company, and removing artificially high educational requirements. Further, they recommended that employers compensate experienced women workers by restructuring clerical wage scales and in-stituting merit and cost-of-living increases. With 90 percent of women in private industry retiring with no pension, CWW also recommended that employers begin vesting employees in pension plans after one year of employment, and that they eliminate "integrated" formulas whereby companies deduct from employees' pensions a percentage of the company's contribution to social security (a practice which takes a substantial toll on employees earning lower wages). In their 3-point agenda for action in the next year, CWW. proposed to call on Congress to reform social security and pension laws so they no longer have an adverse impact on women. They also exhorted federal and state EEO agencies to improve handling of age discrimination laws, and called on employers to follow the recommendations made in their report.

At the Speak-Out, CWW targeted the retail industry for their discrimination against older women, particularly in the credit, collection, and accounting departments, and notified the stores in the area that the organization will be focusing on their practices in the year ahead.

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May, 1980/What She Wants/Page 3,