Ireland considers plan for financial punishments for universities that fail to meet specified targets.

Irish universities would risk losing part of their funding if they fail to tackle gender inequality under proposed reforms to improve women’s promotion chances in academe.

As part of plans put forward by an expert group commissioned by the Republic of Ireland’s Higher Education Authority, all higher education institutions would face financial penalties if they did not meet targets on gender equality agreed with the funding body.

Institutions would also be unable to apply for research funding if they failed to achieve at least a Silver Athena SWAN award (given for gender equity) within seven years, the group has recommended.

Read the full story from Inside Higher Ed here.

How Does a College Get an Exemption From Title IX?

By Eric Kelderman, The Chronicle of Higher Education

The federal gender-equity law known as Title IX has largely become known for two issues in higher education: requiring equity in opportunities for women in college sports and, more recently, a nationwide wave of demands for colleges to crack down on sexual harassment and rape.

Read the story here.

U.S. women paid less in all industries, every level: report

By Patricia Reaney, Reuters

Women in the United States are paid less for equal work than men in all industries and a new report released on Thursday showed the widest discrepancy in wages is between married men and women with children.

Read the story here.

Related content:

• New Research Proves the Hidden Inequality within the Gender Wage Gap (The Financial Times)
• Gender Pay Gap Will Be Erased, But It Will Take 118 Years: Report (NBC News)
• A CEO’s guide to gender equality (McKinsey&Company)
• Report: Gender Wage Gap Shrinks Because Men Earn Less (The American Prospect)
• The Argument for a 70% Pay Raise for Women (Wall Street Journal)
• 5 Common Behaviors That Hinder Women's Careers (Business News Daily)
• Lean In to Be Stretched Thin? Research explores why some women turn down promotions (Scientific American)
• Do You Realize How Few Women CEOs Exist? These Executives Don't. (The Huffington Post)

Title IX Officials Support OCR 'Dear Colleague' Letter

Inside Higher Ed
February 14, 2012 - 3:00am

The Association of Title IX Administrators, a group of officials charged with ensuring gender equity on campuses, issued a declaration of support Monday for the Office for Civil Rights’ controversial “dear colleague” letter that reiterated institutional responsibilities in responding to and preventing sexual assault. The declaration was co-authored by the Women's Sports Foundation.


Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/02/14/title-ix-officials-support-ocr-dear-colleague-letter#ixzz1mNoMefR6
Inside Higher Ed

Click here for a copy of the letter of support: http://www.atixa.org/documents/Organizational%20Sign-on%20for%20DCL%20re%20Sexual%20Violence%202012%20FINAL%20Sign%20on.pdf

College Teams, Relying on Deception, Undermine Gender Equity

The New York Times
By KATIE THOMAS
Published: April 25, 2011

Ever since Congress passed the federal gender-equity law known as Title IX, universities have opened their gyms and athletic fields to millions of women who previously did not have chances to play. But as women have surged into a majority on campus in recent years, many institutions have resorted to subterfuge to make it look as if they are offering more spots to women. At the University of South Florida, more than half of the 71 women on the cross-country roster failed to run a race in 2009. Asked about it, a few laughed and said they did not know they were on the team.

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/sports/26titleix.html?_r=2&hp

Changing workplace culture on the waterfront stalled by lack of women workers

The Vancouver Sun
By Kim Pemberton, Vancouver Sun
November 22, 2009

VANCOUVER - Attempts to deal with complaints of sexual harassment and discrimination against female workers appear to be stalled, the head of the BC Maritime Employers Association has indicated.
BCMEA president and CEO Andy Smith said a management proposal to deal with the problems can’t proceed until a union demand to clear up a backlog of job applicants is dealt with.
But since only 132 of the nearly 2,000 applicants are women and jobs on the waterfront are scarce, it would be a long time before any real gender equity would be achieved at the port. Only 4.7 per cent of Vancouver longshore workers are women now, and only some of them are union members.
“This is an issue of under-representation,” Smith said in an interview. “We won’t get the culture changed with the tiny fragment of women working on the waterfront.”
Smith also said that the union — the International Longshore Warehouse Union Canada — wants the benefits of existing longshore workers to be improved before proceeding with affirmative action.

Full Story: http://www.vancouversun.com/Changing+workplace+culture+waterfront+stalled+lack+women+workers/2254063/story.html

STARK, DELAURO CALL FOR GENDER EQUITY IN CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTS

NEWS – CONGRESSMAN PETE STARK
239 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5065
www.stark.house.gov

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, September 18, 2009
CONTACT: Brian Cook, (202) 225-3202

STARK, DELAURO CALL FOR GENDER EQUITY IN CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTS
Letter Urges Secretary of Labor to Update 29-year-old Regulations

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Pete Stark (D-CA) and Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT) sent a letter co-signed by 24 of their colleagues urging Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis to modernize the affirmative action goals set by the Office of Federal Contracts and Compliance Programs (OFCCP) to reflect the realities of female participation in the construction industry today.

Rep. Stark: "The regulations for federal contractors in the construction industry are out of date and must be updated. Our equal opportunity policies should reflect the progress our country has made, as well as the most up-to-date census data."

Rep. DeLauro: “Modernizing these contract requirements is a no-brainer. These OFCCP standards are based on forty-year-old data that in no way reflect the considerable progress we have seen in the construction industry over the past four decades. These standards should reflect the America of 2010, not the America of 1970.”

Below is the full text of the letter:

The Honorable Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor
U.S. Department of Labor
Frances Perkins Building
200 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20210

18 September 2009

Dear Secretary Solis:

Congratulations on your confirmation. We are writing to request a re-evaluation of the affirmative action goals for women set by the Office of Federal Contracts and Compliance Programs (OFCCP) in the regulations implementing Executive Order 11246. As you know, the current goal for the utilization of women within Federal construction contracts and subcontracts has not been updated from a level of 6.9% of total work hours since 1980. We believe that with the historic levels of public investment from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the continued and substantial under-representation of women in numerous industries in which that Act is likely to create jobs, the time is right to review this goal and reaffirm the Federal Government’s commitment to gender equity in the workplace.

Background:
At the time of the original affirmative action regulations in 1978, the OFCCP found that “a review of statistics relating to women in the construction industry shows an almost total exclusion of women from employment. Continued reliance by contractors on established hiring practices may reasonably be expected to result in a continuation of almost total female exclusion”. (i)

The OFCCP standards – which progressed from 3.1% to 5% to 6.9% over a period of three years – were designed to end this exclusion and they have made a very positive start. However, the resulting 6.9% participation goal has not been further expanded in over 30 years. This standard is outdated and woefully inadequate to reflect the current availability of qualified women to perform jobs in a variety of industries. The fact that the construction industry is still characterized as a non-traditional occupation (NTO) for women (one in which women comprise less than 25% of the general workforce) is evidence of remaining barriers and the need for Federal action.

There are a number of reasons why it is important to expand access for women into NTOs – particularly construction and the trades. Research has shown that women in NTOs typically earn 20-30% more than those in traditionally female jobs and have greater access to more comprehensive benefits and unionization. NTOs also tend to have more established career ladders that allow women to progress to higher wages and benefits. Furthermore, NTOs employ roughly equal proportions of black, white, and Hispanic women (ii), so inclusion efforts will benefit women of all backgrounds.

Despite these benefits, barriers to the entrance of women into NTOs remain. These include a lack of training and apprenticeships for women, as well as isolation and sexual harassment in the non-traditional work environments (iii). As we re-tool the country’s workforce to changing industries such as alternative energy, the Federal Government has both a chance and a responsibility to remove barriers to opportunity, improve the position of women in society, and boost the economy.

What We Ask:
A recalculation of the 6.9% participation rate is long overdue. The original number was based on data from the 1970 Census. A more appropriate participation goal, based on current workforce and demographic data, is both legally defensible and critical to assist women in making more gains in non-traditional fields. We also ask that this figure be subject to regular review – as opposed to the current “indefinite extension” status that has left the inclusion figure at 6.9% since 1980.

The 1978 regulations reference a working committee that was to make recommendations and conduct oversight for the women’s participation goal. It is unclear to what extent this committee was or is (still) active at the OFCCP. Is this committee currently active within the OFCCP in any form? If not, we propose that a similar committee be re-instated – and comprised of a variety of members, from both the Federal government and non-governmental advocacy groups.

Conclusion:
With the historic Federal investment in the areas of infrastructure and the ‘green’ economy, there must come a matching Federal commitment to gender equity and opportunity. Recalculating the goal for female participation in OFCCP contracts is a small, but important step for the Federal government to take in ensuring equal access to the new jobs that the Administration will create.

Thank you for your attention to this issue. We look forward to hearing from you. If you require any additional information, please do not hesitate to contact Megan Curran in the office of Congressman Stark on (202) 225-5065 or Leticia Mederos in the office of Congresswoman DeLauro on (202) 225-3661.

Sincerely,

Pete Stark
Rosa DeLauro
Joe Baca
Steve Cohen
Keith Ellison
Eliot Engel
Bob Filner
Hank Johnson
Marcy Kaptur
Dennis Kucinich
Barbara Lee
John Lewis
Stephen Lynch
Jim McDermott
Jerry McNerney
Carolyn Maloney
Eric Massa
Mike Michaud
Donald Payne
Chellie Pingree
Jared Polis
Jan Schakowsky
Joe Sestak
Jackie Speier
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Henry Waxman


i. Wider Opportunities for Women (2005). “Women and Nontraditional Work”.
www.wowonline.org/resources/publications.index.asp

ii. Wider Opportunities for Women (2005). “Women and Nontraditional Work”. www.wowonline.org/resources/publications.index.asp

iii. Wider Opportunities for Women (2005). “Women and Nontraditional Work - Barriers”. www.wowonline.org/resources/publications.index.asp

$1 Billion More a Year for Gender Equality, Clean Energy and NASA, Says House Chairman

CNSNews.com
$1 Billion More a Year for Gender Equality, Clean Energy and NASA, Says House
Chairman

Friday, December 19, 2008By Josiah Ryan, Staff Writer
House Science and Technology Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) (Photo: Web site of Rep. Gordon.)
(CNSNews.com) - Despite the recession, House Science and Technology Committee Chairman Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) introduced an expanded agenda for his committee for 2009, which includes developing clean energy technologies, a proposed expansion of NASA space missions and restoring gender equality to America’s laboratories. It is estimated to cost $1 billion a year in new spending. Gordon said that while he does not know precisely how much the agenda will cost in total, he hopes the proposed $1 billion a year will be paid for, in part, by the stimulus package President-elect Barack Obama has outlined for early 2009. Obama’s plan is estimated to cost nearly $1 trillion over two years. “It’s just a matter of funding what we pass,” said Gordon at a Capitol Hill press conference on Thursday. “We provide the administration with the blueprints and all they have to do is write the check.” A statement given to reporters by Gordon’s office called for action and described both “a climate in crisis” and a “foundering economy” as problems that need “solving.”

Full Story: http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=41064