After Hillary Clinton's historic campaign came to an end, there were worries among her supporters that women had lost their voice in the 2008 presidential campaign. Comments on blogs lamented the loss of a powerful advocate for women in America and some threatened to vote for John McCain, saying it served American women right for letting Hillary go. The addition of Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket brought the issues affecting women back into the forefront and yet, the Republican ticket continues to miss the boat on what really matters to American women.
The candidates have gone about attracting women in very different fashions. JohnMcCain.com has a fairly comprehensive breakdown of issues that will be important in this election. Women's issues are conspicuously absent. (In contrast, BarckObama.com has a comprehensive outline of Senator Obama's positions on women's issues.) As of late, Senator Obama has been make a very strong push for women voters. And the hottest topic out there? Equal Pay for Equal Work.
On his website Barack Obama pledges to continue to fight for pay equity:
Throughout his career, Barack Obama and Joe Biden have championed the right of women to receive equal pay for equal work. In the Illinois State Senate, Obama cosponsored and voted for the Illinois Equal Pay Act, which provided 330,000 more women protection from pay discrimination. In the U.S. Senate, Obama joined a bipartisan group of Senators to introduce the Fair Pay Restoration Act, a bill to overturn the Supreme Court's recent 5-4 decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. The bill would restore the clear intent of Congress that workers must have a reasonable time to file a pay discrimination claim after they become victims of discriminatory compensation. Obama is also a cosponsor of Senator Tom Harkin's (D-IA) Fair Pay Act. As president, Obama will continue to promote paycheck equity and close the wage gap between men and women.
The Fair Pay Restoration Act, also known as the Lilly Ledbetter Act, is designed to help women who have been victims of pay discrimination. While the law tweaks the wording of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the hottest topic of the debate comes down to this:
Accrues liability, and an aggrieved person may obtain relief including recovery of back pay for up to two years preceding the filing of the charge, where the unlawful employment practices that have occurred during the charge filing period are similar or related to practices that occurred outside the time for filing a charge.
(from www.govtrack.us)
What this bill would do is extend the statute of limitations for litigation, as the discovery of pay discrimination can happen much later. The bill passed in the House, 225 to 199. When the Senate convened to vote on whether to consider the measure, it was defeated by a vote of 56 to 42, the Senate fell four votes short of the 60 required to begin consideration. Senators Clinton and Obama returned to Washington for the vote. Senator McCain did not. He told reporters, though, he would have opposed the bill since it could contribute to frivolous lawsuits harmful to businesses.
This is a talking point that has come up a number of times on the campaign trail. On Face the Nation, McCain surrogate Jane Swift had this to say about the Senator's opinion on the legislation:
What they're referring to is a very narrow decision in the Supreme Court that had more to do with enriching trial lawyers and giving them more of an opportunity to sue with endless time frame than about whether or not John McCain has stood up for women.
After Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz pressed Swift to admit that McCain was "bad on equal pay for equal work," host Bob Schieffer turned to Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and asked her for McCain's position. According to Hutchison, Senator McCain does support equal pay for equal work because he supports another bill, one that she sponsored. The bill she is referring to, the Title VII Fairness Act has been criticized by a number of groups who claim that Hutchison's bill would complicate the process further by pinning start dates on "should’ves, could’ves, and would’ves."
But while his surrogates are out on the trail with their talking points about trial lawyers, McCain himself has failed to really take on the issue. At a town hall event in May, Senator McCain responded to a question about the legislation, saying he believed extending the statute of limitation could violate the rights of individuals who are being sued in cases of pay discrepancies and didn't think the legislation was "doing anything to help the rights of women." He later mentioned to reporters that he felt women needed "education and training." He repeated his support in July, but again provided nothing to back his claim up. Since joining the campaign trail, Governor Palin has simply picked up the McCain line and followed along.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and his surrogates have been pounding the pavement for women's issues. Obama recently released an ad on McCain's position on pay equity. The McCain campaign hit back, not rebutting the claim, but rather accusing accusing Obama of paying women in his Senate office less than the men. This claim has been refuted by a number of sources. The numbers the campaign provided were salary averages and failed to take into account the fact that McCain had more women in senior positions than Obama.
In the midst of all this, however the most surprising aspect of this entire argument is the fact that the candidates are so hung up on this one bill, this one piece of legislation. Obviously, the Lilly Ledbetter case brought to light the inequalities women face in the work place, but redefining the statute of limitations is not the only way to work towards achieving pay equity.
On March 6, 2007 Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton introduced the Paycheck Fairness Act in the Senate. On the same day, Representative Rosa DeLauro from Connecticut introduced the exact same bill in the House. While Senator Clinton's bill went nowhere, Representative DeLauro's bill was debated and on July 31, 2008 passed in the House by a vote of 247 to 178. This bill will:
Requires that employers seeking to justify unequal pay bear the burden of proving that its actions are job-related and consistent with a business necessity.
Prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who share salary information with their co-workers.
Puts gender-based discrimination sanctions on equal footing with other forms of wage discrimination – such as discrimination based on race, disability or age – by allowing women to sue for compensatory and punitive damages.
Requires the Department of Labor to enhance outreach and training efforts to work with employers in order to eliminate pay disparities.
Requires the Department of Labor to continue to collect and disseminate wage information based on gender.
Creates a new grant program to help strengthen the negotiation skills of girls and women.
This bill is without the "offensive" language on statututes of limitation and works towards pay equity through education and employee protection. It helps expand the definition of wage discrimination, putting gender discrimination on an equal footing with race, disability and age.
The need for pay equity was articulated very clearly by Senator Clinton recently during a webcast with Joe Biden on women's issues. She said,
I think that everbody understands that today in 2008 women still make just 77¢ for every dollar men make and African-American women just 62¢ and Latinas just 53¢. And we have all these studies. A recent one by the Institute for Women's Policy Research [said] that if we close this gap, the typical woman worker would gain roughly $5,700 a year. That would be a huge deal
It's not just a woman's issue. It's a family issue. It's a children's issue. It's a man's issue. Because when women aren't paid what they deserve, families find themselves with less income. They have to work even harder to get by.
When it comes to equal pay for equal work, Senator McCain has found his con, but he's yet to support a pro. In a time of such economic turmoil, families need the insurance that their women are being paid fairly, because for them, it isn't just an issue of what's right. For them it's the difference between a good meal and fast food, preventative care and emergency care, having a home or losing one.
When Governor Palin joined the Republican ticket, the pundits couldn't stop talking about how the pick would re-energize women voters. But with the fact such as they are, women voters will have only been energized to vote for the ticket that will fight for pay equity. And McCain/Palin have proven they are not up to that fight.