Cornell Chronicle, March 20, 2009, Friday

Cornell Chronicle

March 20, 2009, Friday

Cornell Chronicle

Women have come far, but still have a long way to go toward equality, say speakers

By Jennifer Wholey

Sexual harassment is constantly on the minds of women, according to Marcia Pappas, president of the New York state chapter of the National Organization for Women. Speaking on campus March 11, she said, "If you ask a women how many times she has thought about harassment, she actually can't tell you a number. It's on her mind every day no matter where she is."

Pappas was one of four panelists discussing sexism in the workplace in Ives Hall as part of the International Women's Day celebration on campus. Moderated by Mary Katzenstein, professor of government and of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, the panel defined sexism as "discrimination or devaluation based on sex."

All injustices against women, Pappas said, whether domestic violence, rape or sexual harassment, stem from ingrained social systems. "From the minute a little girl is born, her parents start thinking about how to protect that little girl from the violence that she's going to face in the world," Pappas said.

But such social systems aren't the only sources of sexism that women face, said Sherry Colb, Cornell Law School professor. "Some kinds of discrimination are the effect rather than the intent," said Colb. Pregnancy, for example, is often unintentionally stigmatized in the workplace, she said. A woman may not get fired because she is pregnant, but she may feel pressured to stay at work because of financial need and may be passed over for promotions or assignments because of her pregnancy.

Panelist Karen Pastorello, chair of the Women and Gender Studies Program and professor of history at Tompkins Cortland Community College, discussed women who sued for alleged pay discrimination. Their struggle for equality was recognized when President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law Jan. 29. By relaxing the statute of limitations, the legislation expands workers' rights to sue employers for equal pay for equal work.

Yet, even with the same amount of education and experience, women still earn 81 percent of what men do, though that's better than the 60 percent they earned in 1980, said panelist Francine Blau, professor of labor economics at Cornell. Does this gap prove that there's still discrimination? Blau said that evidence suggests that at least part of the gap is due to discrimination, which may be subtle and even unconscious. Although improvements in women's pay, she said, are related to women's greater presence in the labor force, rising educational attainment and movement into professional and managerial jobs, "there has also been a decrease in the 'unexplained' gender pay gap that may reflect a decline in discrimination against women," she said.

The panel was sponsored by the ILR Women's Caucus and the Committee for International Women's Day.

Jennifer Wholey '10 is a writer intern at the Cornell Chronicle.