AAUW-NYS Centennial Lapel Pins!
To celebrate both our centennials (AAUW-NYS and WOMENS’ SUFFRAGE), we are offering centennial lapel pins. There is a limited number of the pins, and sales at our introductory price of $75 end January 30.
We know we are right; we know we shall be successful, we know the day is not far distant, when this government and the world will acknowledge the exact and permanent political equality of
man and woman.
– Matilda Joslyn Gage
MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE At the AAUW-NYS Convention
Eleanor Aronstein, President, Schenectady AAUW
The participants included keynote speaker Bich Ha Pham, Public Advocate NYC; Azadeh Khalili, Executive Director, Commission on Gender Equity, Office of the Mayor, NYC; Pamela Abner, Chief Administrative Officer, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Mount Sinai Hospital; Rippi Karda, Assistant General Counsel, Verizon, Basking Ridge, NJ and Gabrielle Lyse Brown, Director of Diversity and Inclusion, NYC Bar Association. Congrats to the District V Leadership for such a successful Conference!
Business Women 400 Participants in Salary Negotiation
The Gender Pay Gap by Race
My Start Smart AHA moment was when I realized that I could have gotten a much higher salary during the role playing exercise. I feel that instead of taking the employer’s word , I should have negotiated more; now I know better! I really enjoyed the workshop and I learned quite a bit. I want to thank you and everyone involved for taking the time to share this very valuable information with us.
Maryam Khan, NYIT Student
Tues, October 26, 2016
Congrats to all the ESVB members and friends who made possible winning so many awards at the AAUW NYS Convention April 15-17, 2016, Saratoga Springs Holiday Inn, NY
1) Award of Distinction for our quarterly Empire Virtual Times newsletter
2) Award of Distinction for our Website
3) Award of Merit for Social Media
4) Award of Excellence for Visibility
5) Membership Award with 10% increase for recruiting and maintaining members
6) 21st Century Program — Silver Award for the Mentoring
at the College of Mount Saint Vincent
7) Public Policy Award for Voter Registration & Education Award
8) Public Policy Award for STEM
9) Legal Advocacy Fund (LAF) Star Branch Fourteenth (14th) Place Per Capita
Contributions. Specials thanks to our generous members including Dot McLane,
Dr. Chigurupati Rani, Joan Monk!
New LAF Case – It is always exciting to learn about a new LAF case. The most recently adopted one reflects how the gender pay gap can impact on a woman’s life long earnings. The Legal Advocacy Fund provides individuals support as they fight for their rights. These are real people who need our financial and organizational help as their cases set precedents and draw attention to inequities.
You may want to share this case with your members. (You may receive info about this case from several other AAUW NYS sources too.) Here is a short summary you might want to use.
The most recent case adopted by the AAUW LAF is Rizo vs. Fresno County Office of Education. It vividly demonstrates the effect the gender pay gap has on women’s salaries. The plaintiff Aileen Rizo, a math consultant, learned that a male colleague, with less experience, was hired on the 9th of 10 steps, while she had been hired on the first step. When she filed a complaint she was told that starting salaries were based solely on the employee’s previous wages. Since women are generally paid les then men, this practice perpetuates the wage gap. Rizo eventually filed suit under the Equal Pay Act and California sex status discrimination statutes
Want to know more about this case? Check out http://aauw-nys.org/laf_casesupport.htm
The Deadline for National AAUW Receiving Your Branchs 2015 Contributions to LAF is December 31. Individual donors often give their donations in December. Please encourage your members to support LAF with their personal contributions to this important AAUW Program. Do ask them to give you the money now before the end of the year deadline.
Congratulations to AAUW’s Senior Leadership
Linda Hallman, Executive Director &
Patricia Fae Ho, President
In October, the mayor, the city’s Office of Women’s Advancement, and AAUW leaders announced an ambitious initiative to offer free AAUW Work Smart salary negotiation trainings to half of Boston’s working women in the next five years. That means training 85,000 women to negotiate higher salaries and better benefits — and making a dent in the gender pay gap, which stands nationally at 21 percent.
Women working full time in the United States typically are paid just 79 percent of what men are paid, and it’s even worse for most women of color. The gender pay gap starts just one year out of college, and it only widens over the course of a career.
One of the many ways that AAUW is fighting the pay gap is by empowering women to negotiate for what they’re worth. That’s why, in 2014, AAUW acquired the Start Smart and Work Smart salary negotiation programs, which focus on college women and working women, respectively, from collaborator WAGE Project.
AAUW Start Smart is designed for college students who are about to enter the job market, and AAUW members have been putting on these workshops for years. AAUW Work Smart is for women who are already working, and it’s now available for AAUW members to get involved in presenting. Both workshops have been completely redesigned using the latest research and negotiation strategies so that participants will leave with the skills and confidence to successfully navigate the complexities of job offers and promotions. To organize a Start Smart or Work Smart salary negotiation program, email AAUW Senior Program Manager Jesse Rauch at rauchj@aauw.org or Maria Ellis at mellis@fsacap.com
HOORAY!
NYS EQUAL PAY BILL TO BECOME LAW!
The NYS Assembly unanimously passed NYS Equal Pay Bills on April 27, 2015. The NYS Senate had approved them earlier this Session. AAUW and others have lobbied for Equal Pay Bills for well over a decade. When the Governor signs the Bills, he has said he will, in 90 days they will be law.
The Women’s Equality Coalition, of which we are a member, reports that A.6075 updates New York Equal Pay Law by creating robust wage secrecy protections, so that employees cannot be fired or retaliated against for sharing their wage information as well as allow for increased damages up to triple the amount of unpaid wages when an employee successfully proves that an employer has willfully violated the law.
These are essential components in achieving pay equity. A person must know how much others who are doing equal/comparable work are being paid to institute a legal action. Having access to proof that wage discrimination on the basis of gender exists means cases can be won, thus forcing employers to face paying severe damages when they pay employees inequitably. The passage of this law means a reduction in the 86% gender wage gap in NYS.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Thank your NYS Assembly Member for voting for A6075. Contact info at http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/ fill in you zip & address, click and email your message.
Congratulations on the passage of the NY Equal Pay Bills. It would not have happened without your support.
Nancy Mion, ESVB Public Policy Director
Learning to Negotiate the Wage Start Smart Workshop Sponsored by
AAUW’s Westchester and Empire State Virtual Branch!
Place: College of Mount Saint Vincent: Fall 2015
Suzanne DeChillo/photographer, The New York Times Annie Houle of the WAGE Project uses
$1 bills and play money to show men’s pay advantage over different groups of women. Her program teaches women how to negotiate for better salaries.
Did you see the article on the wage gap on the front page of the business section of the New York Times? If you haven’t read the article, click on the link below for details:
Nancy Mion, our Empire State Virtual Branch Public Policy Director and AAUW Islip Area Branch Long Island Suffragists Committee Chair. Nancy comes by this naturally for her grandfather, Nathaniel Schmidt, a professor at Cornell, was an active suffragist. She is a member of the statewide NYCHTN Women, Right’s Committee. Nancy is currently: Islip Area Branch Program Vice-President & Public Policy Director; L.I. Interbranch Secretary/Treasurer; NYS Legal Advocacy Fund (LAF) Director; and a National AAUW LAF Committee Member. She is a past NYS President and Public Policy Director. She has been an involved dedicated committed AAUW member for 40 years. Her other abiding interest is the Suffolk County Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Nancy was a librarian who received her BBA in Management from Hofstra University and her MS in LS from SUNY Albany.
If you would like a copy of Nancy’s Powerpoint presentation on the history of the suffrage movement especially as it applies to New York. Contact Nancy Mion at myown220@aol.com.
If you were not able to attend Joan Monk’s presentation about Eleanor Roosevelt and Leadership: “Eleanor’s Alphabet Soup”, you can e-mail Joan at ftmaven@gmail.com about interesting program(s) for your branch.
As you know, Joan is a fairy tale/happiness/play enthusiast engaging students of all ages in what has heart and meaning for her. With an e-mail moniker of ‘ftmaven’ she has been dubbed the “AAUW NYS Unofficial Director of Whimsy” because of her passion for fairy tales. As the former Education Director of the Peter Pan Children’s Fund, she has unlimited access to pixie dust, sprinkling it wherever she goes!
Her latest fairy tale endeavor is “The Wonder & Wisdom of Oz,” celebrating the 75th Anniversary of America’s favorite fairy tale with students from age 4-104. As a Master Teacher in the Yonkers Public Schools, Joan “worked her magic” lovingly there for nearly four decades. She considers herself “an inspired not retired” educator, having worked as an early childhood teacher, parent trainer, workshop leader and college professor. Now she is putting put volunteer work center stage in her encore career. Jacob Burns Film Center, Westchester Children’s Museum and The Academy for Character Education at Sage College all benefit from her energy and enthusiasm.
Inspired by the mission of AAUW, she joined as a ‘lifetime member” twenty years ago. She is a member of four branches in NYS: Westchester, Kingston, Poughkeepsie and ESVVB. At present, Joan is Special Projects Director, District V Coordinator and is chairing the NY/NJ WILD Project. She served as District Director, International Affairs Chair and Cultural Interests Director also. She lives in Yorktown with Rob the prince, Toto the dog, and Mushy the cat.