Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/24680
KATIE REYES How We’re Doing Women Becoming the Majority of the U.S. Paid Workforce Milestones Congresswoman JUDY CHU became the first Chinese American woman elected to Congress on July 16. On her first day on the job, she worked through the night on health-care reform legislation. TOTAL WORKFORCE 50% WOMEN WORKFORCE 32% 1964 2009 For the first time in U.S. history, women are poised to become half the U.S. paid workforce. Sadly, the social contract hasn’t changed to reflect this: U.S. workers are guaranteed no paid medical or family leave, women still do the bulk of unpaid caretaking, and there’s still a wage gap of 77 cents on the dollar. (See page 28 for more.) But here’s some good news: Young women want to move to jobs with more responsibility (66 percent today, compared to 54 percent in 1997), and that’s regardless of whether or not they have children; men are taking more responsibility for child care (49 percent in 2008, compared to 41 percent in 1992); and employees are far more accepting of mothers in the workforce, agreeing strongly or somewhat that they have as good a relationship with their kids as stay-at-home moms (73 percent in 2008 compared to 58 percent in 1977). Promotion Brings an Unwanted “Perk” A University of Minnesota study found that becoming a boss makes women more likely to be sexually harassed. Women in supervisory positions experienced 137 percent more harassment than other women. “This study…support[s] the theory that sexual harassment is less about sexual desire than about control and domination,” said the study’s prime investigator, Heather McLaughlin. “Male co-workers, clients and supervisors seem to be using harassment as an equalizer against women in power.” www.msmagazine.com , age 13, became the first girl to hit a game- winning home run in the Little League World Series. She led her Canadian team to a 14-13 triumph over Germany. Since 1984, only 15 girls have played in the Series. KATIE REYES SONIA SOTOMAYOR cast her first vote as a Supreme Court justice in August, joining three liberal justices in unsuc- cessfully trying to stop a pending execution in Ohio. Two years after KATIE COURIC became the first woman to anchor evening news for one of the three major networks, ABC an- nounced that DIANE SAWYER will take over the nightly World News in January.Now, just NBC lacks a woman evening anchor. THE REV. KATHERINE RAGSDALE, an openly gay Anglican priest who has called abortion “a blessing,” took her post as head of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. CRYSTAL LEE SUTTON, the single mother whose union or- ganizing was immortalized in the 1979 film Norma Rae, died at age 68. Sutton’s life ended as she was in the midst of another battle: trying to get her health insurance com- pany to pay for her cancer treatments. MARY TRAVERS of the folksinging trio Peter, Paul and Mary, whose music in- spired progressives worldwide, died of leukemia at age 72. Travers was a strong feminist activist, campaigning for peace, women’s rights, civil rights and human rights. Chechen human rights activist NATALYA ESTEMIROVA was abducted and shot to death in July after years of leading dangerous investigations to expose brutal crimes and gov- ernment corruption. Asia’s first woman president, CORAZON AQUINO, who over- saw the restoration of democracy in the Philippines after dictator Ferdinand Marcos was deposed in 1986, died at 76. FALL 2009 | 11 AP PHOTO (2) ; CORBIS