For more than 100 years the AAUW has worked hard so that women would have the same educational opportunities to succeed in (what is still) a man’s world. They have been very successful: more women are matriculating and graduating universities than are men and women are making more and more inroads into professions that were once seen as male.
Take my chosen profession, medicine: Women now make up 51% of medical students and soon will comprise 50% of the physicians available to lead in medical education, to research new medical breakthroughs and to care for patients in the increasingly complex medical milieu in which we live. These women, like their male counterparts, will face long hours, ethical dilemmas, pressing problems, increasing regulations, and the conflicting demands of the individual patient vs. the healthcare system, but will press on each day to diagnose and treat their patients to the best of their abilities.
For women, though, these challenges are compounded by a system that still does not hold a female physician’s worth as equal to a male’s and where a woman is subject to devaluation in the form of lower salaries, slower advancement of her work, and less support from colleagues.
This is why we still need Equal Pay Day.
April 28, 2009 marks the day when the average woman has finally been paid for the work that the average man did and was paid for in 2008. What he made in 12 months, she made in 16. Four additional months! And this is not limited to those workers without a college education. Even those of us who have an additional 12 to 15 years of schooling and training beyond high school are paid 20-30% less than our male counterparts even when all the other variables, e.g. hours worked, patients seen, level of training, efficiency, etc, are taken into account. So much for your assertion about equal pay will occur “when women have the same education,” Senator McCain. (Lilly Ledbetter shared with me this quote from her conversation with then presidential hopeful, John McCain, on the campaign trail.)
So, yes, even highly educated female physicians need Equal Pay Day. Institutionalized gender discrimination puts this increasing population at a distinct disadvantage, even as they give their time and intellect to serve you and your family. Thanks to the AAUW and organizations like it, the number of women in the academies is no longer the problem. But, it is the academy, i.e. the medical schools, where the problems begin and where they must first end.
Institutions that practice gender discrimination in the academic workplace imprint a negative message on the students of both genders. Active intervention to expose these inequities requires transparency in hiring, compensation, and promotions as well as an evaluation of the overall culture. These issues are readily quantifiable in medical schools and residency training programs—the common experience for all physicians. Federal funding and accreditation should be linked to whether or not an institution can provide a gender neutral environment. When there are severe penalties for maintaining the status quo, the status quo will change.
Now, more than ever, the expanded role of the AAUW as advocate for women’s equality in the workplace is essential. As a former litigant and recipient of the AAUW’s Legal Advocacy Fund support, I know how important this organization, with its emphasis on education for women, has been and will continue to be. We do have another piece of legislation pending that will improve the situation so that women can go up against their more powerful and stronger employers to rectify their situation. This Paycheck Fairness Act has many provisions that strengthen the Equal Pay Act, passed in 1963. And even though the Paycheck Fairness Act does not take this process as far as I believe it needs to go, it is an important step. So together let’s take it and run. Go to http://capwiz.com/aauw/home/ and tell your Senators that passage of this bill in the Senate is in everyone’s best interest. (It has already passed the House.)
When we raise up our voices together and demand what is rightfully ours by law, then the time of change will come more quickly. While you are at it, join the ranks of the AAUW and help make it a better world for us all.
Written by respected pediatric surgeon, women’s advocate, and blogger Linda Brodsky. Brodsky is a former AAUW Legal Advocacy Fund-supported plaintiff.
