NEW
YORK, NY – U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), ranking Democratic
member of the Government Efficiency Subcommittee, today joined members
of the Subcommittee for a field hearing in New York on “Women in Management:
Are They Breaking the Glass Ceiling?”
The
full text of Schakowsky’s statement follows:
On
September 11, the brave women of the New York Police Department, the New
York Fire Department and the Port Authority rushed to rescue their fellow
New Yorkers-women and men. They demonstrated their commitment and
their skill. Those women made us all proud. It is fitting that
we are here in New York today to discuss the welfare of women throughout
our nation.
Ours
is a country founded on the principles of freedom and equality. Our
Constitution begins “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal.” Nearly a hundred years later President Lincoln
quoted those words at Gettysburg saying “our fathers brought forth upon
this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal.” Nearly one hundred years
later President Kennedy quoted those same words and went on to say the
rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”
Ours
is also a history of the struggle to make those principles a reality.
That same Constitution had embedded in it the principle that slaves would
be counted as three-fifths of a person – part human, part property.
It was not until after the death of President Lincoln that we undid that
disgrace through the ratification of the 14th amendment. It took
another 50 years, until 1919, before we ratified the 19th amendment and
enfranchised women, and another 50 years after that before we seriously
addressed the political and social equality of the races.
The
last quarter of the 20th century was one of wide-ranging social, economic,
and political change. Even as we fought for equality and civil rights
we had yet to adequately address equality of the sexes.
As
with most fights for equality, the first step was to get those in power
to recognize that there was a problem. When experts like those we
will hear from today pointed out the problems of pay equity, the establishment
was quick to rationalize those differences with explanations like attachment
to the labor force and human capital. Undeterred, advocates and academics
joined to dispel those excuses and show that pay equity was real and unjust.
Today
our facts are irrefutable. Our evidence is plentiful. We have
before us a report that shows women still make less for the same work and,
often times, are blocked from the boardrooms. Ours is a fight for
social justice, and a fight against an insidious and pervasive system that
undervalues women and their work.
Change
will not come about through labor economics, but through the same paths
as past social change.
We
must be firm and insistent that this injustice will not be tolerated in
a nation that defines it self in terms of social justice.
We
must repeat the evidence again and again, until everyone knows the facts,
and knows right from wrong.
We
must draw in our colleagues in every walk of life, wherever we have the
opportunity, and make our case to our brothers and our sons, and to our
sisters and our daughters.
At
the same time we must remember how far we have come. We only have to look
around this room to see the progress that has been made during our lifetime.
Today
there are 13 women in the Senate, and 62 women who are Representatives
or Delegates in the House of Representatives. Five states have women
governors and 17 have women luitenent governors. The same is true
of the ranks of the Fortune 500, and America’s finest foundations.
Next year will be the 20th anniversary of Sally Ride’s first flight into
space.
I
am sure each of you has your own list of notable women who mark our progress.
As we struggle to make the world a more equitable one for our children,
we must also make sure they recognize our progress.
Today,
there are more women in key positions than ever before, and these women
serve as roll models for those who come behind us, making it easier for
them to earn their own place in business or government. |