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Posted by Lizzie on Sep-5-2008
There’s a lot of talk about women’s issues this election cycle. Thanks to Hillary Clinton, and now Sarah Palin, we’re back in the spotlight. In that vein, Congress is pressing for a revote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which failed to pass previously. McCain has come out again it:
“I am all in favor of pay equity for women, but this kind of legislation, as is typical of what’s being proposed by my friends on the other side of the aisle, opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems,” the expected GOP presidential nominee told reporters. “This is government playing a much, much greater role in the business of a private enterprise system.”
I’ve recently engaged in a half-hearted IT job search - in anticipation of my eventual graduation from the Tech program. There seems to be a little available, but I’ve heard that women are not treated favorably in the IT industry. It would please me, and thousands of other women, tremendously if this actually became law. Would I know that my male counterparts were making more than me? Probably not. But this act would give me recourse should I find out about a pay discrepancy after the fact. As a woman hoping to work in a male-dominated field, I would feel just a little better knowing I had a safety net.
There was some talk that this law isn’t necessary. I beg to differ. I worked with a company (unrelated to the tech field) that cut me a mystery check. When I inquired to what the purpose of the check was, I was told that it was to make up for a pay difference between me and my male counterparts. I had no idea that the men were making that much more per hour than I was, but there was a lawsuit and the settlement agreement was that this company would pay the hourly difference to each female for whatever period of time they agreed to (I think it was 3 months, even though I’d been there for over a year at that point). I left that company not long afterward, but my eyes had been opened. The reasoning for the lower pay was that women are mothers and so are prone to miss work because of their sick children. Men, on the other hand, are more reliable and should be rewarded. Really?
At a time when a major political party has nominated a self-proclaimed “hockey mom” to be vice president, there should be no more “she should get less because she’s a mom”. This woman is seeking a job while parenting 5 children (and potentially helping parent a grandchild) so the reason listed above would apply to her and her pay should be cut significantly. Right? No. Wrong. Her husband will be able to tend to the children while she runs for office and he can tend to the children while she continues to govern Alaska (except that he’s got a full-time job plus an extra job on the side in the summer, but that’s not this issue). It’s only fair that the rest of American women enjoy the same equality in pay as the women who govern them.
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Archive for the ‘irritations’ Category
May
21
Posted by Lizzie
While I was sitting here dreaming of luxurious leather office chairs, our President was vetoing a farm bill that would expand nutrition programs by $10.3 billion over the next 10 years. If there was ever a bipartisan agreement to pass one bill since Bush was elected 7 years ago, this was it.
The Senate approved the bill 81-15 on May 15, a day after it was passed by the House 318-106. The votes were well above the two-thirds majorities needed to override a veto.
Luckily, Congress is planning to override the veto.
Ignoring inflation and rising fuel prices Bush’s objections to the bill were:
the bill also distorts trade and subsidizes farmers at a time of record crop prices. He said it fails to reduce subsidies for growers of sugar, cotton and other crops or place adequate limits on payments to wealthy farmers.
The bill is highly popular because almost 75% of the monies allocated would go to needy families who are trying to buy food. The subsidies Bush so vehemently opposes would take up all of 16% of the allocated funds.
I live in a largely rural community in Appalachia (Southeastern Ohio) and many of my family members live on farms. Farms that are barely getting by. But even more so, I know many families that rely on some form of government aid to put food on the table. The unemployment rate in this area is astronomical and the majority of the population is poverty stricken. A big issue in my community is NAFTA and jobs being sent overseas. Too many factories have left this area, which means that homes are being lost and kids are going hungry. While the President (and John McCain) dine on gourmet food prepared by exclusive chefs (Elite?) people in my area are eating hamburger gravy over white bread.
I mention the Republican Presidential Nominee John McCain here because he opposes the bill too. I know, you’re shocked. But this man would rather the money not go to the poor families because, no doubt, they should be getting out and finding gainful employment. $7.50 an hour at Wal-Mart or McDonald’s isn’t going to cut it for a lot of these folks. They need the help and this bill can give it to them. I just cannot believe this bill gets so much support from both sides (the Democratic candidates both support it, by the way) of the aisle and he still gives comfort to his lobbyist friends.
I’ll be glad when this administration moves out. We can only go up from here.
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May
21
Posted by Lizzie
I found out that Brijit.com has gone under from lack of funding. I haven’t used the service much in the last couple of months because, honestly, I just didn’t have the energy to read all the papers and fight with the other writers. I’m not a very competitive person, sadly. It was a nice bit of money when I did get one of my abstracts sold, though. I’m kind of sad to see them go.
This is just another example of why the whole “all eggs in one basket= bad” thing came about. If I had been working primarily on that, then I’d be screwed and would probably be crying in my beer right about now. Just like with Associated Content when they decided they don’t want to really pay anymore (why not when so many people will submit for free?). When you’re working from home, or “making money online” (Ha!), then you’ve got to have a lot of options available to you. If you want that walk in tub then you’ve got to be able to hunt and peck until you succeed.
Yeah. Now that I think about it, I do sometimes feel like a chicken. Pecking at little seeds. But I’m optimistic that my ship will come in (what’s with all these cliches?) and I’ll be able to laugh in the faces of all those that doubted my abilities. Ha! Take that, naysayers! And a kick in the pants, too.
My health has been dragging lately. I’m hoping to feel a little bit better and be able to get some writing clips sent out. Dumb ol’ me didn’t save any for the resumé. No, I just write them up and send them out. This time I’m saving a copy so that I’ll just be able to attach the clip. One place was telling people in the WAHM.com forums that they were looking for bloggers, but when I applied they told me they weren’t. Yikes! Rejected. I’m pretty sure it was because of my clips. I had to link to a couple of my posts and, frankly, they’ve been lacking a lot of, um, umph! lately. Not impressive. But when I’m feeling as crappy as I’m feeling now, I just can’t get it out.
Depressed. In Pain. Grouchy. Ready to throw something at someone. That’s how I feel right now. I wonder if I can somehow manage to get those emotions out in a positive way? Yeah right. There was a specific word I was looking for right then and couldn’t find it. Why? Because I really, really suck when I’m sick. I’m just glad my browser has spellcheck, because I’d be dead in the water right now.
If any writers have any advice for how I can manage to improve my skillz through this time, I would greatly appreciate it. Otherwise, I think I’m just going to go take a nap until August.
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Apr
26
Posted by Lizzie
I was looking around for some forums for parent’s parenting teen parents (say that 5 times fast) and ended up with… zilch. There are a few places for parents of teens, parents of tweens and teens and parents wanting to pull their hair out because of teen issues (ZITS????). Where is the support for parents parenting teen parents? It’s a little frustrating for me because my issues is a tad bit different from what else I’ve seen online and I really feel the need to scream about it.
So, I was searching. Silly me decided to open every link on the search page in a different tab. Of course, that sucked up the ram and my browser shut down. When I reopened said browser I was asked if I wanted to restore the last session or start a new one. Without thinking I chose to restore. Boom! Same thing happed again. I had to give up. Which meant that I had to give up on my search.
I did find an interesting site called The Mom Bloggers Club. I signed up and maybe I’ll run into someone there with my same issue re: Pee Wee. We’ll see. I can’t be the only one struggling with this particular issue. Can I?
As it is, we’re coming into the home stretch with Pee Wee’s baby. He’ll be here soon. But I know she’s not mentally or emotionally ready for this. I know that she’s just not “getting” it. That scares me to death. I’ve already had a couple of nightmares about it. We have one year to shape her up and help her learn how to parent. One year. And then she’s on her own. What then? Good grief, I’m up to my eyeballs with worry. I’d like to think that she’s learning something from me by watching me with Mags. But she’s been arguing about my parenting technique a lot this past week or so. I should be doing this and not doing this and why aren’t I teaching her this…ARGH! She’s got a lot of opinions now- and she’s not afraid to shove them down my throat. Yeah, it’s a struggle. I remind her that I’ve got years of parenting experience on her and just because she’s growing a baby now doesn’t give her leave to preach to me. It’s a little bit of a fight. Just a tad. Enough, though, that I’ve been heard to say (a little loudly) “Calgon, take me away!”.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that she stops with the parenting advice soon. If she doesn’t, well, I can’t make promises…:)
I love my child so much. But sometimes the struggles of helping her get ready to be a parent (I wasn’t ready for that, you know) get to be a little too much. Sometimes I just need to scream/holler/cry/curse and have someone not point at me and say something like “Well, her mom was young- what did you expect?” or “Why would you allow her to make that kind of decision? You should put that baby up for adoption” Those aren’t helpful and really make we want to lash out. That’s why I’d love to be around other moms who are going through this same thing with their child- even though they thought they raised their child to understand the dangers/pitfalls/disappointments of teenage parenthood.
If you know of any forums for this, please send me a link. I’d be terribly grateful.
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