July 3, 1995 - Episode 339 - Women of Achievement and Herstory

           > Continued from July 2, Point 6 addresses economic issues in
     WOA's continuing presentation of the proposals for The Platform for
     Action: 12 Critical Areas of Concern, a blueprint for women's
     advancement in countries around the world, which will be the main
     document to be adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women to
     be held in Beijing, China, September 4-15, 1995. 

           6. INEQUALITY IN WOMEN'S ACCESS TO AND PARTICIPATION IN
     THE DEFINITION OF ECONOMIC STRUCTURES AND POLICIES AND THE
     PRODUCTIVE PROCESS

           Though women are primary producers of food and contribute
     significantly to economic life everywhere,  they are largely excluded
     from economic decision-making.  In most societies they lack equal
     access to and control over, various means of production, including
     land, capital, and technology, and their work is underpaid and
     undervalued. However, experience shows that, when given access to
     resources, technology, and training, women can take the lead in
     expanding production.
            The globalization of the economy is also undermining women's
     self-reliant initiatives of savings, production, and trade. There has,
     however, been a growth in women's self-reliant activities in the
     informal sector and in the numbers who are owners and managers of
     small and medium-sized enterprises. 
            About 854 million women - about 32 percent of the global labor
     force  -  were estimated  to  be economically active in 1990. The
     proportion of women in top governmental decision- making positions 
     (ministerial level or higher) is relatively low: 6.2 percent of all 
     ministerial positions; in economic ministries, only 3.6 percent. In
     144 countries, there are no women at all in these areas and at these
     levels.
           At the corporate level, US companies have eight women for
     every 100 men. Most female managers are concentrated at lower
     levels. In the 1,000 largest corporations outside the United States,
     only one of 100 executives is a woman.
           Actions proposed include: Enact and enforce legislation to
     guarantee the rights of women and  men to equal pay for equal work
     or work of equal value;  Adopt and implement laws against sex-based
     discrimination in employment;  Devise mechanisms and apply positive
     action to enable women full and equal participation in economic
     decision-making; Strengthen women's access to credit and capital.
           << Continue on July 5, Section 7: Inequality between Men and
     Women in the Sharing of Power and Decision-making at all Levels. 

     July 3,  .................................................

           B. July 3, 1796, Maria Martin, only woman of the three
     assistants of James Audubon. She did the background work on most
     of the drawings of _Birds of America_ and other plates and may have
     done some of the birds themselves. She specialized in very realistic
     and accurate fauna.

           B. July 3, 1860, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, prominent feminist
     intellectual. Wrote _Women and Economics_(1898) and _The Yellow
     Wallpaper_ (1892) and wrote/edited the feminist journal, _The
     Forerunner_. Raised in poverty after her father abandoned the
     family, she was called temperamentally unsuited for marriage when
     she divorced her first husband, who was also a man of many women,
     including his wife's close friends.  Her second marriage lasted 34
     years. She, however, *was* unsuited for housework and she hired
     domestic help, which freed her to write and do activist work with the
     feminist and peace movements.  After a three-year battle with breast
     cancer, she committed suicide stating she preferred "a quick easy
     death in place of a slow and horrible one." 

           B. July 3, 1957, Laura Brannigan, her first recording and only
     hit _Gloria_ (1982) was one of the longest-running hit singles of the
     decade.

           Event July 3, 1984, U.S. Supreme Court rules 7-0 that Jaycees
     may be forced to accept women as full members in a Minnesota case.

     .................................................

     Don't let anyone tell you there weren't notable and effective women
     throughout history.  They were always there, but historians failed to
     note them in our histories so that each generation of women has had
     to reinvent themselves. 

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     >>(C) 1995 Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs National Park, AR
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