The fight for economic independence and equality for women in the workplace continues today as women in all occupations face discrimination. Working women earn an average of $9,483 a year less than men according to 1998 Department of Labor wage studies, and in 2002 this gap is widening. According to a 2000 survey, conducted by the General Accounting Office (based on salary information gathered by the Department of Labor) of the 10 industries that employ 71% of American women, showed women\'s inequality growing in seven of these industries.
According to 2002 Department of Labor statistics, women are also more likely than men to work multiple part-time jobs rather than one full-time job. These part-time jobs offer few benefits and few opportunities for promotion. These economic disadvantages do not just affect women in the workplace; they also affect women\'s lives at home. In general women can�t maintain a middle class lifestyle on their salaries alone. For most women with children living on a single income, it is impossible to provide enough economic stability to own a house or send children to college. The instability of income and occupation for single women and single mothers forces dependency on marriage. The need for economic stability often keeps women trapped in physically and emotionally abusive marriages and relationships.
Women inthe workplace are not the only ones under economic attack. In recent years the attack on women receiving welfare has intensified, and today the attack has become more personal. In the early 90s Wisconsin offered $80 a month in marriage incentives to teen mothers in a \"Bridefare\" program, promoting marriage as the economic solution for poor women. Today, West Virginia is offering $100 a month to a \"couples welfare\" benefit if they wed. While the success of these programs is minimal, conservatives are still looking to promote marriage as the main solution to get women off welfare. According to Katha Pollitt of The Nation magazine, even programs that promise to \"get women to work for their money\" are more concerned with marriage. This is shown in the opening declaration of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, that states \"marriage is the foundation of a successful society.\"
Not only are these ideas sexist, they are also based on middle-class standards of living. While conservatives feel that women having the ability to rely on the state rather than a husband are destroying \"family values\" they ignore the reality of marriage for poor women. Most poor women do not have the same opportunities to marry, in part due to the incarceration of many working-class men, and poverty itself.
Marriage does not carry the same economic privileges as it does for middle-class families, as many working calss men are minimally employed, or not at all.
Marriage incentives do not cover the burden of many women trying to support themselves as well as their families when their husbands are unemployed. These unfair and exclusive understandings of marriage are not the most frightening implications of this conservative restoration of patriarchal values.
Many politicians, Republicans and Democrats as well, want TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) money, 10% or more, to go to marriage promotion. This would include faith based marriage preparation courses, fatherhood intervention programs, instruction to poor mothers on the benefits of marriage, abstinence education for children and adults, not to mention self help counselors for \"marriage saving.\"
First, this means more government money for counselors and educators and less for poor men and women. Second, many of these same conservatives have claimed that faith-based counseling is the answer to solving domestic violence in relationships, which is a dangerous message to women suffering from abuse at home. Third, marriage promotion as an economic solution for female poverty denies the personal choice of working class lives, and leaves women dependant on husbands. This dependency reinforces male patriarchal position, justifies the unequal pay and harassment of women in the workplace, and also makes women vulnerable to domestic violence.
Education, training for high paying jobs, housing, mental and physical health services, and childcare is what is really necessary for women. Economic stability and independence is what is needed for the safety of all women.
Docia Buffington is a student at Bowling Green State University, Ohio
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