GENDER GAP: It’s the 21st century, but for men and women in WNY there’s still a discrepancy in pay

Study suggests continued unequal status of women in area job market

By Joyce Miles<br><a href="mailto:joyce.miles@lockportjournal.com">E-mail Joyce</a>

The truth is on paper now, staring us in the face. From the time females go to middle school, they start lagging behind males in certain indicators of success and well-being. It’s a trend that persists throughout their lives, affecting workplaces, communities and the next generation.

“Pathways to Progress,” a new report released last week by the Women’s Fund of Western New York, is subtitled “A Call to Action.”

Its intended audience is everyone, from public policymakers, educators and philanthropists to the average (wo)man on the street, according to Executive Director Brigid Doherty.

The statistics reported in Pathways, particularly those sketching poverty’s feminine face, are “unacceptable,” she said. “Women are raising our children. ... Everybody needs to hear this (report). It’s critically important we all have a better sense of our community and how to improve it.”

The Women’s Fund commissioned a neutral third party, the University at Buffalo Regional Institute, to report on the “status” of women in Western New York. Researchers gathered a mountain of data from government, academic and media reports, and interviews with more than 300 people in Erie and Niagara counties. Among the interviewees were four staff or board members of the YWCA of Niagara, as well as a number of women and girls using YWCA of Niagara programs and services.

Pathways reports on the unique hurdles girls and women face, through the “stories” of five composite female characters: An adolescent, a single mother in poverty, a victim of intimate partner violence, an aspiring leader and a senior citizen. As each character’s hurdles are listed, so are a series of suggested ways to knock them down.

Pathways makes a sobering, if not surprising, statement of where women stand in Western New York, said Kathleen Granchelli, executive director of YWCA of Niagara.

“Anecdotally, we already knew women have a long way to go,” she said. “There have been improvements — women are better educated, they’re almost exactly half of the work force, but on the other hand, we’re still only making 71 cents for every $1 a man makes, even in the same jobs.”

Mary Brennan Taylor, vice president of programs for YWCA of Niagara, also was interviewed. Striking to her, she said: The hurdles and remedies suggested in Pathways in some ways mirror the findings of a 1999 report by the Task Force on the Status of Women in Niagara County.

Both identified some of the same needs: Purposeful cultivation of girls' interest in math and science, availability of affordable certified child care, flexible/family-friendlier work policies and greater outreach to domestic violence victims.

The 1999 report prompted the Niagara County Legislature to authorize and, for a time, fund a county Commission on the Status of Women. The funding went away in 2006 but the hurdles to women’s equal standing didn’t, Brennan-Taylor said.

“There have been some strides, but the problems are still there, Leadership isn’t close to (gender) proportionate; health care, family violence, teen pregnancy ... these are still barriers to progress.”

Specifically, she added, “domestic violence issues are even greater now (than in 1999). Our local shelter occupancy rate is twice the state average. Where there’s domestic violence, there's not equality, obviously.”

In Pathways to Progress, most stunning to Doherty is the data showing poverty is a women’s issue.

Sixty-six percent of impoverished families in Western New York are headed up by women, the vast majority of whom do not receive welfare benefits, according to the UB Regional Institute. They’re less likely to have advanced education and therefore are less able to command a living wage. Women in low-paying jobs can see one-third or more of their income eaten up by child care costs; public child care assistance for low-income working moms is severely limited. The state’s welfare-to-work program apparently does not encourage recipients to avail themselves of wage-boosting educational opportunities.

Even women who are making a living wage don’t fare as well as men, UBRI found. Gender wage gaps are seen even when job categories are the same. In management, a Western New York woman makes an average salary of $40,200, while a man’s average pay is $66,600. In finance, the salary average is $40,200 for women and $53,700 for men. In production/assembly, it’s $25,600 for women and $40,000 for men.

UBRI also found barriers to equality are laid early in life, as girls are making educational choices. Their interest in math and science usually wanes after elementary school, research shows; and in career tech prep schooling, girls tend to take up study of low-paying professions such as cosmetology and child care, while boys go for training in top-paying fields like construction and engineering.

There’s fodder here for all types of institutions tasked with improving the community and/or themselves — government, schools, businesses, charitable foundations, civic groups, even women/girl advocacy groups, says Mary Murphy, a member of the YWCA of Niagara board of directors who was interviewed for the study.

Murphy also serves on the Niagara Area Foundation board and believes the study will be very useful to philanthropic groups considering how to create the most good with their investments.

“It puts it out to the general population, funders and so forth ... the problems that exist with poverty tend to be weighted toward women and girls,” she said. “It invites funders to target their aid so it addresses the issues.”

That’s precisely what Doherty had in mind when the Women’s Fund commissioned the report. A finance expert, she said a logical question of funders is, “How do you invest your money wisely? We need better data to do better programs. ... And by using a ‘gender lens,’ that is, looking at problems and solutions through the eyes of a woman or a girl — we believe you'll come up with more effective solutions.”

The Women’s Fund plans on presenting Pathways to an array of influence-wielders, from the Women’s Bar Association and Canisius College MBA staff to the state Legislature’s women’s caucus and U.S. Congressional committees, over the next few months.

“The key of this report is to strengthen all of our voices,” Doherty said. “The point is not to cry ‘poor me,’ it’s a call to invest in women and girls.”

Why “women and girls” specifically should be obvious, YWCA executives think.

“Women influence children; they influence most purchasing decisions by and for families. If women thrive, communities thrive. That’s been seen all around the world,” Granchelli said.

“If women and girls are allowed to reach their full potential, that can only mean good things for society, for Western New York,” Brennan-Taylor added.

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