March 2009

Women's History Month

Women have been trained to speak softly and carry a lipstick. Those days are over.
Bella Abzug

Click here for a Calendar of Women's History Month Events

President Obama Signs Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

The Center for American Progress thanks President Obama for signing and Congress for passing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. “It is a wonderful sign of President Obama’s commitment to women’s rights and economic security that the Ledbetter Act is the first bill he has signed into law,” said Jessica Arons, Director of the Women’s Health and Rights Program.

The Ledbetter Act corrects a 2007 decision by the Supreme Court that required Lilly Ledbetter to bring her pay discrimination claim within 180 days of receiving her first unequal paycheck, even though she did not know she was being paid unfairly until years later. Congress has now clarified that every discriminatory paycheck, and every other act of new or continued discrimination, starts the clock running again each time.

Lilly Ledbetter, plaintiff in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Rally for Pay Equity - July 17, 2008, in Washington, DC. Sponsored by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the National Women's Law Center, and the National Partnership for Women and Families. Photo by Clarissa Peterson

This is an important victory, but it is only the first step toward eliminating the gender pay gap. The Ledbetter Act gets us back to where we started; we need the Paycheck Fairness Act to move us forward. We urge Congress and the president to waste no time and enact fair pay reforms as soon as possible. In these tough economic times, women and their families need to be able to use every tool possible to ensure that equal work earns equal pay.

National Women’s History 2009 Theme: Women Taking the Lead to Save our Planet

Each year, March is designated National Women’s History Month. The contributions of women are recognized in schools, workplaces and communities. This year’s theme celebrates the pioneering ways that women have taken the lead to save the planet.

The National Women’s History Project will honor 100 women environmental activists with a special focus on Rachel Carson, the pioneer of the modern “green” movement, as the embodiment of the theme. Her bestseller Silent Spring, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1962, led to the banning of DDT, the creation of the Clean Water Act and the Environmental Protection Agency. She exposed the effects of random use of chemicals and described how pesticides and insecticides were applied to farms, forests, gardens and homes with little regard for the contamination of the environment and destruction of wildlife. She said we must recognize humans are only one part of our living world and our consistent poisoning of nature will be catastrophic.

She will be celebrated through 100 nationwide screenings of the newly released film, A Sense of Wonder, starring OBIE award winning actress Kailulani Lee as Rachel Carson in the last year of her life as she battles cancer and focuses her final energy on getting her message to Congress. Bill Moyers said of it, “This film is absolutely remarkable. You cannot walk away unmoved.” It will be shown in New York City, Friday, March 27, 7:30 pm at Anthology Film Archives Theater, (32 2nd Avenue at 2nd Street. 212 505-5181).

All 2009 honorees are women who have led initiatives to protect our earth on a local, state, national or international level. They include scientists, engineers, business leaders, writers, filmmakers, conservationists, teachers, community activists and religious or workplace leaders who have shown vision and action to save our planet.

Read brief biographies of the 2009 honorees at www.nwhp.org

Christine Conniff Sheahan with Helen Thomas at the White House in 2002 for the National Breast Cancer Coalition

Cover of March, 2002 Networking® magazine signed by Helen Thomas for Christine Conniff Sheahan

Networking® Magazine Salutes…
Helen Thomas: Icon and Role Model at 88

Helen Thomas, the 88 years young former White House Bureau Chief, broke through the barriers for women reporters over 60 years ago to become one of the 25 most Influential Women in America according to the World Almanac.

Known as “The First Lady of the Press,” she has covered every President from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama. During a JFK press conference that went on and on, to wind things up Thomas called out, “Thank you, Mr. President,” thus ushering in a presidential press conference tradition.

Thomas, now with Hearst Newspapers as a syndicated columnist, has always asked the tough questions and written her stories with a straight-talking journalistic professionalism that helped eliminate gender bias and afforded her entrée at the National Press Club.

Early in her trailblazing career, Thomas, one of nine children of Lebanese immigrants, wrote radio news for United Press International then the Federal government including the FBI and Capitol Hill. She was the only woman print journalist to travel with Nixon to China during his breakthrough trip in 1972 and has gone around the world with six presidents. She has covered every Economic Summit.

Thomas, who, in 1971, married White House correspondent, the late Douglas B. Cornell, has written four books: Thanks for the Memories Mr. President: Wit and
Wisdom from the Front Row at the White House: My Life and Times and Watchdogs of Democracy.