A REBIRTH FOR WOMEN ON THE JOB

The women’s workforce agenda will become a project of the Long Island Fund for Women and Girls

Story by Maureen Traxler

Come November, Women on the Job will have a new address, 1740 Old Jericho Turnpike in Jericho. But that’s not all—after 25 years of working for women’s workplace equity, founder and executive director, Lillian McCormick, announces the transfer of Women on the Job (WOJ) to the Long Island Fund for Women and Girls under the visionary leadership of executive director, Diane Cohen. The address is also fairly new for the Fund, which moved its headquarters to the Elias Hicks House in Jericho last April after nine years in donated space at Briarcliff College.

“Women on the Job has spun its course and is ready to make this move,” says McCormick, who plans to retire. The WOJ board of directors recognized that McCormick could not easily be replaced and sought a like-minded organization to which the torch could be passed. “I had always looked around to see what other agencies might be a fit for Women on the Job and the Fund is most appropriate. It’s a wonderful mesh,” adds McCormick. “Diane has a commitment to our mission that is just as great as mine, and it makes me feel good to know that the project will continue.”

“I’m thrilled that we were able to come together and that Women on the Job looked to the Fund as a home for their program. It is so much in line with what we care about and our mission in terms of the empowerment and progress of women,” responds Cohen. “Lillian’s work has been spectacular.”

WOJ is currently a project of Resources for Program Development, a nonprofit established by McCormick in 1981, which will be dissolved when WOJ moves to the Fund. McCormick notes that she is not only turning over the WOJ program, but also its assets and “some very fine board members.” She notes that several board members have expressed an interest in joining the Fund, whose nominating committee is reviewing their requests. Much of WOJ’s success can be traced to its Task Force, a coalition of more than 60 business, civic, labor, social service, civil rights and advocate organizations. The Task Force provides a forum for women to present workplace problems, engages speakers for interested groups, acts as a watchdog to ensure labor law enforcement, advocates for women’s rights on pay equity, non-traditional jobs, and discrimination, and provides leadership to the New York State Pay Equity Coalition seeking equal pay for work of equal value.

Working for Working Women

For the past quarter-century, McCormick has pioneered a women’s workforce agenda to achieve equal employment opportunities for women including opportunities in the trades, to address patterns and practices of gender discrimination, and to educate women about their rights. WOJ’s emphasis on education gives women the skills to negotiate salary, stop sexual harassment before it starts and advocate for themselves as they move up the career ladder.

Under McCormick, WOJ has developed an Equal Pay Day program that is a model for women’s workforce groups around the country. Equal Pay Day, originated by the National Committee on Pay Equity in 1996 and observed on a Tuesday in April, symbolizes how far into the year a woman must work, on average, to earn as much as a man earned the previous year. In 2006, WOJ partnered with some 10 colleges and universities on Long Island to distribute Hershey’s “Pay Day” bars and informational materials.

In addition to expanding opportunities for women in the workplace and helping them stay on the job, WOJ is working to move women up the ladder and into leadership positions as CEOs and members of corporate boards of directors through its Where are the Women project. Statistics show that women hold board seats on the top 10 performing companies of the Fortune 500. Yet, they occupy just 15.7% of Fortune 500 board seats overall. On Long Island, the percentage of women serving on corporate boards drops to 4.

McCormick notes that the launching of WOJ’s new website, www.womenonthejob.org, created new opportunities for the project on a national level. WOJ was recently contacted by women steel workers in Kentucky who were having difficulty getting assigned to construction sites. Following advocacy on their behalf, the women were on the sites the next day. Additionally, WOJ was consulted on a sexual harassment case in New York City.

An expanded LIFWG

The Long Island Fund for Women and Girls, www.lifwg.org, was established nine years ago as a philanthropic agency, whose mission included building women’s leadership by supporting community nonprofits that are led by women and developing programs around women’s issues. “We fund them to make a difference,” says Cohen, who notes that seven years ago when she became Executive Director, the Fund was making grant awards of approximately $70,000. At this November’s annual “Women Achievers Against All Odds” breakfast fundraiser, the Fund expects to award more than $100,000.

While the Fund looks at women’s leadership as a three-pronged effort: community, political and corporate, it has also expanded its model to include projects that benefit women and girls of all ages and all stages of life. It is this expanded viewpoint that Cohen says will allow the Fund, with WOJ’s resources, to further WOJ’s mission and take it to the next level.

The Fund’s eight-year Gender Equity in Education project dovetails with WOJ’s efforts to open opportunities for employment. The goal of Gender Equity is to partner with Long Island school districts and serve as a resource in examining district practices and programs for gender fairness. The project’s annual March conference brings together about 300 people, half students and adults from 15 to 20 high schools. A special events series for middle and high school students, called “Smart Careers for Girls,” puts together a panel of women who are passionate about their jobs to talk to girls about careers in science, math, technology, engineering and the trades. McCormick stresses the importance of girls visualizing themselves in a variety of careers. “If girls don’t think of themselves that way, nothing much will change.”

The Fund’s leadership efforts also include assisting women to achieve CEO positions and service on corporate boards. Cohen says, “We have women on Long Island who would be excellent on corporate boards. We have to make connections and introduce those women to corporate leaders. The Fund is investigating opportunities for that interaction to take place.” She adds that the Fund will work with other organizations, such as The White House Project, to bring WOJ’s Where are the Women initiative to a national level.

The White House Project is designed to engage women in the political process as voters, activists and candidates through training, inspiration and networking. Cohen believes that the Fund “connects well” with WOJ in the area of political leadership, and she points out that LIFWG partnered with The White House Project in September to hold a half-day training session on campaign strategy.

LIFWG is now in the second year of its newest initiative, The Early Years Matter. Recognizing the universal need for quality early care for children ages 0 to 5, this three-year campaign, accompanied by one-third of the Fund’s grant making dollars, seeks to build a wide, diverse constituency for quality early care and education, and strengthen family support by connecting existing resources.

“Women only make 39% of what men make when you factor in family care, that’s childcare and eldercare,” notes McCormick. Cohen says that “Childcare is really an underlying issue for women in the workforce. She adds that The Early Years Matter (www.theearlyyearsmatter.org) offers parent education seminars in Spanish and at corporate sites to help working parents.

Two outstanding leaders

While Lillian McCormick pledges she’s retiring, she says she will remain a consultant to the Fund. She also says that she will continue to work with the Landmark on Main Street where she is honorary chairman, the LI Council Against Drugs and Alcohol board of directors, and as a member of Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi’s Comprehensive Compensation Wage Study Committee.

Beyond that, McCormick wants to become a master bridge player. She’s an avid golfer and loves to travel. She says, “There’s not a Broadway play I won’t see, and when I get my new hip, I’m off to those museums.”

Reflecting on her unrelenting activism, in a recent Networking® magazine interview McCormick, a septuagenarian, recalled boycotting lettuce at Bohack’s, while her children hid in the back seat of her car. “I was different in their eyes; they say they always thought I was a Communist.”

On WOJ, McCormick says, “I got a lot of satisfaction knowing I made a difference. When I started 25 years ago, women were making 59-cents to a man’s dollar. Now it’s 74-cents and I was a part of it. When I see women on construction sites, I know I had something to do with that, too. There’s so much to do, I don’t even question what I’ll be doing next.”

Diane Cohen earned a master’s degree in public policy at Stony Brook. She says that as a student there, she reactivated the women’s center. “I’ve always been a feminist,” she adds. Her professional experience includes working in New York City and Nassau County government, fundraising at the university level, and grant consulting. “The Fund brought it all together,” she remarks.

While women in the workforce have made great strides, thanks to the pioneering workforce agenda spearheaded by McCormick, Cohen envisions an enhanced WOJ project that will allow the good works of both organizations to benefit not only women currently in the Long Island workforce, but also women and girls seeking to enter that workforce. “The women are ready,” commands McCormick. “Their feet are on the ground.”