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April 12, 2005

IWPR’s Research News Reporter is distributed monthly to highlight inventive, informative, innovative, and sometimes controversial research relating to women and their families. Each selection includes a short description of the research and either a link to the report i tself or a citation. We sometimes include short pieces in their entirety.

In this edition:

1. Equal Employment Opportunity: Information on Personnel Actions, Employee Concerns, and Oversight at Six DOE Laboratories
2. Achieving Success in the New Economy: Which Jobs Help Women Reach Economic Self-Sufficiency in Massachuset ts?
3. To Have and To Hold: Congressional Vows on Marriage and Sex
4. Social Security: Women, Children, and the States
5. A Second Look at the Role Education Plays in Women’s Empowerment

1. Equal Employment Opportunity: Information on Personnel Actions, Employee Concerns, and Oversight at Six DOE Laboratories

Robin M. Nazzaro

Government Accountability Office

February 2005

This report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) addresses the status of women and minorities at six Department of Energy laboratories in the US, as a part of an effort to improve compliance with EEO requiremen ts in such facilities. For fiscal years 2001 through mid-2004, GAO found some statistically significant differences in salaries, merit pay increases, and separation patterns for managerial and professional women and minorities when compared with men and whites, and differences in promotion rates when compared with white men. These differences remained despite holding constant factors such as age, education, and occupational category. Concerns of women and minority staff at the laboratories focused primarily on under-representation, the lack of career development opportunities, and the need for an improved laboratory work environment.

The report found that women were paid 2 to 4 percent less than men at five of the six laboratories, while minorities were paid about 2 percent less than whites at one laboratory; and that, at one laboratory, selected minority groups were promoted at a rate less than 80 percent of the rate for white men.

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05190.pdf

2. Achieving Success in the New Economy: Which Jobs Help Women Reach Economic Self-Sufficiency in Massachuset ts?

Susan Crandall and Surabhi Jain

The Women’s Union

January 2005

This research brief provides labor market and wage data for high demand jobs in the context of the Massachuset ts Family Economic Self-Sufficiency (MassFESS) standard, analyzes these jobs based on educational and skill requiremen ts, and highligh ts the need to train women for nontraditional jobs that require significant skills in math, science, and technology; emphasizes the need to partner with employers and training providers to create career paths that result in family-sustaining wages; and provides a high level view of a more detailed toolkit in development by the Women’s Union.

The report found 110 jobs that were classified as high demand jobs. Twenty-five of these jobs pay above the selected MassFESS standard of $40,598, and out of those, 18 are classified as “nontraditional” occupations. They typically have higher wages, better benefi ts, and are more likely to have established career ladders. However, the authors note that women may face barriers in these nontraditional jobs, including discrimination, sexual harassment, and peer isolation.

In addition, nontraditional jobs typically require a high degree of proficiency in math, science and/or computer skills. The authors say that it is critical that education and workforce development agencies provide both the hard and soft skills training necessary for success in these occupations. Without this strong emphasis, they say, women’s chances of achieving self-sufficiency are severely diminished.

http://www.weiu.org/Advocacy/Jobs%20Self-Sufficiency%20in%20MA.pdf

3. To Have and To Hold: Congressional Vows on Marriage and Sex

Jodie Levin-Epstein

Center for Law and Social Policy

March 2005

This paper discusses what the government has already done to promote abstinence-unless-married programs and marriage, and what it proposes to do with the reauthorization of the welfare law. The article then discusses the relationship between pregnancy prevention and marriage, including research findings on the influence of childbearing on marriage. For example, the author repor ts that non-marital childbearing decreases the likelihood of ever marrying, as women who bear a child without marrying have a 40 percent lower likelihood of ever marrying. As this is the case, the author says that reducing the incidence of non-marital births is an important strategy in increasing the likelihood of marriage.

The paper concludes with some welfare reauthorization recommendations for Congress on this topic, including: 1) Allowing states to define abstinence education so that it can include education about contraception for those who may become sexually active, 2) Ensuring that abstinence education be medically accurate and not perpetuate stereotypes, 3) Requiring a report to Congress on a comparative evaluation of an abstinence-unless-married education program to a similar abstinence program that includes education about contraception.

http://www.clasp.org/publications/have_and_hold.pdf

4. Social Security: Women, Children and the States

National Women’s Law Center

February 2005

This report provides an analysis for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia on the importance of Social Security to women, children, and the states and the impact of cu ts in Social Security benefi ts contemplated in the leading privatization plan. For each state, the report shows how many women, men, and children receive Social Security benefi ts; the percentage of elderly women that would be poor without Social Security; how much the benefit cu ts under the leading proposal (Plan 2 of the President's Commission) would cut the typical widow's benefit and how that reduced income (including private account proceeds) compares to the poverty line; how much money the state economy would lose if the Plan 2 cu ts were in effect, and how that figure compares to overall state expenditures.

The report highligh ts the potential impact of the proposed cu ts on widows, a group that is highly vulnerable to poverty in retirement. If the cu ts projected by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) under the leading privatization plan were in effect today, the benefit going to the typical widow would drop well below the poverty line in every state. The report shows that nationally the typical widow receives a benefit of $865 per month, but under the leading privatization plan the benefit, including the proceeds of the private account, would be only $476 per month. This amount is equal to only 65 percent of the poverty line. Finally, the report argues that state economies will lose a significant amount if Social Security benefi ts are cut.

http://www.nwlc.org/pdf/sswomen&states2005.pdf

5. A Second Look at the Role Education Plays in Women’s Empowerment

International Center for Research on Women

February 2005

This research review finds that women are more likely to control their own destinies and effect change in their own communities when they have higher levels of education. ICRW recommends that the international development community and developing country governmen ts focus on investing more in girls’ and women’s post-primary education. Higher levels of education—six years or more—are associated with women’s improved use of prenatal and delivery services, and postnatal care, and have a greater impact on girls’ and women’s knowledge of HIV prevention and condom use. Girls who attend secondary school are far more likely to understand the cos ts of risky behavior and even to know effective refusal tactics in difficult sexual situations. ICRW also found that secondary education can play a crucial role in reducing violence against women and the practice of female genital cutting.

ICRW’s review of research on the economic returns to women’s education shows that the benefit is closely tied to the availability of higher-quality and better-paying jobs. ICRW notes that, to reap the full economic rewards of investing in women’s education, developing country governmen ts also must ensure that their social and economic environmen ts are favorable to women working.

http://www.icrw.org/docs/Secondary%20Education%20Needed.pdf

This edition of IWPR’s Research News Reporter was prepared by Elizabeth Circo.