WUNRN
Information on The Shriver Report -
A Woman's Nation Pushes Back from the Brink: http://shriverreport.org/get-the-latest-published-shriver-report-free/
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"CEDAW
ratification would put the United States in the company of 187 other signatory
countries in assessing our remaining challenges and measuring our progress. It
would strengthen the U.S. global voice in calling on other countries to respect
women’s rights. It could also help structure a national dialogue between U.S.
civil society and government on ways to address the gaps in women’s full
equality that persist here today. And its comprehensive approach could help us
all focus on what American women need right now to stop “backsliding.”
USA - CALL FOR CEDAW RATIFICATION
& REALITY PERCEPTION OF AMERICAN WOMEN & FAMILIES NOW, ISSUES &
CHALLENGES
By Dara Richardson-Heron and Wade Henderson*
March 25, 2014 - We have
had several thought-provoking conversations recently about a new and surprising
description of women’s status in America. According to the latest Shriver
Report, A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink, a study by journalist
Maria Shriver and the Washington think tank Center for American Progress,
American women are at risk of “backsliding” from their achievements in rights
and opportunities over the past half-century.
The reason, the report
says, is that policymakers have ignored a “seismic shift” in American family
life: Three-quarters of all moms are in the U.S. labor force, which is now half
women – and half of them are their families’ primary breadwinners. This is
especially true for women of color. Yet like women around the world, U.S. women
still aren’t equal in the workplace.
Women earn less than men doing the same work,
and mothers earn much less. Mothers face so much wage and hiring discrimination
that many hide their children’s photos, while proud new dads often get raises.
It’s no accident that fewer than 5 percent of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women.
The Shriver study
features a bipartisan poll showing that a majority of Americans, especially
African-American and Latina women, support new steps by employers and
governments to adapt to this new family and workplace reality. They want
government to address our society as it is now, rather than trying to return to
an outdated model of stay-at-home moms in two-parent households. The good news
is that we already know just what tools will do the job.
These tools are spelled
out in the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW), a landmark international agreement that affirms principles of
fundamental human rights and equality for women around the world. It outlines a
comprehensive framework that can guide governments toward eliminating
discrimination and bring any country closer to achieving gender equality.
American women enjoy
opportunities and status not available to most of the world’s women, but few
would dispute that more progress is needed, as the Shriver report points out.
Closing the pay gap and ending domestic violence and workplace discrimination
should be priorities. We could start by providing paid family and sick leave.
That alone would go a long way to stop the “backsliding” that American women
are experiencing now.
CEDAW imposes no changes
in laws or policies on its own. Instead, it outlines a universal standard that
every civilized nation should want to meet. Countries prepare a report for the
CEDAW Committee on women’s situation every four years. The Committee then makes
non-binding recommendations on ways to improve, often drawing on practices that
have been successful in other countries. Policymakers and activists often cite
those recommendations in seeking new approaches to advancing women’s status.
Last year, for example,
the CEDAW Committee deplored women’s dire situation in Afghanistan and
spotlighted continued threats to Pakistani education activist Malala Youfsani.
CEDAW earlier called on Kuwait to grant women the right to vote, and it
inspired programs to educate people about women’s rights in Brazil and
Cameroon. Referencing CEDAW framework and norms, Mexico and Ghana have passed
their own laws to reduce violence against women. The government of the
Netherlands referred to CEDAW to address sex trafficking and support
trafficking victims; Japan relied on CEDAW’s approaches to reduce workplace
discrimination and sexual harassment.
CEDAW ratification would
put the United States in the company of 187 other signatory countries in
assessing our remaining challenges and measuring our progress. It would
strengthen the U.S. global voice in calling on other countries to respect
women’s rights. It could also help structure a national dialogue between U.S.
civil society and government on ways to address the gaps in women’s full
equality that persist here today. And its comprehensive approach could help us
all focus on what American women need right now to stop “backsliding.”
The Shriver report is
subtitled, “A woman’s nation pushes back from the brink.” We have in fact seen
a seismic shift in women’s status over the past few years, a reverberation from
the enormous progress over the past fifty. Let’s take the next steps now to
make progress once again, not only for women but for their families and our
entire nation.
*Richardson-Heron is
the chief executive officer of YWCA-USA and Henderson is president of the
Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.