THE OFFICIAL WEB SITE OF THE MADISON TIMES WEEKLY NEWSPAPER

Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton on Wisconsin Women

by Laura Salinger

American women have come a long way in the last 100 years, but we’re still only halfway to equality. There’s no good reason why our paychecks should be docked because we’re women; no good reason to deny us our fair share of political offices and corporate CEO slots. —Heidi Hartman, director of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research

In Wisconsin, where the state motto is "Forward," women are still behind. Mirroring national trends, Wisconsin women face far more barriers than men when it comes to economic sufficiency, educational opportunity, health, and leadership opportunities. In 2002, The Institute for Women’s Policy Research graded Wisconsin a disappointing C- for the status of women in this state. Women of color in Wisconsin fare even worse.

Women leaders are now working to raise the grade for all Wisconsin women. Spearheading the movement is Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton. On Jan. 6, 2003, Lawton became the first woman to be sworn in as lieutenant governor, and in May 2003 she began the initial stages of creating Wisconsin Women Equal Prosperity (WW=P), an economic initiative to improve women’s corporate, political, and civic lives.

In a recent interview with The Madison Times, Lawton spoke about her hopes for Wisconsin’s women and what WW=P is doing to improve the status of women in the state. As a tireless crusader for Wisconsin women, Lawton is using her position of power to create a louder and clearer voice for women across the state.

"We finally have a woman in a high enough position to make [improving the status of women] a legitimate agenda of this state," Lawton said. "It is coincidental [that there are] enough women in high enough decision-making positions in the private sector for us to move this forward."

WW=P, a public-private, nonprofit, and nonpartisan partnership, was launched in June 2003 and after nearly two years of planning and research, the group is now moving to implement public policy and private practices that will improve the lives of women in Wisconsin.

"Now we are really moving into the implementation stage," Lawton said. "It started out with a list of recommendations for how we can raise the grade. We are now trying to give [women] the tools to create this power grid across the state, and all they [will] have to do is flip the switch."

For the first time in over 40 years, Wisconsin recently held a conference which directly addressed the status of women in this state. WW=P hosted the Wisconsin Women Forward 2005 Convention to address issues of economic sufficiency; educational achievement; health, safety, and well-being; and leadership and political participation for women. The convention ended with a meeting with state legislators.

"We culminated [by] bringing our agenda to the Capitol and meeting with legislators, to say we are all partners in this if we are going to raise the grade for Wisconsin’s women," Lawton said.

The conference was preceded by WW=P’s Youth Leadership Summit, an all-day event in which young women networked and learned about leadership and career opportunities. Lawton stresses that young people are key to WW=P’s efforts to raise the grade. "Youth have been involved since the beginning," Lawton said. "We are making sure we have generational continuity in leadership training. Young people’s perspective is critical."

Lawton is excited about what the future holds for WW=P and pointed out several scenarios in which the organization has already helped raise the grade for women. One incident began with a phone call from Oakwood Village, a long-term care provider in Madison.

"Oakwood Village has two campuses; and they employ 550 people, the majority of them women doing the kind of work that has long been the unpaid, unseen, and unheralded work of women," Lawton said. "I got a call from the CEO asking if I could make a presentation to a joint meeting of management and labor about effective work-family integration practices that we have discovered in the course of our study. They wanted to make [these practices] part of their contract negotiations."

Lawton received a call approximately a month later asking her to come and celebrate the wide range of practices that Oakwood Village was able to incorporate into its contracts.

It is small victories like these that will help improve the status of Wisconsin women, but there is still a long way to go.

"Things haven’t changed all that much," Lawton said. "Wisconsin dipped from 39th to 46th [of 51 states] in terms of women’s earnings. Women of color in Wisconsin fare much worse, in terms of employment and earnings, compared to White women."

An Institute for Women’s Policy Research 2004 report cites major disparities faced by women of color in Wisconsin. Women of color are much more likely to live in poverty than White women, and African American women are about half as likely to have a college degree as White women. For every dollar a White man earns in Wisconsin, a White woman earns 68 cents on the dollar, African American women earn 63 cents, and Hispanic women earn the lowest, 59 cents. African American women in Wisconsin experience unemployment at nearly four times the rate of White women.

Lawton said she is very committed to raising the grade for women of color in Wisconsin. In fact, she said, their issues are at the core of women’s status in this state.

"When it comes to equity in pay, access to educational opportunities, access to health care, and access to capital to start your own business, the disparities [between women of color and White women] are huge. [It] ought to make everyone of us mortified that this sort of discrimination persists," she said. "If we put women of color out front and are successful at addressing the issues that define their lives, everybody will be taken care of."

At WW=P, diversity is a must, Lawton said. "We have made sure that the leadership and participants at every level in Wisconsin Women Equal Prosperity reflect the faces of women in Wisconsin," she said. "We have been very actively engaging organizations that specifically address issues that affect women of color to make sure they are partnering with us."

WW=P’s plan is to raise the grade for all women in Wisconsin. Other states are now looking to Wisconsin as they develop their own models for improving women’s status. WW=P is by far the most ambitius plan adopted by any state in response to the grades given by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

In June, Lawton, the crucial key to WW=P, will give the keynote speech to the national convention of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. She will highlight what Wisconsin is doing for its women.

Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton on Wisconsin Women