Working together for victims of domestic violence

   

The Pierce County legislative delegation and county council members at the Crystal Judson Family Justice Center, packing flee bags and finding ways to work together. Flee bags are backpacks full of basic essentials that women fleeing domestic violence can grab and take with them. In the very front: Rep.-elect Dawn Morrell (D-Puyallup). In the back: Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist and Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy. Photo by Rep. Laurie Jinkins (D-Tacoma).

To read this story in Spanish, click here.

Washington: a top 10 best state for women

Sen. Patty Murray

Sen. Maria Cantwell

Gov. Chris Gregoire

“In Washington,” the iVillage web site says, “the ladies rule – literally.” The governor and both U.S. senators are women, the site notes, as are one-third of the members of the Legislature. Besides that, the state earns points for reproductive choice and access to birth control, as well as for health insurance policies, the fitness practices of its female residents and their income levels. Not so good are the high cost of child care and below-average rates of Pap smears and mammograms.

It all adds up to a No. 9 ranking for Washington on the best-for-women scale of iVillage, a women-centric NBC site that rates all 50 states. No. 1 is Connecticut; No. 50 is Mississippi.
 
What iVillage doesn’t tell you – but we will because, after all, we’re the House Democratic Caucus – is that 19 of the top 20 states are  “blue” states, based on their support for Democrat Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. The exception is Alaska, at No. 15.

To read the full report, click here.

To read this post in Spanish, click here.

Disparity: Mainstream Washington women mainly treading water in wages

Call it the Evergreen Ceiling. Maybe that’s an appropriate and awfully unfortunate new Washington sobriquet -- what with our ranking 41st nationally in the wage disparity between women and men.

So reports the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, according to this recent "Disparity in wages puts Washington at No. 41" article in the Spokesman-Review newspaper.  Here’s the specific, state-by-state table on the bureau’s website.

That's right. By a good many measures, the Evergreen State justly prides itself on the accomplishments of citizens who make up more than half of its population:

• Women U.S. senators? Check.

• Woman governor? Check.

• Woman Chief Justice of state Supreme Court? Check.

• Woman majority leader in state Senate? Check.

• Women significant percentages in both state legislative chambers? Check.

But when it comes to wages for average working women, that's another story. Consider that in 2010 women totaled 938,000 and men 1,255,000 of the state's workforce of 2,193,000.

Washington women working full time earned $748 a week in 2010, which is 76.5 percent of the $978 that the men here took home every week. On average, U.S. women earned $669 a week, which is 81.2 percent of the median weekly wage of $824 for men.

To read this story in Spanish, click here.