Women's Issues

Director's Report

As CCA's Women's Issues Director, my goal is to develop a strong, active coalition of individuals committed to the issue of women's rights, equality, and justice for not just the members of our organization...not just women as faculty in our community colleges...but women the world over. As much progress as we have made for women's rights here in the United States, much remains to be done.

We need to ensure that equal pay for equal work becomes the standard for women in every occupation. We need to work together for passage of the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (see below). We need to heighten the public's awareness of the terrible toll that domestic violence and child sexual abuse exact on women in our homes, neighborhoods, schools, and communities. We need to ensure that gender equity becomes more than just a pat campaign slogan to be trotted out whenever there is a gathering of women. We need to educate our daughters and sons that a woman can be anything and anyone she chooses to be, whether that is a Fortune-500 CEO or a mother--or both!

And perhaps even more importantly, we need to celebrate the women in our lives, our families, and our world. We need to celebrate them for their accomplishments, for their contributions, and for the unique perspective they bring to the issues and challenges facing us all. In the months ahead, I will be bringing you stories of some of these women, in the hope that they will inspire you as much as they have inspired me.

If you know of women in our community college system--past or present--who have made contributions to CCA, higher education, or the state as a whole, please let me know! Drop me an email at vvccoach@aol.com, with the subject heading of "CCA Women."

2010 California Women's Conference and Minerva Awards

The Women's Conference was once again proud to announce the recipients of the Minerva Awards. Created in 2004 by First Lady of California, Maria Shriver, The Minerva Awards have become the country's most prestigious awards given to women "who serve on the front-lines of humanity." Maria Shriver presented the 2010 award winners at a special ceremony at The Women's Conference. The honorees are:

• Carolyn Blashek – Founder of Operation Gratitude, the largest military support organization sending care packages to deployed soldiers in U.S. history
• Oral Lee Brown – Founder of the Oral Lee Brown Foundation, which provides educational assistance and financial scholarships to school children, and which has sent almost 200 of Oakland's most at risk youth to college
• Sister Terry Dodge – Executive director of Crossroads, Inc., which provides transitional housing, education, career and counseling services and support to women released from prison
• The Honorable Sandra Day O'Connor – First woman Associate Supreme Court Justice, and founder of Ourcourts.org, a web-based education program designed to teach students civics and inspire them to become active participants in our democracy
• Oprah Winfrey – Founder of the Oprah Angel Network, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, and a source of education, inspiration and empowerment for women and girls throughout the world.

"Minerva Award honorees are women who live with a deep sense of purpose and who are passionately dedicated to serving others," said Maria Shriver. "These Minervas all identified problems and unmet needs in their communities and have worked tirelessly to solve them. By honoring them, we hope to inspire others to be Architects of Change just like them."

Other Items Of Interest To Women

Gender Discrimination Survey As the CCA Women's Issues Director, I am investigating manifestations of gender discrimination in the college environment. I have developed a very brief (only six questions) survey to assist me in obtaining this information. Please take 60 seconds and fill it out TODAY! Click here to take survey.	Women's Scholarships Check out this "Guide to Online Schools" list of scholarships especially for women! Some are geared for older or returning students...others are focused on women working toward particular careers...and still others are for women in specific disciplines. No matter where you are in the academic process, it's well worth taking a few minutes of your time to browse through these offerings.
Reversing Bush on Title IX Undoing another legacy of its predecessor, the Obama administration plans to withdraw a 2005 clarification of a federal anti-discrimination law that critics saw as weakening enforcement of gender equity in college athletics. Vice President Biden, joined by Education Secretary Arne Duncan and other administration officials, have just issued a “Dear Colleague” letter overturning the 2005 interpretation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The 2005 policy allowed colleges and schools to use an e-mailed or Web-based survey alone to prove that they are “fully and effectively” meeting the athletics “interests and abilities” of female athletes. Read the entire article from Inside Higher Education.	Women in the Sciences & Math Active recruiting and positive messaging can go a long way toward shrinking the gender gap in many science and engineering fields, an analysis released by the American Association of University Women suggests. In "Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics,” AAUW researchers have collected the findings of dozens of other studies to produce a report on challenges that girls and women face at every step of the way in studying and working in sciences, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Researchers found eight major factors that helped depress the numbers of girls and women in STEM: beliefs about intelligence, stereotypes, self-assessment, spatial skills, the college student experience, university and college faculty, implicit bias, and workplace bias. Read the entire article from Inside Higher Education.
Women's History Museum The National Women’s History Museum has been without a permanent home since its founding in 1996. Now, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has passed HR 1700, a bill to allow NWHM to purchase land next to the National Mall and build the first major repository of women's accomplishments and contributions in Washington, D.C. The bill will now proceed to the Senate floor for passage, where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s staff has committed to “hotlining” the legislation to the Senate floor for a vote. Click here for more on the fight to establish a home for the NWHM.	Gender Does Matter Does having a woman in the top job (or the No. 2 slot) make a difference? When it comes to faculty hiring, the answer appears to be Yes. And having a critical mass of women on boards of trustees also makes a difference. These are the results of a study by the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute. The new study could provide new evidence to those who argue that change at the top of institutions is crucial to promoting change at the junior faculty ranks as well. Read the entire article from Inside Higher Education...
Equal Pay for Equal Work? Not Yet, Baby. They say we've come a long way...and in many ways, that's certainly true. However, when it comes to equal pay for equal work, we still have a long way to go to catch up with men. A new study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that while the pay gap between men and women has narrowed in recent years, some of the data shows that gender pay differences get wider as men and women move up their respective career ladders. Read the entire report from the Institute for Women's Policy Research.

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