Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton spoke last evening at the Pyle Center about womens' issues in the state of Wisconsin.
\The Washington D.C. Institute for Women's Policy Issues gave Wisconsin a C- overall on womens' issues,"" Lawton said. ""After that we asked ourselves how we can raise the grade for women overall.""
After the grade was given, Lawton said she put together a task force that would combat inequality head on. The task force is broken up into four major areas: economic sufficiency, education opportunity, leadership and health safety and well-being.
After being declared as equals years ago, women are still being paid 70 cents to every dollar men make, according to Lawton, and many wonder why.
""It's really an incentive to take control of our own prosperity,"" said Pat Alea, an advisor to Lawton. ""Women have lost the solidarity to make and sustain change, there has been an absence of commitment and there are very real inequalities.""
A problem facing the incentive has been the lack of funds in the state budget to fund such a project, according to Lawton.
""This has truly been a pairing of public and private interests,"" Lawton said. ""There's always a budget for new roads, but not for a path to the future.""
Often the inequality of wages in the United States is rationalized by the fact women often are the members of the family expected to care for a new child, Alea said, and often go without pay during maternity leave.
""The U.S. is one of two industrialized countries that does not pay its female workers during maternity leave,"" Lawton said.
According to Lawton, during the conducting of the research, the task force discovered a link between the existing inequality and depression in women.
""Women get so bogged down with family and their jobs,"" said Malika Monger, a woman in attendance. ""Because women are the backbone of the family, sometimes there's very little support left for them.""
Continuing with the initiative, there will be a Wisconsin Women Equal Prosperity leadership summit Monday, March 21 at Memorial Union to target most specifically young women who are high school juniors and seniors as well as college students.
""The outcome we want is for women to take full responsibility for [their] own prosperity,"" Alea said. ""American women have become great big children and we need to grow up and move forward.\
