How can we empower and advance women?
It has been almost six decades since the Equal Pay Act was passed and the 1964 Civil Rights Act outlawed discrimination in pay based on race, sex, color, national origin and religion, yet women who work full-time in the U.S. still make an average of 83 cents for every dollar paid to men.
More:Women still earn 83 cents on the dollar compared with men. Let’s fix that.
The pay gap is even wider for women of color, mothers of young children and women with disabilities.
Black and Latina women earn just 64 cents and 57 cents, respectively, for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.
In central Ohio, women are paid 81 cents for every dollar earned by white men, while Black women make 64 cents and Latinas 54 cents for every dollar earned by white men.
According to a November 2021 study by the Pew Research Center, women are outpacing men in earning college degrees.
Why, then, are men significantly more likely to be executives than their female peers? What is being done to support and further women’s progress?
These topics and others be explored in the next Columbus Conversation, “How can we empower and advance women in Columbus?” at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 29.
Hosted by Dispatch Opinion and Community Engagement Editor Amelia Robinson, the free discussion will be streamed live on the newspaper’s Facebook page and published later on Dispatch.com.
“Supporting and developing women is critical to this community’s future,” Robinson said.
The panelists, all past YWCA Women of Achievement Award winners, will be:
- Sue Zazon, president, Huntington Bank, Central Ohio Region
- Dr. Mysheika W. Roberts, Health Commissioner, Columbus Public Health
- Janet Jackson, former Columbus city attorney, Franklin County Municipal Court judge, and president and CEO of the United Way of Central Ohio
- Barb Smoot, president and CEO of Women for Economic and Leadership Development (WELD)
- Sandra Anderson, retired attorney, Planned Parenthood board of trustees.
More:YWCA honors six as Women of Achievement
The 2022 YWCA Women of Achievement lunch will be held 1 to 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 27. The Dispatch is a sponsor.
Early bird passes for the virtual event are $100 at www.ywcacolumbus.org.
The price is $30 for those age 30 and younger.
This year’s honorees are Dr. Laura Espy-Bell; Deputy Franklin County Administrator for Health and Human Services Joy Bivens; Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) CEO and President Joanna M. Pinkerton; Community Refugee and Immigration Services Executive Director Angie Plummer; Taft Stettinius & Hollister Partner in Charge Janica Pierce Tucker and Linda Hondros, the owner and co founder of Hondros Family of Companies.
This year’s “Women on the Rise” honorees are: LC Johnson, founder and CEO of Zora’s House; Erin Scott, co-founder and co-executive director of the Ohio Women’s Alliance and Danielle Tong, director of capacity building and community knowledge at the Columbus Foundation.
In Columbus, business leaders have pledged to make their companies more diverse and inclusive, from boards of directors and executive-level managers to rank-and-file employees.
More:Corporate diversity: Change takes time. Here’s what some Columbus businesses have done in a year
In 2021, the Dispatch sent questionnaires to more than a dozen Columbus companies and nonprofits to establish a baseline for the long-term efforts companies are making around diversity.
Local data indicates companies are pursuing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts — something they have done for than a decade — with renewed interest, but change doesn’t happen in only one year.
More:The Columbus Partnership approaches diversity, equity and inclusion with new energy
Nana Watson, president of the NAACP Columbus chapter, told the Dispatch last year that she believes Franklin County is making positive steps. “They are not just talking it, they are walking it.”
Women have fought for equal footing throughout history, and while strides have been made and some glass ceilings have been shattered, there is still much work to be done to remove those ceilings so that the sky is the limit.
Join Columbus Conversations on Tuesday to discuss how to make this happen.
Do you have questions for the panelists? Email them to Amelia Robinson at [email protected].
Read More: How can we empower and advance women?