Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Julianne LaJeunesse- University of New Mexico

Equal pay, equal housework and more government obligations to women workers were all on the table at Monday's Center for American Progress' conference on California First Lady Maria Shriver's report on women in the workforce.

U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said during her quick statement that the government is on the side of women workers, and said through increased education and grants, women will become more prepared for advanced jobs, such as green energy jobs.

"Allied health and information technologies are two of the areas that are the fastest growing in our economy," Solis said. "And that's why my agency has announced approximately $220 million in competitive grants to train workers in these high growth occupations. And we'll work to ensure that women have access to these growing fields, and that these jobs pay well, and that they're secure."

Solis recognized that women face challenges when working outside of the home and said the Department of Labor wants to review policies to make it easier for all employees to have more flex time, or time that would make make employment and household duties less disjointed.

Heather Boushey, a senior economist for CAP said if women are to be good workers, social institutions need to change, adding that Shriver's "A Woman's Nation Changes Everything," a collaborative study, found that families already, though maybe unknowingly, discuss disparities in male to female wages, and that despite government action to prevent women from receiving less pay for equal work, families are having to come up with ways to support what feels like an individual experience, and not a national wage difference.

Boushey added that just because more women are becoming the family "breadwinner," doesn't mean the rules are the same.

"We all know that too many women, and especially too many low-wage women, simply cannot compete in the way that a traditional male breadwinner could, primarily because they don't have a stay-at-home wife to take care of all of life's little and big emergencies," Boushey said.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro's (D-Conn.), who also spoke at the event, said the Shriver Report marks a milestone that's an occasion to reflect on how far women right's have come, but said "the process of change will not stop" and said that "society still undervalues the work woman do today."

DeLauro also called on the U.S. Senate to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, an amendment of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and said U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey's (D-Calif.) Balancing Act, which provides benefits for needy families, is worthy of Congressional attention.

Michael Kimmel, a sociology professor who has studied the relationship between men who support women's rights at Stony Brook University in New York, said men are ready to support women and that familial lives are bettered by women's increased access. He also joked that woman are more attracted to men who can do the dishes.

Shriver's report calls for updated labor standards, more focus on family and employee health benefits, reformation of anti-discrimination laws, modernization of the social insurance system, and increased government support for early child care and elder care.