Testimony before the St. Joseph County Commission on Women press release, 1990 September 25
Title
Testimony before the St. Joseph County Commission on Women press release, 1990 September 25
Description
This is a press release of a testimony given by Gloria Kaufman to the St. Joseph County Commission on Women. Kaufman discussed how women do more paid work than men but earn much less. However, a lot of women's work is unpaid work, Kaufman argued. Poverty disproportionately affects women and children. Kaufman pushed the Commission on Women to reform the welfare system and raise the minimum wage in order to alleviate poverty.
Creator
Kaufman, Gloria
Source
Gloria Kaufman Papers, Indiana University South Bend Archives and Special Collections
Date
1990-09-25
Rights
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Identifier
Kaufman_Box2_Folder17_K007
Text
PRESS RELEASE
Testimony before the St. Joseph County Commission on Women September 25, 1990 by Gloria Kaufman, Director of Women's Studies, IUSB
I want to begin by disabusing you of a powerful myth. In 1980 the United Nations released shocking data. Their figures showed that in the world at large, women were one-third of the paid work force, but did two-thirds of the paid work and earned one-tenth of the pay. Men were two-thirds of the paid work force, but they did only one-third of the work(!) and they received nine-tenths of the pay while they owned 99% of the property (to women's 1%). Today things have not improved. In fact, though conditions then were unbearable for women, they are getting even worse. The myth that men take care of women (and children) is a huge lie, and that is why commissions on women, world-wide, have sprung up and are absolutely necessary.
My figures were for PAID work, for women in the so-called labor-force. But they reveal less than half of the problem because most of the work--and in my view the most valuable work-of this county and of the world is unpaid work (raising children, cooking, cleaning, building attractive home environments, nursing, supporting, nurturing). That valuable unpaid work, in spite of feminists' past and current unceasing efforts to get it recognized and accounted for in work statistics, is done largely by women. Looking then at both unpaid and paid work, women today (as in the past) are overwhelmingly the donkeys of the world, and men achieve their status and their earnings riding on the overburdened backs of women.
What is to be done? The South Bend Tribune identifies several questions that the Commission might address in its thoughtful September 22 editorial. Surely we must urgently address the problem of low incomes. Poverty is so severe, projections have indicated that by the twenty-first century (only 10 years away), all of the poor will be women and children. (That's literally impossible, but the rough estimate has depressing validity.)
In St. Joseph County, we need low-cost housing, configured as a rectangular prism built around a safe garden and play area for children. Such housing for single parents would also have cafeteria facilities and other communal rooms. Similar low-cost housing units should be designed for divorced, elderly, widowed, handicapped and other women and children.
The welfare system must be reformed. As it is today, it viciously intimidates and degrades those it supposedly "serves." It (alas) successfully attacks clients' self-esteem by forcing them to lie in order to survive. At the October 23 hearings, a group of women abused by this system will testify.
Children now constitute well over 20% of the people in poverty, and their numbers are growing in Indiana. In the 1980s in the U.S., 2.1 million children fell into poverty while American billionaires quintupled in number between 1982 and 1989. (A billionaire: that means 1,000 million dollars.) The cost of eliminating poverty in all families with children (based on 1988 figures) would be $26.1 billion, about 1.5 cents per dollar that local, state, and federal governments spend each year.
The Commission should reconsider its failure to endorse the $5/hr. county minimum wage proposal. We have many single parents earning $4.35/hr. Please calculate how you (each of you)
could raise two, three, or four children on that salary. I urge you not to buy in to the big lie that women are well provided for by men. Some happily are, and I rejoice for them. Most are overburdened and tired, very very tired. I close quoting the South Bend Tribune: "Studies show that women--particularly single mothers with little education--are among the most economically disadvantaged residents of St. Joseph County. How can these women be helped, in terms of housing, education, emplpyment, social and parenting skills?" You have before you formidable tasks that require knowledge and insight, stamina and fortitude, compassion and imagination. Will you run away from those larger problems? I trust not, and I wish you well.
(See reverse side for Tribune editorial)
Testimony before the St. Joseph County Commission on Women September 25, 1990 by Gloria Kaufman, Director of Women's Studies, IUSB
I want to begin by disabusing you of a powerful myth. In 1980 the United Nations released shocking data. Their figures showed that in the world at large, women were one-third of the paid work force, but did two-thirds of the paid work and earned one-tenth of the pay. Men were two-thirds of the paid work force, but they did only one-third of the work(!) and they received nine-tenths of the pay while they owned 99% of the property (to women's 1%). Today things have not improved. In fact, though conditions then were unbearable for women, they are getting even worse. The myth that men take care of women (and children) is a huge lie, and that is why commissions on women, world-wide, have sprung up and are absolutely necessary.
My figures were for PAID work, for women in the so-called labor-force. But they reveal less than half of the problem because most of the work--and in my view the most valuable work-of this county and of the world is unpaid work (raising children, cooking, cleaning, building attractive home environments, nursing, supporting, nurturing). That valuable unpaid work, in spite of feminists' past and current unceasing efforts to get it recognized and accounted for in work statistics, is done largely by women. Looking then at both unpaid and paid work, women today (as in the past) are overwhelmingly the donkeys of the world, and men achieve their status and their earnings riding on the overburdened backs of women.
What is to be done? The South Bend Tribune identifies several questions that the Commission might address in its thoughtful September 22 editorial. Surely we must urgently address the problem of low incomes. Poverty is so severe, projections have indicated that by the twenty-first century (only 10 years away), all of the poor will be women and children. (That's literally impossible, but the rough estimate has depressing validity.)
In St. Joseph County, we need low-cost housing, configured as a rectangular prism built around a safe garden and play area for children. Such housing for single parents would also have cafeteria facilities and other communal rooms. Similar low-cost housing units should be designed for divorced, elderly, widowed, handicapped and other women and children.
The welfare system must be reformed. As it is today, it viciously intimidates and degrades those it supposedly "serves." It (alas) successfully attacks clients' self-esteem by forcing them to lie in order to survive. At the October 23 hearings, a group of women abused by this system will testify.
Children now constitute well over 20% of the people in poverty, and their numbers are growing in Indiana. In the 1980s in the U.S., 2.1 million children fell into poverty while American billionaires quintupled in number between 1982 and 1989. (A billionaire: that means 1,000 million dollars.) The cost of eliminating poverty in all families with children (based on 1988 figures) would be $26.1 billion, about 1.5 cents per dollar that local, state, and federal governments spend each year.
The Commission should reconsider its failure to endorse the $5/hr. county minimum wage proposal. We have many single parents earning $4.35/hr. Please calculate how you (each of you)
could raise two, three, or four children on that salary. I urge you not to buy in to the big lie that women are well provided for by men. Some happily are, and I rejoice for them. Most are overburdened and tired, very very tired. I close quoting the South Bend Tribune: "Studies show that women--particularly single mothers with little education--are among the most economically disadvantaged residents of St. Joseph County. How can these women be helped, in terms of housing, education, emplpyment, social and parenting skills?" You have before you formidable tasks that require knowledge and insight, stamina and fortitude, compassion and imagination. Will you run away from those larger problems? I trust not, and I wish you well.
(See reverse side for Tribune editorial)
Collection
Citation
Kaufman, Gloria, “Testimony before the St. Joseph County Commission on Women press release, 1990 September 25,” IU South Bend Archives Digital Collections, accessed April 25, 2024, https://iusbarchives.omeka.net/items/show/134.