Politics

Forum Throws Rocks at Glass Ceiling

A forum on women and  work, the wage gap, equal pay, anti-discrimination laws, and opportunities in the workforce was held on Monday, Nov. 18.

The forum included: Alitia Faccone, Governor Christine Todd Whitman, Sherrie String, Robyn Mingle, and Seena Stein. Dr. Peter Reinhart, the Director of the Kislak Real Estate Institute, helped organize the event and picked the notable speakers. Each of the speakers were given ten minutes to address their expertise on the subject.

The first distinguished speaker was Faccone. She is currently the director of Marketing for McCarter & English LLP. Faccone received her bachelor’s degree from Monmouth University.

Faccone is a strong advocate for the advancement of women in the workforce. She is chair of the Firm’s Women’s Initiative Steering Committee, co-editor-in-chief of the quarterly newsletter (Women in the kNOW), an active member of the National Association of Women Lawyers, and she serves as an Advisory Board Member to the Women in Law Empowerment Forum.

Faccone decided to talk extensively on the wage gap, the major court case revolving around gender, and anti-discrimination laws that has been proposed over the years.

The wage gap is when women are not paid the same rate as their male counterparts. It is hard to deny the statistics that women are making less in their wages than men.

Back in 1963, women were paid 59 cents to a man’s dollar. Many efforts in legislation were enacted to try and equalize the playing field. Although the wage gap reached about 70 cents to a man’s dollar during the mid-1990s, the number has remained stagnant for the past two decades. Currently, the statistics state that women make about 77 cents to a man’s dollar.

Faccone talked comprehensively on the Equal Pay Act. Back in 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act. This act made gender based discrimination illegal in the work force amongst men and women who did the same job for the same employer. However, this was known as the “first step” to end discrimination in the workplace and was intended to be “interpreted broadly.” Since women are still not paid the same as their counterparts, legislation has been proposed over the years to balance the workforce.

Faccone then described the landmark case that led the subsequent legislation. The Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Supreme Court case took place in 2006. In this case, Lilly Ledbetter worked at Goodyear for 19 years. Over that time, she realized that she was consistently given low rankings in annual reviews and received low raises in comparison to other employees. Ledbetter sued Goodyear for gender discrimination. She claimed that Goodyear violated her Title VII rights in the Civil Rights Act. However, the Court did not rule in her favor. In a 5-4 ruling, the Court declared that gender discrimination was time stamped. Ledbetter would have had to file gender discrimination within 180 days of her first paycheck. The 180 days applies whether or not the employee realized the gender discrimination or not.

President Barack Obama’s first signed piece of legislature was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. He signed this on January 29, 2009, only days after his inauguration. This act “restored the protection against pay discrimination that was stripped away by the Supreme Court’s decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.”

Despite the bills becoming laws, there is still a huge loophole that prevents women from equal pay. The loophole entails that an employer has discretion for wage distribution on the basis on seniority, merit, or any other factor regardless of sex. The latter is the basis for the continued discrimination that still occurs in the workforce today despite the major laws that have been enacted.

Finally, Faccone spoke about the proposed Paycheck Fairness Act. She described that the act was proposed twice before Congress and was rejected twice. This Act would close the loopholes and strengthen the incentives to prevent pay discrimination. This act was proposed again on January 23, 2013. Neither house has voted on this bill yet.

Reinhart said, “I had not met Alitia Faccone prior to working with her on this program. She did an excellent job in making a very legal topic understandable to the audience of largely non-lawyers.”

The next speaker was former New Jersey Governor Christie Todd Whitman. Whitman is the University’s 2013-2014 Public Servant in Residence. She was the first woman Governor of New Jersey, serving from 1994 until 2001. Then, she was administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under George W. Bush from 2001 until 2003.

Whitman believed she was very fortunate because she did not feel the agony of the wage gap. She stated that the Governor’s wage was set in the New Jersey’s Legislature; it did not matter if the Governor was a male or female, they held a public office, and their wages were the same. Instead of focusing on the wage gap, Governor Whitman focused on the women in leadership positions. She accomplished this feat by telling anecdotal stories about her time as Governor.

Whitman explained that she was never treated as an inferior by anyone in her life. She told stories about her parents who instilled in her that she could do anything if she worked hard enough to get it.

Then, Whitman talked about the astonishingly low female representation via the state Governor’s position. Whitman said there have only been 36 female governors over the course of American history. Today, there are only 6 female governors. She highlighted that with fewer women “running their states,” there are less viewpoints to influence legislation for the constituents. Governor Whitman stressed the need to have women present at the “table” in order to hear different views, add to the discussion, and make compromise a possible outcome.

Whitman described that she held the “women’s seat” on all of her public office boards. This opportunity gave her experience with constantly dealing with all men. She was able to make them respect her and eventually follow her lead.  Whitman explained that her position as the female chief executive had an extremely positive effect on the state. Parents would constantly tell her how inspiring she was, and that she was opening horizons for young women. Her appearance promoted that in New Jersey, women are equal to men. However, Whitman highlighted that America; the “Greatest Democracy in the world” has yet to nominate a woman to the highest position in the land.

She did not do this to fill her administration with females. Whitman explained, “I was not appointing women because they are women. Its because they were qualified.”

Dr. Joseph Patten, Chair of the Political Science and Sociology Department, said “It is a real honor to have former Governor Christine Todd Whitman as our public servant in residence. The pay inequity issue was front and center in the 2012 campaign, and linked to Mitt Romney’s ‘binders of women’ perceived gaffe.”

Then, Sherri String spoke about her experience as an established woman in the human resources field. Currently, she is the senior vice president for Meridian Health, a non-profit organization in New Jersey. String is also the executive director of the Meridian Leadership Institute.

String also chose to tell stories to equalize the pay gap. First, she described that health care is a predominantly “women’s field,” but it was her passion. She was able to move up the corporate ladder at his expense. Due to her job, her family relocated numerous times. String commended her husband, who was in attendance at the forum, for allowing her to follow her professional dreams.

String stated that women are not paid fairly in the work place, but it is not a sense of entitlement, everyone has to be a part in the solution. Each person, regardless of their sex, must be willing to make changes to reach their desired wages. She stressed that all because there is not “one” all-inclusive law that prevents gender discrimination or the wage gap does not mean that everyone in the office cannot achieve a fair pay. She stated, “Women need to learn to be sought after instead of trying to be sought.” String continued, “Life isn’t about finding yourself, its how you create yourself.”

Kyle Hassling, a senior political science major stated, “It was interesting how the women who succeeded became the main breadwinner for their house and the husband took a backseat role to allow her to achieve.”

Reinhart picked String to be a speaker for this forum. Reinhart stated, “I have known Sherrie String for a few years since she joined Meridian Health. I am on the Board of Trustees for Meridian Health and came to admire her work there.”

The next distinguished speaker was Robyn Mingle. Mingle is senior vice president and chief human resources officer for Xylem Inc., a large global water technology provider. Mingle also spent 14 years with The Black & Decker Corporation where she served on an oversea assignment in Singapore.

Mingle described that she was always a trailblazer. She told numerous stories of being ambitious and competitive in order to get ahead. One story included when she applied to every open position in Baltimore and got rejected. Finally, she received her job at The Black & Decker Corporation, after being rejected twice. She worked full time and attended college at night in order to better herself. Due to her ambition, she learned how to play golf, in order to schmooze and constantly be around the other businessmen. She established at a young age that the only way to work her way up the corporate ladder was to take jobs that others did not want.

She explained that when she went overseas for her international work in Singapore, she wanted to be compensated. Mingle stated that women are afraid of to ask for higher compensation for their hard work. She stated, “Only you own your résumé, you own your choices.”

She also addressed women in the workplace “having it all.” Mingle waited to get married and to have children. Her career came first and she wanted to achieve at work before becoming a wife and mother. She described that each person is responsible for the choices they make, and those choices affect their professional life. Mingle stated numerous time that she had no regrets and that her family was very accommodating to her ambitious professional career. Mingle declared, “I was solving the world’s problems by day and coming home to play with princesses by night.”

Reinhart added Mingle as a panelist. Reinhart stated “I have known Robyn Mingle for many years. I worked with Mingle when we were both senior executives at Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc.”

The last speaker was Seena Stein. Stein is a founding partner of the New Jersey office of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. It is one of the world’s leading commercial real estate advisory firms. Stein also has more than 30 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry, and has been received prestigious awards in her field.

Stein’s story was filled with her personal experiences. When she was growing up, she was told women were supposed to get married and have children. So, like a good girl, she was married at 18 and followed her husband to college. She had her first child at the age of 20 in between semesters. Like a good wife, she wrote her husband’s thesis, and was pregnant again at graduation. She got divorced, before divorce was acceptable, and paid the price for doing so. Her mother stopped all communication with her for leaving her husband and became a working mother. Stein made the conscious decision to not accept her ex-husband’s alimony. She was on her own. She became the only women at her job. She married, had another child, and divorced again because her second husband did not believe she could be accomplished and successful on her own.

Stein described that businessmen hated her. They were not able to see a successful woman in the real estate business. Other women not so secretly wished she would fail; she was viewed as the single mother who left her husband and worked. However, her Cinderella story ended by her making it to the top, becoming the 1st Commercial Real Estate agent in New Jersey, and finally marrying a man who accepted her ambitious life style. Stein described that women are born with inner strength and are not content until they are equal to men. Now, she is the breadwinner for her her family. She described her husband’s attitude by stating, “if all of our money goes into the same account, he does not mind if I make more than him.”

Reinhart described how Stein became a panelist by stating; “I have known Seena Stein for many years as one of the true leaders in the field of commercial real estate. Seena is a long-time supporter of the Kislak Real Estate Institute at Monmouth University and is one of the founders of the program.”

Hasslinger stated, “I thought it was interesting seeing how with some of the women, wage inequality was not an issue; however, other women found it a major issue.”

Patten said, “I thought the panelists did a great job at discussing gender pay inequities from a lot of interesting perspectives.” Patten continued by stating, “There’s a growing gap in politics between the parties because of gender.”

Reinhart said, “The forum went exceedingly well. I heard from a number of students that they felt empowered by hearing from these very successful businesswomen. That was definitely a goal of the Women’s Forum – to allow our women students, and men, to hear from successful women and learn how to empower themselves.”

One student who felt empowered after the presentation was Kayla Moor, a sophomore political science major. Moor said, “It was truly inspiring to hear five different women’s struggles and success stories. They proved if one possesses inner passion and dedication even the toughest societal barriers are no excuse to be anything less than ordinary.”