Barbara Arnwine

 

Recent Posts by Barbara Arnwine

  • Collective Bargaining Rights are Key for Workplace Equality

    Mar 23, 2011Barbara Arnwine

    women-and-moneyRemembering Women’s History Month and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, New Deal 2.0 tells the surprising story of how women became citizens — and how their economic lives h

    women-and-moneyRemembering Women’s History Month and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, New Deal 2.0 tells the surprising story of how women became citizens — and how their economic lives have evolved along with their rights. Barbara Arnwine explains why we've not yet entered a "post-gender" world when it comes to women's status in the workplace.

    Women's History Month is a very special time to reflect upon both the particular challenges that women continue to face in the workplace and upon the new opportunities that will arise for economic equity. It's also a time is to appreciate the struggles of the Sheroes who came before us who opened the doors of opportunity.

    It is up to us to recognize the significance of being women and also the importance of being a part of a broader collective that lifts the stature of everyone - male and female. We must ask ourselves, how do we both acknowledge the persistent disparities and concerns of the past while also looking to the future for continued upward mobility for all? Gender-based issues of increasing unemployment, job silos, unequal pay, sexual harassment and the "Old Boys Network" continue to haunt the American workplace and denigrate the economic status of women. And this affects everyone.

    The fact is, it's not quite time for "post-gender" thinking. Take the latest unemployment figures. While we added some 192,000 jobs in February, the overall scenario for women was not rosy. The National Women's Law Center notes that over the course of the recovery, women's overall unemployment rate increased from 7.7 percent to 8 percent, while men's dropped from 9.8 percent to 8.7 percent. Even more disheartening, between July 2009 and February 2011 unemployment rates increased for single mothers (from 12.6 percent to 13 percent) and African-American women (11.8 percent to 13 percent).

    Recently, we witnessed the crisis facing public workers in Wisconsin. Governor Walker's actions are of immense importance to women and stand in direct contradiction to our continued progress. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women comprise 52 percent of state-level public sector jobs and 61 percent at the local level. The impact on state and local job cuts in the public sector will be especially devastating to women at a time when the recession has already disproportionately impacted us.

    Women of color, already facing large pay gaps, are in danger of falling still further behind as bargaining rights disappear. Dr. Steven Pitts of UC Berkeley's Center for Labor Research and Education notes that black women in the public sector earn a median wage of $15.50 an hour, while the sector's median wage overall is $18.38 (white men make $21.24). This is not so surprising when you consider that African-American women comprise only 12.2 percent of labor unions. This data exemplifies the compelling need for workers to have the ability to bargain for equal rights in the workforce. The wage gap remains an important civil rights crisis for women. We have made gains in areas of education and employment, yet we know that we have not been fully acknowledged in the workplace when the paycheck arrives. This illustrates the distinction between the evolution of personal achievement and universal women's emancipation.

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    Barriers still confront women in many professions and prevent us from achieving true equality. While we should appreciate the success stories, such as women's increased access to law firms, there are still challenges to overcome. The retention rate, for example, tells a bleaker story about how women fare in the legal profession. The attrition rate for white female attorneys within 55 months is 77 percent, while minority female attorneys at law firms have the highest attrition rate, at 41 percent within 28 months and 81 percent within 55 months. A Diversity and the Bar report notes that women of color often feel isolated in an "old boy's network" environment. It appears that white male attorneys share a greater opportunity for advancement, perhaps because often times those in power (white males) are connected most with people like them. While it is critical that law firms fulfill their responsibility to systemically address these barriers to women's achievement, women must also assist in advancing each other.

    This year marked the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day. The United Nations highlighted, as I have, that despite the gains made, much remains to be done to eliminate gender discrimination. Until these vast disparities are addressed and systematically dismantled, this country's economic viability for the future will never be fully realized. The time for a level playing field is long overdue.  As women, we must find our voices and be active in advocating for real equality in these times. And we must always look beyond the headlines to find "her" story.

    Barbara Arnwine has been the executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law since 1989.

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  • Breaking the Glass Ceiling

    Mar 29, 2010Barbara Arnwine

    gender-equality-150To commemorate Women’s History Month, ND20 asked women thought leaders to reflect on past accomplishments and explore today’s key challenges. Barbara Arnwine argues that economic justice is still one of the most pressing legal issues for women -- especially women of color.

    gender-equality-150To commemorate Women’s History Month, ND20 asked women thought leaders to reflect on past accomplishments and explore today’s key challenges. Barbara Arnwine argues that economic justice is still one of the most pressing legal issues for women -- especially women of color.

    Inspired by the achievements of countless African American women, we march forward, resolute in our mission to achieve equal rights. Sojourner Truth proclaimed, "Ain't I a woman?" as she declared she could work as much as a man. Dr. Dorothy Height has fought for equal rights for African Americans and women for several decades and even encouraged President Lyndon B. Johnson to appoint African American women to positions in government. Later Shirley Chisholm fulfilled this dream and became the first black woman elected to Congress.

    But Dr. Maya Angelou asserted, "achievement brings its own anticlimax". Nowhere is this truer than in the lives of women, and especially women of color, as they seek accomplishment in the face of adversity, prominence in the face of marginalization. As a result, economic justice remains as one of the most pressing legal issues for women, as they seek equal job opportunities and equal pay. These burdens are especially present as we incur a great economic recession, which created new challenges for all, but for women of color, tested their ability to navigate economic, social, political and educational status more determinately.

    Title VII of the Civil Rights Act directly bans employment discrimination against women and lack of access to equal pay for equal work is a clear violation of Title VII. To justify these practices with specious arguments regarding hours, occupation choice and child rearing choice are offensive. The American Association of University Women Educational Foundation (AAUW) reports that even after "[c]ontrolling for hours, occupation, parenthood and other factors normally associated with pay, college-educated women still earn less than their male peers. Both disparate treatment and disparate impact have been recognized by the courts in evaluating legitimate claims of discrimination.

    The problem persists despite supposed advances we have made in societal expectations and structure. Unfortunately, unequal opportunities for women have been historically embraced and are still accepted. Until the early 1960s, newspapers published separate job listings for men and women. The struggle for African American women was even more formidable; until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, jobs specified "no Blacks need apply." Although we don't see as much evidence of such blatant discrimination in access to opportunities in the workplace today, they no doubt, institutionally exist. Women still are segregated into "pink-collar" jobs that affect their wages, according to an AAUW report. Women comprise 87 percent of workers in the child care industry and 86 percent of the health aide industry. Women of color have especially endured a disproportionate lack of access to jobs in the wake of the recession, as the Center for Social Inclusion (CSI) reports that unemployment has risen faster for young women of color than for white women in the same age range. Unemployment among young black women has increased by 8.6 percent to 20.4 percent this year.

    Equal access is just the tip of the iceberg; those women lucky enough to break the barrier to employment lag behind in equal pay. According to the Institute for Women's policy research, the median weekly earnings of female full-time workers in 2009 were $657, compared with male median weekly earnings of $819. Based on these data, the ratio of women's to men's median weekly earning was 80.2%. Black single mothers with children under 18 have a median net wealth of zero compared to $7,970 of wealth held by white women with children under the age of 18. This is especially troubling, as women head more than 40 percent of African American families. These wage inequities effect women prospectively as well. Their retirement, Social Security benefits, pensions, savings and other financial resources are all impacted. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, signed into law this year, is a welcome sign of progress, as it allows the statute of limitations for filing an equal-pay lawsuit regarding pay discrimination to reset with each new discriminatory paycheck. Women, however, continue to endure workplace inequity and we must persist in enforcing the call for justice.

    Economic justice is not just a women's issue or a moral issue; it's clearly a legal one. As lawyers, we must promote opportunities and equity in the new economy; we must embrace change and not the historical precedence of gender inequities. As women, we must not allow the patronizing excuses used for decades to deny equal opportunity in the workforce to continue to stymie our progress and expectations. Women should seek to make this economy work for us rather than working for a broken economy.

    Roosevelt Institute Braintruster Barbara Arnwine has been the executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law since 1989.

    *Kenneth Chandler, public policy associate, contributed to this article.

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  • Navigating the Jobs Crisis: Race to the Unemployment Line

    Nov 24, 2009Barbara Arnwine

    line-of-american-peopleIn the wake of the highest unemployment rate in 25 years, the Roosevelt Institute asked historians, economists and other public thinkers to reflect on the lessons of the New Deal and explore new, big ideas for how to get America back to work.

    line-of-american-peopleIn the wake of the highest unemployment rate in 25 years, the Roosevelt Institute asked historians, economists and other public thinkers to reflect on the lessons of the New Deal and explore new, big ideas for how to get America back to work. Barbara Arnwine looks at the 'ethnic recession' and how to address training and reemployment challenges for our most vulnerable communities.

    As the economy continues its long road to recovery, we must be weary of the policies implemented along the trek. Race looms at the fork in the road and we must determine which way to turn to most effectively address these issues in a manner to protect people of all colors.

    That said, the significant impact on the African-American and Latino communities must not be ignored. Among blacks, the jobless rate stands at 15 percent, while unemployment among Hispanics exceeds 12 percent. Comparatively, joblessness among white workers is below 9 percent. The gap between black and white unemployment rates "is an index of discrimination in our society" says William A Darity, professor of African and African-American Studies and Economics at Duke University, as reported in Congressional Quarterly. To focus attention on those communities hardest hit doesn't divert attention from the omnipresent problem, but reminds us that we must be strategic in our thinking to avoid the flagrant mistakes of the past.

    As Congressional Quarterly reminds us, it is a fact that the jobless rate for black Americans has remained much higher than that of whites through good times and bad since at least the 1960s. As I stated in that article, we need specific programs directed toward communities of color and unfortunately we're not seeing that. President Obama is right to note that he must "get the economy as a whole moving to be able to help anybody," but that effort should not be mutually exclusive from assisting those communities disproportionately impacted.

    Minorities make up a larger portion of the low-wage work force and tend to have less seniority than white workers, so they are often more likely to lose their jobs when the economy sours ( Congressional Quarterly). Even college-educated African-Americans are consistently more likely to be unemployed than whites who have only a high school diploma. At the very least the federal government needs to track how communities of color are being impacted and identify ways to implement intervention policies differently. Otherwise, when the economy recovers, African-Americans and Latinos will still find themselves at the same unequal playing field from where they started, or worse, permanently displaced in our economy.

    The typical black family owns 10 cents to the white family's dollar, and the typical Latino family owns 12 cents, according to a 2007 survey in Insight Center for Economic Development's report. Fixing the economy doesn't substantively address this issue. The pre-recession era was one still marked by an unequal playing field and to return to that status does us a disservice.

    We also must reinvest in African-American and Latino communities in a way that helps them sustain their wealth in the future. As noted by InsightCCED.org, 42 percent of whites own an IRA or Keogh compared to only 7 percent of African-Americans and 8 percent of Latinos. African-Americans are 23.3 and Hispanics 28.3 percentage points less likely than all families to have direct or indirect holdings of publicly traded stock. It is essential that these communities not only have the power to spend and earn an equal income for equal work, but be able to sustain wealth and build assets. If not, this cycle of ethnic recession will continue.

    To specifically address the particularized training and reemployment challenges for the most vulnerable communities, including African Americans, Latinos, the elderly, and people with disabilities, we recommend, as a start, these direct solutions:

    1. Establishing an Interagency Task Force in the Federal Administration.

    2. Strengthening enforcement and monitoring of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prevents employment discrimination against individuals on the basis of race and ethnicity.

    3. Integrate universal, age-appropriate, and culturally-relevant financial education opportunities into the K-12 curriculum and into post-secondary and community-based education settings.

    4. Passing the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act which increases Pell Grant scholarships; invests in HBCUs; and lowers interest rates on student loans

    5. Eliminating credit-checks as a condition for employment due to their disproportionate impact on candidates of color. Even for entry level jobs, or for jobs where there is no requirement or opportunity to handle money, the criteria of a clean credit record is often applied despite evidence that an imperfect credit record is not an accurate predictor of job competence or workplace theft.

    We believe in the Obama Administration's effort to revitalize the economy as a whole, but also recognize that implicit racial bias in the employment sector has a significant impact on the disproportionate disparities in unemployment we see today. The recession and the problems encompassed therein are nothing new for African-Americans and Latinos and merely a continuation of the plight of the last several decades. Fixing the economy must not just be about a return to pre-recession conditions, but forging a new path to economic sustainability for all.

    *Kenneth Chandler, public policy associate, contributed to this article.

    Roosevelt Institute Braintruster Barbara Arnwine has been the executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law since 1989.

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  • New Agenda for America: Did We Hit 'Rewind'?

    Oct 29, 2009Barbara Arnwine

    people-150To mark the 80th Anniversary of the Great Crash of ‘29, we asked 15 progressive thinkers to write about lessons learned and what lies ahead.

    people-150To mark the 80th Anniversary of the Great Crash of ‘29, we asked 15 progressive thinkers to write about lessons learned and what lies ahead. Together, their reflections constitute a New Agenda for America — a message of how the ideals of a fair society should apply to the economic and social policies of our time.

    On this anniversary of the Great Crash of 1929, we continue to battle critical issues of economic and social policy that adversely impact minority and low-income communities. Policymakers must aggressively address and equate economic and civil rights matters, like the ongoing foreclosure crisis, payday lending, mortgage scams and disparities in education. The elimination of the racial wealth divide is essential in ending institutional racism that has long pierced this nation.

    The current housing collapse was premised on a subprime market inundated with racially discriminatory and predatory lending, which led to economic displacement of unprecedented scale. According to the Center for Responsible Lending, black homeowners lost more than $92 billion to foreclosures since 2007 and over the next several years, are projected to lose a total of $122 billion, while Latinos are expected to lose $98 billion.

    Americans cannot attain the asset growth necessary to build "wealth" if simultaneously their biggest assets -- their homes -- are being unceremoniously depleted. African Americans own significantly less property than they did more than 80 years ago. The typical Black family owns 10 cents to the White family's dollar and the typical Latino family owns 12 cents.

    In what has been called the "Silent Depression," people of color continue to experience unacknowledged economic hardship.

    We must act to reverse these alarming trends ... it's time to hit "fast forward"!

    Roosevelt Institute Braintruster Barbara Arnwine has been the executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law since 1989.

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  • All subprime mortgages are not equal

    Jun 24, 2009Barbara Arnwine

    house-in-hands-200The subprime mortgage crisis is often discussed in political discourse as if it were a chapter in a textbook, rather than a “real world” experience in the lives of so many communities, especially the communities of low-income people and people of color.

    house-in-hands-200The subprime mortgage crisis is often discussed in political discourse as if it were a chapter in a textbook, rather than a “real world” experience in the lives of so many communities, especially the communities of low-income people and people of color. We pontificate on its causes while neglecting its actual impact. We hear stories about victims as if they were characters in a novel, but we don’t often hear much about which neighborhoods, cultures and families are directly impacted.  It’s important to theorize and analyze the cause of the crisis, but it is more important to focus on the people directly affected. 

    The impact of the subprime mortgage crisis has been far-reaching and devastating.  Subprime mortgages did not lead to bona fide progress toward authentic homeownership but were merely illusions of a dream.  What has been particularly apparent since the outset of the crisis is that subprime mortgage practices, which are at the root of the crisis, were often predatory loans unfairly targeting African-American and Latino communities.  New York City neighborhoods provide poignant evidence of this.  This trend was evident in Detroit neighborhoods as well.   In short, the financial crisis faced by the country is also a serious civil rights crisis that we and others must be aware of as we strive to address its fall-out.  Other notable facts about this crisis include:

    1. As reported by The Washington Post, there is growing evidence that the subprime mortgage industry, far from reversing racial segregation, may have instead increased levels of segregation in the United States:

    2. According to research by the Center for Responsible Lending, new foreclosures in 2009 alone are estimated to reach 2.4 million homes and cause an additional 69.5 million neighboring homes to lose over $500 billion in value.  And it will get worse.  It is estimated that by the end of 2012, the number of foreclosures is estimated to rise to 9 million.

    3. The present foreclosure crisis threatens to result in the largest stripping of assets from minority communities in American history. According to a report issued by the Applied Research Center, home equity is, by far, the most important asset in the net worth of Latino and black households.  For this reason, the foreclosure crisis in these communities and the declining values of homes is especially devastating.  Loss of wealth in communities of color from foreclosures will be greater than at any time since Reconstruction.

    4. The same report notes that high cost loans were marketed in aggressive, sometimes predatory ways to poor communities of color. In 2006, 53.3 percent of home purchase loans issued to black borrowers were high-cost, subprime mortgages, as were 46.2 percent of home purchase loans to Latino borrowers. By contrast, only 17.7percent of home purchase loans made to white borrowers were high-cost.

    5. Furthermore, the report indicates that African-American and Latino borrowers have been discriminatorily steered into subprime loans. As a result, households of color are more likely to receive subprime loans than white borrowers regardless of creditworthiness.

    We must act to reverse this trend.  On December 9, 2008, the National Commission on Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, which was co-sponsored by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and three other national civil rights organizations, released Future of Fair Housing report, an in-depth analysis of fair housing and fair lending issue forty years after passage of the landmark Fair Housing Act.  The report closely examines the long history of lending discrimination.  In many ways, the discriminatory background and effect of the foreclosure crisis is as bad, if not worse, than any of this history.  

    The Lawyers' Committee is encouraged by the Obama Administration’s attention to this issue.  For example, the Administration has proposed major increases in the 2010 budget for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, after years of retreat in its mission to offer affordable housing during the Bush Administration.  The Lawyers' Committee strongly encourages the Administration and all advocates for fair housing to increase their efforts to specifically target communities especially affected by the crisis.

    Braintruster Barbara R. Arnwine, the executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

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