Equal Pay Day April 28, 2009

Support Alameda merchants sponsoring Equal Pay Day discounts to women on 4/28.

Grateful thanks to Julie Baron of Julie's Tea and Coffee and Kimberlee MacVicar of BPW Isle City for collaborating on and spearheading this project.

2008-09 Community Development Report

Isle City's annual report

February 19, 2009, Isle City celebrated its 50th year as an Alamedan nonprofit.

Active in our local organization and in the community during that time are Margaret Seaman, founding member, and Genette Beardsley , who joined shortly after the local was formed.

An exhibit of BPW historical items are on display at the Alameda Museum through February 28th . BPW/USA 's mission is to achieve equity in the workplace through advocacy, education and information.

We are planning an anniversary celebration banquet on Saturday, May 16, and are seeking former members. We invite you to join us as we reminisce about Isle City 's past and look forward to its future.

Please call (510) 523-7024 or email isle_city@yahoo.com if you were a former member and would like to participate in this celebration.

The BPW/USA President sent congratulations.

Editor, Alameda Sun:

Mr. Spun's letter of September 11, 2008, charges that “with many women in its police and fire departments” not one “chose to enter the Twin Towers” on September 11, 2001. He asks if women are really “up to being police and firefighters”.

Mr. Spun has been the victim of the popular media who have failed to report the supreme sacrifices and contributions by women firefighters and police officers on September 11th at Ground Zero and in the many emergencies and natural disasters around our nation. In the introduction to Women of Ground Zero, it states. “Three women rescuers gave their lives to save others on that terrible day.” As we have seen throughout history, women's contributions have been largely ignored. The same is true with this event.

As of 2006, only 32 of 11,400 New York City firefighters were female. In the New York City Police Department as of 1996, women represented only 15% of the force. New York City was one of the last cities to hire women into their public safety departments. One need only look at the City and County of San Francisco. Their Fire and Police Departments are led by women: Chief Joanne Hayes-White and Chief Heather Fong.

The facts deny Mr. Spun's assumption of “political claptrap”. Women do meet the challenge of being police and firefighters.

JoAnn S. Ainsworth 
President, Isle City of Alameda BPW

A warm welcome to our new member, Barbara Marchand.

President JoAnn's medieval romance, MATILDA'S SONG, was e-published by Samhain Publishing, Ltd. and will be in print in bookstores Fall 2009.

BPW/PAC webinar on the Presidential Endorsement of Senator Obama.

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National Business Women's Week Awards Ceremony photographs

Read the NBWW City Council Proclamation. Photos of President JoAnn at podium while the proclamation is read and with the Mayor after presenting Pink Ribbons.

Your personal invitation - Saturday, October 25
to the
National Business Women's Week Awards Ceremony

Read the NBWW City Council Proclamation. Photos of President JoAnn at podium while the proclamation is read and with the Mayor after presenting Pink Ribbons.

Parliamentary Procedure Workshop 10/11 - Community Invited!

Melody Marr was honored as Rotarian of the Year.

President JoAnn signed with Samhain Publishing, Ltd. to publish a second medieval romance, MATILDA'S SONG. The book will be e-published September 2008.

Isle City report for Fall Conference

Celebrating the 88 th Anniversary of
Women in the United States  Winning the Right to Vote
August 26th ---- Women's Equality Day
In 1920, women won a 72-year political campaign that began at Seneca Falls in 1948. Ratified on August 26th , the 19th Amendment , the Woman Suffrage Amendment to the United States Constitution secured full voting rights for women.
In 1971, Representative Bella Abzug was able to get a Congressional Resolution passed that designated August 26th as Women's Equality Day to commemorate the passage of the 19th Amendment, the Woman Suffrage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
For more information: Women's Equality Day
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/wed/Womens_Equality_Day_August_26.htm

Photo of 2008-09 officers.

From: National Women's History Project:

Remembering and Honoring Women and Democracy
Celebrating the 160 th Anniversary of the First Women's Rights Convention
July 19th - 20th of 1848
In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott spearheaded the first women's rights convention in American history.  Although the Convention was hastily organized and hardly publicized, over 300 men and women came to Seneca Falls, New York to protest the mistreatment of women in social, economic, political, and religious life.
The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions issued by the Convention was modeled after the Declaration of Independence, detailed the "injuries and usurpations" that men had inflicted upon women and demanded that women be granted all of the rights and privileges that men possessed, including the right to vote.  In issuing this challenged the courageous women ignited one of America 's greatest Civil Rights Movements.
For more information:
Roads from Seneca Falls http://www.roadsfromsenecafalls.org/default.aspx?cat=1997
Women's Rights National Historical Park
http://www.nps.gov/archive/wori/home.htm

To our Senators:

FAIR PAY:
Isle City BPW of Alameda urges you to vote YES on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Act. The Senate may vote on legislation to fix the Supreme Court 's decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co . as early as tomorrow, April 23rd . The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act would ensure that victims of pay discrimination have a real chance to pursue their claims.

During the last few months, thousands of people around the country have worked tirelessly to help provide American workers who are victims of pay discrimination their day in court. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (H.R. 2831), the version of the Fair Pay Restoration Act that is going to the Senate floor, remedies an erroneous Supreme Court ruling on workplace discrimination. This bill reaffirms that civil rights have legally enforceable remedies. The House has passed the bill and now the ball is in the Senate's court.

H.R. 2831 is an important legislative "fix" to a May 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision (Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co .), which severely limited the ability of victims of pay discrimination to sue and recover damages under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Without this "fix," the impact of the Court's decision will likely be widespread, affecting pay discrimination cases under Title VII involving women and racial and ethnic minorities, as well as cases under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

We urge you to support HR 2831.

Sylvia Brown Olivetti
Legislative Chair
Isle City BPW of Alameda

5/08 A warm welcome to our new member, Maria diMeglio.

On Tuesday, April 22, 2008, members of Isle City of Alameda Business and Professional Women will join other BPW/USA members from across the United States in a national day of action called Equal Pay Day . April 22 signifies the point into the next year that a woman must work in order to earn the wages paid to a man in the previous year.

According to the AFL-CIO, over a 40 year career, the average 25 year-old woman who works full-time will earn approximately $523,000 less than the average man, if current wage patterns continue. According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data, women continue to receive unequal pay for the same work; on average women earn 77 cents for every dollar a man. This affects women's pensions and family income.

Fair pay takes real change and we can make a difference!

President JoAnn signed with Samhain Publishing, Ltd. for her medieval romance, OUT OF THE DARK. The book will be e-published Tuesday, May 13, 2008. In bookstores Spring 2009.