STATE OF THE STATE

The women's commission
report tells a familiar story

by Jennifer Davis

First, the assignment: Take five months to investigate abuses against women — something that hasn't been done seriously for about a decade — and then tell us how to fix things. OK, that's a hefty but not impossible job for Women's Commission Chair Paula Wolff and her 20 commissioners. But then comes the kicker. Wolff, president of Governors State University and a longtime political player in Illinois, puts it as nicely as she can.

"It was suggested that we include those issues about which there is little or no controversy and which have no 'political baggage' created by prior policy struggles or confrontations."

The commissioners didn't listen. Their preliminary report, due out any day now, is full of "longstanding issues, some seemingly intractable, some highly controversial, some laden with political baggage."

But what's most striking, says Wolff, is that it shows women are still facing the same barriers they've been facing for years. So, despite much progress, women still don't make as much money as men; they don't have the child, elder and health care they need; and they don't even have basic protection from physical violence.

The commission has boiled the problems down to these three key areas. A final report is due in December. After that, the commission, which Gov. Jim Edgar created through executive order,

Despite much progress, women in Illinois are still facing the same barriers. Pay equity/or one.

is kaput. Thus, there's a lot of pressure for this report to spur great change. And some say there's now interest to do just that.

"I was very heartened to see many legislators, both men and women, at their meeting," says former Republican state Rep. Susan Catania, who chaired the former legislative women's commission from 1974 to 1983. It was abolished in the late '80s after a scandal involving other commissions. "I used to be very frustrated because I knew our reports weren't read. We used to put cartoons every couple pages to try and entice people to read it. This is a completely different attitude. This report will be read."

Indeed, Debbie Walsh at the Center for the American Woman and Politics says men know that women vote more now. It's having an effect.

Here's a very small sample of what legislators will read in this report:

• "Women still have lower income and earnings than men, have higher rates of poverty and spend more time away from the workplace to care for others," according to a 1997 Illinois Department on Aging report. The median annual income for full-time working women age 18 to 64 is $19,840 compared to $30,000 for men.

• The risk of poverty for women age 65 and older is 70 percent greater than it is for men. Why? No pensions.

• In Illinois and nationally, nearly half of all single mothers live below the poverty level. Illinois' 1990 census figures show 279,172 single-mother households with an average annual income of $16,759.

• Illinois has the seventh largest female prison population nationwide. Last June, 2,416 women were in jail — triple the number from a decade before. Studies show their crimes aren't more violent, but sentencing is harsher. As a result, about 25,000 children each year are without their primary caretaker.

• Forty percent of the Illinois women jailed report being either physically or sexually abused as minors.

• Other countries are ahead of us in providing universal family supports like health care, child care, child allowances, paid medical leave and job security.

The report goes much further, delving into issues such as gender equality in education and jobs. In all, the commission's facts are striking, but certainly not surprising, especially to the women who live these lives. Indeed, that's the next step: finding these women and learning from their solutions. Another answer is to bring these issues to everyone's attention. The commission suggests a public relations campaign. Something like, "Invest in Family, Invest in the Future." But this is just one step. State government must also be a model employer. Further, the General Assembly could make this commission permanent through legislation. The House tried to do that this past spring, but the Senate didn't call the bill.

"It appears [Senate President James] "Pate" Philip is just plain opposed," says Barbara Flynn Currie, the first female House majority leader and another former women's commission chair. "I would hope that's not because he has a problem with women, but it's hard not to think that's where his problem lies."

6 / March 1998 Illinois Issues