Posted on 10/20/2009 11:26:50 AM PDT by bs9021
Progressive Lamentations
Allie Winegar Duzett, October 20, 2009
Is the governments proper role to take care of gender inequality? Speakers believed so at the October 19, 2009 Shriver Report conference, A Womans Nation Changes Everything. The event, which is sponsored by the George Soros-funded Center for American Progress (CAP), featured multiple panels discussing the role of government in womens lives.
Ellen Bravo, moderator of the panel The Governments Role in Supporting Todays Families and coordinator of the Families Values at Work Consortium, announced that the government has had far more roles than just governing: indeed, Ellen stated, it is part of the governments role to be a model employer, to gather and collect data on women in the workplace, and to showcase what can be.
Ann OLeary, a senior fellow at CAP, agreed with Bravos assessment, saying that weve come a long way since 1978, but not far enough. She recommended drastic changes to our current American employment scene, in order to make parenting easier in the modern age. This goal seems innocuous enough, but OLearys specific suggestions included the government forcing employers to give up rules that were created for men in favor of rules that make employers cater to women generally and pregnant women specifically. Our government doesnt do enough [for pregnant women], OLeary accused. This has to change.
OLeary also suggested a comprehensive child care plan for working parents, saying, Government needs to step up [in providing child care for workers], not just because its the right thing to do, but because its good for business. It is telling that while OLeary mentioned government involvement in child care being good for business, she did not state that it was good for families....
(Excerpt) Read more at academia.org ...
And when all of these “mandates” hurt business and results in job losses, what will they do then?
It’s fine for business to provide day care help and be a family friendly workplace. It’s a big difference, though, if we have government set all the standards and be the enforcer of “fairness”, “equality” or whatever other buzz word they are throwing around.
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