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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: 202/219-6611.
Capsule on Working Women to be Unveiled at White House
Working women and women's leaders from all 50 states will
meet in Washington, D.C. this weekend to explore the issues that matter most to
working women. They will attend events commemorating the 75th anniversary of
the U.S. Department of Labor's Women's Bureau, including a White House
reception for 1,000 women hosted by President Clinton and First Lady Hillary
Rodham Clinton today, and the Working Women Count: Yesterday, Today and
Tomorrow conference on Saturday.
The conference will include addresses by Secretary of
Labor Robert B. Reich, civil rights activist Unita Blackwell, and Women's
Bureau Director Karen Nussbaum.
At the White House reception, President Clinton will honor
Lonnie Luebben, his eleventh grade honors English teacher at Hot Springs High
School, who was a major influence in his life. Luebben will be one of the
participants in the "Voices of Working Women" Time Capsule to be presented to
the President at the reception.
The Time Capsule profiles 22 working women in America
today -- Paramount Pictures CEO Sherry Lansing, an office worker in Wisconsin,
a truck driver in Maryland and a farmer in Minnesota. It includes hand-written
journals of a day in the life of each woman, snapshots of them at work and home
and artifacts from their jobs. The Time Capsule will be housed at the
Smithsonian and opened on the Women's Bureau's 100th anniversary.
"America's working women have an impressive track record
-- and a limitless future," Mrs. Clinton said. "This Administration has a great
responsibility to lead through these times of change. We must continue to work
together to guarantee all working Americans decent pay, support for their
family responsibilities and fair treatment on the job. Government cannot do it
alone. We must each do our part to ensure that the work of women -- and of all
Americans -- is valued fully and fairly."
"Women are a vital part of America's workforce today,"
Reich said. "Nearly every American woman will work for pay at some time in her
life. This Administration is committed to addressing the issues that matter
most to working women: improving the supply of quality affordable child care,
raising the minimum wage and much more."
Saturday's conference will be devoted to exploring
effective strategies for change in the areas working women care about most.
Participants will take part in one of three tracks: pay and benefits; work and
family; or valuing women and women's work. Each will include a series of
in-depth workshops. Topics addressed in plenary sessions and workshops will
include child and elder care, flex time, fair pay, pensions, the glass ceiling,
protecting the 40-hour work week, family leave policies, training and
educational opportunities and the minimum wage.
"For 75 years, the Women's Bureau has been addressing
women's changing needs," Nussbaum said, "from the sweatshops of the 1920's to
the days of Rosie the Riveter to the present. At this historic moment, the
Women's Bureau is bringing women together to develop effective strategies for
change. We all have a role to play in making the workplace better for women."
Participants at Working Women Count: Yesterday, Today and
Tomorrow will receive pledge cards so they can help employers and others who
make the workplace better for women register with the new Working Women Count
Honor Roll.
Among the experts leading workshops will be Glass Ceiling
Commission Executive Director Rene Redwood, 9to5 Executive Director Ellen Bravo
and Families and Work Institute Co-President Ellen Galinsky. Other conference
speakers will include Arnold Hiatt of the StrideRite Foundation, Dolores Huerta
of the United Farm Workers Union and Mary Frances Berry, who chairs the U.S.
Commission on Civil Rights. National Black Women's Caucus President Dorothy
Height and former Women's Bureau Director Esther Peterson will be honored for
their work.
A poster series featuring nine original works by well-known
women artists will be displayed for the first time at the White House
reception. The new poster series, "Women's Work Counts," celebrates diverse
aspects of women's workforce experience. The posters are available to the
public through the Government Printing Office.
Founded by Congress in 1920 with a mandate to "promote the
welfare of wage earning women," the Women's Bureau worked with industry leaders
in the 1940's to encourage the development of child care centers, pressed for
greater access for women to employment and training programs in the 1970's, and
continues to work on these and other issues today.
Last year, the Women's Bureau launched Working Women
Count!, a national initiative through which more than a quarter of a million
women told policymakers what they like and don't like about their jobs. Last
month, President Clinton accepted a set of 14 policy recommendations designed
to address the concerns women raised. Among those recommendations is a series
of community forums on child care to be held around the country this spring and
summer. The Women's Bureau kicked off the series with forums in San Francisco
and Portland earlier this month.
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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