CURRENTSPart 1

JANUARY/FEBRUARY, 2019

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGEJOANNE JOHNSON

November and December were event filled months for AAUW. We started with a meeting at Defer where our Dynamic Girlz amazed us with their poise and knowledge as they presented their project to us, just a few days before they were to compete in the Lego League at Allen Park. Those of us who went to cheer them on were able to observe them work as a team and solve their assigned task in record time, according to their judges.

Our Fund raising continues on pace. The night at Arsenic and Old Lace was really special especially with the pre-production Talk Back with our own Kathy Conlon, director of the performance. A good time was had by all, and a nice fund raiser for us. Our second bake sale of the year also went well, thanks to all who assisted by baking, packing or selling on December 1st.

Thanks so much to Kathy Conlon for opening her home to us for a wonderful musical gathering at her home prior to our tour of the Edsel and Eleanor Ford Home on the 8 th of December. Again, it was a wonderful event for all who attended.

Our Christmas Party at Assumption was spectacular with great food, wonderful music, and just an all-around good time. It was so wonderful to see so many of you there! Congrats to Mary Ellen Burke and Marge Alff on an event well planned.

In October I attended the annual AAUW Leadership Day with key note speaker Kim Churches, CEO of AAUW National. Later in this issue you will see the new mission statement and the new three- pronged set of goals for AAUW. I think you will be pleased with their focus and measurability. Kim has charged each chapter with a task. That task is to log onto the national website and work your way through the Smart Start program. Please attempt to do this. Step by step instructions are in the Policy Report on Page 3. The goal is to train 10 million women in salary negotiations by 2022, and full pay equity by 2030. A couple of hints—you will need to create a new login ID and a new password, and we will need to indicate that we are still working and have a specific type of profession or career we are pursuing. If you indicate you are retired, you will not get to complete the task. As you go through, please note any areas where you feel the program is missing something or is not working well. National wants to improve this as they roll it out nationally. After you have gone through this, please ask 10 of your younger friends, daughters, granddaughters or neighbors to also log on and try this, then ask for their reactions. (Continued on P. 2)

Finally, there is a consortium of Southeast Michigan branches of AAUW which meets in Canton once a month where we can share ideas and concerns for our branches. The meetings are from 11:30 to 1 p.m. on the 3rd Friday of each month. If anyone is interested in attending with me, please let me know.

At the state level there are a couple of important updates. First of all, there will not be a state convention in 2019. There will be an electronic annual meeting, which I will keep you updated on as the time gets closer. There will be a State Convention in 2020, which will celebrate the centennial of the right to vote.

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE, Continued

A WORD FROM THE

NOMINATINGCOMMITTEE…Centie Strong, Chair

Welcoming in the new year is often accompanied by new resolutions to diet and exercise. As you personalize your own list, you might like to add becoming more active in our AAUW organization. We are much more than our Interest Groups. With the demise of the Book Sale, there are many efforts underway to raise funds to support our mission. These activities are always in need of volunteers and being a part of the effort fosters friendship and camaraderie. Making a commitment usually involves a first step and here is an opportunity to do so. If you are interested in serving on the Executive Board or the many committees that make our organization successful, please let us know. You can fill out the form below or email centie@comcast.net.

I am interested in working as_____________________________________________

Name_______________________________________________________________

Email Centie at centie@comcast.net or send form to: Centie Strong, 1747 Littlestone, Grosse Pointe Woods, 48236

2

2022. The training helps women to identify

salary negotiations by the Work Smart program million women through futures by training 10 negotiate their own empowering women to AAUW is committed to negotiating skills. 3. Strengthen your

Advocacy Fund.litigation challenging pay discrimination through the Legal

equal pay laws. As we work for change, AAUW continues to fund cases and support

2. Advocate on the State and Local Level. It is important to fight for protections at the federal level so that they are uniform across the nation. States are taking the initiative to pass

1. Urge Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act. This is a federal bill that strengthens and updates the Equal Pay Act by providing additional protections to pay-based discrimination. It guarantees that if workers voluntarily discuss their wages, there would be no retaliation against them. It closes loopholes that have allowed employers to pay woman less than men without business that is related to the job. It would allow women to receive the same robust remedies as those that are available to individuals who are discriminated against based on race and ethnicity. In 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission created a wage data collection in order to better identify trends in discrimination based on gender, race, or ethnicity. In 2017, the Trump administration halted the implementation of the salary data collection. However, this decision is not final.

AAUW has committed to closing the wage gap by 2030 and we can accomplish this in a few ways:

AAUW members, at the time, fought for this important law. We have marched and engaged new generations of activists, but we are still waiting for equality in our pay envelopes. While the gap has narrowed, it has stalled in the twenty first century. In 1963, the pay gap was 59 cents on the dollar. Today, the pay gap is 80 cents on the dollar and it is even worse for women of color. The gender gap develops early in women’s careers and then compounds during retirement. Research found that college educated women still earn 7% less than men just one year out of college, even when they have the same major, and occupation as their male counterparts.

Fifty five years ago, President John F Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963. He proclaimed that it “affirms our determination that when women enter the labor force they will fight for equality in their pay envelope.”

Marie DeLuca, ChairPUBLIC POLICY

3

PUBLIC POLICY, Continued

If you would like to take a look at the AAUW Work Smart Program or would like to pass this on to someone else, these are the instructions to access the program:

1. Go to AAUW.org2. Scroll down the home page to AAUW’s 2018 Strategic Plan3. Click on the icon for Economic Security (the piggy bank)4. Scroll down the page to the box How AAUW is Making a Difference5. Under Salary Negotiation Trainings, sign up for a workshop, click on the Online

button6. On the next screen you will need to register and create a login ID and password7. This will take you to the first module. Whatever you choose to do at that point, do

not indicate that you are not working. This will boot you out************************************************************

From Olivia Guerrieri, we have the updated list of Equal Pay dates for 2019:

Tuesday, April 2: ALL Women’s Equal Pay Day (Women overall vs Men overall $0.80)

Tuesday, March 5: Asian American Women’s Equal Pay Day (Asian Women v. White non-Hispanic Men $0.85)

Friday, April 19: White women’s equal pay day ((White, non-Hispanic Women v. non-Hispanic Men $0.77)

Thursday, August 22: Black Women’s Equal Pay Day (Black women v. White, non-Hispanic men $0.61)

Monday, September 23: Native Women’s Equal Pay Day (Native Women v. White non-Hispanic Men $0.58)

Wednesday, November 20: Latinas Equal Pay Day (Latinas v. non-Hispanic Men $0.53)

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO SUPPORTED OUR 2ND

DEFER STEM TEAM BAKE SALEBakers for our 2nd bake sale included: Marge Alff, Mary Ellen Burke, Rhea Carey,

Ellen Chapin, Judy Florian, Eva Habib, Joanne Johnson, Mary Moreshead, Sandy Stanley, and Barbara Stillings. Carolyn Barth donated packaging supplies. Betty Grady donated the start-up money. Mary Ellen Burke, Marge Alff and Mary Moreshead manned the sale. Barb Tecos and Sandy Stanley set it up. Thank you to all members who came to buy goodies.

We send a special thank you to Barb Tecos who has chaired the bake sales. Thanks to her excellent skills in packaging and presentation, the baked goods sell “like hot cakes!!”Barb’s energy and her eye for perfection have assured that the baked goods provided sell out and earn us good money!! Thank you, Barb!!!

Sale revenues for 12/1: $608!!!

DEFER STEM PROJECTSandy Stanley, Liaison

CONGRATULATIONS to the DYNAMIC GIRLZ for their fantastic competition results on November 17th – 8th overall!! GO GIRLZ!!!

Thanks to crafters and their parents for buying and eating and buying again the baked goodies at our 12/1, bake sale!! Thanks to Principal Rheaume for setting up the trophies won by the teams at the First Lego League competition for all to see. The trophies drew so much attention and we were very pleased to tell parents and students about the project. Recruitment for the 2019-2020 team will begin early in 2019. We are hoping to double the size of our team!! In January, we will be meeting with Principal Rheaume and the principal of Pierce Middle School to discuss how we might expand the program to include more girls. We look forward to the meeting.

As we look forward to expanding the program, let’s review how we got to the point of sponsoring an elementary STEM project and First Lego League team competitors. Four years ago, as we were beginning another year of Grosse Pointe AAUW activities we reviewed our mission, which is to advance equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. We asked ourselves how we wanted to do that. At that same time, a report came out which predicted that by 2018, in Michigan there would be a need for 274,000 STEM trained workers. The report continued on to say that women make up only 28.8% of the STEM workforce across all regions in the US.

We decided that since our mission is equity we’d look at education possibilities to try to build some STEM career equity for girls. Evidence is clear that by middle school, girls become less competitive and interested in areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. We decided to do something about that by providing elementary girls opportunities to collaborate and compete in STEM areas, knowing that, if they got engaged in the STEM activities early, they would be more likely to continue involvement as they moved into the middle and high school.

This year, one of last year’s team members, who is now at Pierce Middle School, has been a mentor to our elementary team. She is interested in continuing the STEM work, but Pierce does not have a team. Let’s work to fill that gap!! I was informed by one of the mentors to the high school GEARHEADS team, that five of the leaders of this year’s GEARHEAD team are GIRLS!! She said that had never happened before. Let’s keep this going! Let’s work to increase the number of girls and women who have careers in the STEM field – a field where workers are highly paid.

MISSION, VISION & VALUES2018

MISSION: To advance gender equity for women and girls through research, education and advocacy.

VISION: Equity for all

VALUES: Nonpartisan Fact-based Integrity Inclusion and Intersectionality

4

AAUW GOALS - 2018:Education and Training: Addressing the barriers and implicit biases that hinder advancement of women

A. Champion equal access to all levels and fields of education. 1. Address barriers to success for girls and women through improvement of

learning environments. 2. Grow educational pathways for all women, especially those leading to high-earning careers.

B. Ensure education at every level is free from sex discrimination. 1. Protect and expand compliance with Title IX and other civil rights laws across all U. S. states and territories. 2. Ensure Title IX coordinators are well trained and adequately resourced.

Economic Security: Ensuring livelihoods for womenA. Achieve pay equity by 2030.

1. Champion pay equity federally and in all U.S. sates and territories.2. Lead the nation in providing salary negotiations programs for employees and employers.

B. Create inclusive career pathways for women, free of systemic barriers and biases, to attain economic security.

1. Develop a blueprint for women to access careers, especially in high paying fields. 2. Support employers in advancing higher wage pathways for all women.3. Protect and expand compliance with Title VII and other federal civil rights statutes.

C. Deepen women’s retirement security and quality of life.1. Address inequities regarding retirement for women at every socioeconomic level. 2. Help women in achieving their desired quality of life in preparation for

possible retirement.Leadership: Closing the gender gap in leadership opportunities

A. Bolster the participation of girls and women in leadership roles throughout their lives.

1. Empower early and midcareer women to seek and succeed in leadership opportunities.2. Expand leadership opportunities for women over 55 years of age or retired.

B. Advance the number of women in leadership particularly in education and nonprofit organizations.

1. Become a national resource on the impact of leadership development activities for the advancement of women into leadership roles. 2. Increase the inclusion and numbers of women serving on governing and advisory boards.

5

AAUW GOALS, Cont’d

Governance & Sustainability: Ensuring the strength, relevance and viability of AAUW well into the future

A. Implement best practices in governance, inclusion, and organizational functioning.

1. Evaluate and competitively assess AAUW’s governance model and ensure best practices in nonprofit board structure and service. 2. Embody the goals and spirit of inclusion, diversity, and intersectionality across of AAUW activities and participants. 3. Modernize AAUW’s technology infrastructure and build strategic, integrated, comprehensive and forward-looking communications.

B. Enhance financial sustainability by increasing and diversifying revenue.1. Explore the feasibility of a comprehensive campaign underpinning

strategic goal.

WOMEN IN STEM CAREERSGrace Murray Hopper

Computer Scientist, Mathematician (1906 – 1992)

Grace Murray Hopper exhibited her curiosity - a life-long trait - early in life, taking apart alarm clocks at the age of seven. A graduate of Vassar, she earned a PhD in mathematics at Yale in 1934, and returned to Vassar as an assistant professor.

At the onset of World War II, Grace attempted to enlist in the Navy, but was too small and too old (mid-thirties). She eventually enlisted in the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) and was assigned to Harvard to work on the Mark I, one of the first computers. She also worked on calculations essential to the war effort. When the war ended, she was denied a commission in the regular Navy due to her advanced age (38), but remained in the Navy Reserve.

Certain that she would not be promoted or given tenure at Harvard, she left to join a computer firm in the private sector as a senior mathematician. Grace Hopper believed that computers would not be accessible to the general public unless English could be used instead of a complicated mathematical code. She explained, “What I was after in beginning English language [programming] was to bring another whole group of people able to use the computer easily … I kept calling for more user friendly languages.” Her invention of the first compiler led her to create COBOL, the first universal computer language.

Grace retired from the Navy with the rank of Admiral at the age of 79. She was then hired as a senior consultant in the private sector, where she worked until her death at 85. In 2016, Hopper was posthumously honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President, Barack Obama.

Thank you to Mary Ellen Burke for providing WOMEN IN STEM CAREERS information.

INTEREST GROUPSJANUARY /FEBRUARY

AFTERNOON BOOK DISCUSSION - 3rd Wed. 1PMChair: Anne Sticker, 313-886-4497Jan.: No MeetingFeb.: No Meeting

BRIDGE – 1st and 3rd Tues. 7 pmChair: Bonnie Woods, 313-886-3496WANTED: New members welcomed who have played bridge before and want to learn modern ACBL methods.

Jan. 15 & 29: Call Bonnie Woods for more information.Feb. 5 & 19: Call Bonnie Woods for more information.

LUNCH….JUST BECAUSE – 4th Tues. 1 PMChair: Marcia Wilson, 313-886-9786Jan. 22: Mimi’s Bistro, 15318 E. Jefferson, GPP. Call Margaret Woodford – 313-882-3432

Feb. 26: Salvatore Scallopine, 19655 Mack Ave., GPW. *New Hostess: Call Bonnie Woods – 313-886-3496

POETRY, PLAYS AND NEW POSSIBILITIES - Wed. matinees at the Hillberry Theatre 2 PMChair: Anne Stricker, 313-886-4497

Jan.: No PlayFeb. 13: Play: Angels in America, Part 1, 2pm, Hillberry Theatre

BONNIE WOODS, CHAIR

MAH JJONG - 2nd and 4th Tues. 2 PMChair: Sandy Stanley, 313-417-5839Anyone interested in learning to play American or Chinese MahJongg is welcome. All levels are welcome.

Jan. 8 & 22: Hostess: Sandy Stanley Feb. 12 & 26: Sandy Stanley, 313-417-5839Please call hostess to notify of attendance.

MORNING STITCHERY – 3rd Tues. 9:15 AMChair: Barbara Stillings, 313-884-6726

Jan. 15: Hostess: Marcia Wilson 313-886-9786Feb. 19: Hostess: Barbara Stillings

MYSTERY READERS – 1st Tues. 1PMChair: Nancy Patek, 313-881-5349

Jan.: No MeetingFeb. 5: Author: Benjamin Blael – Oreirlis SeriesHostess: Centie Strong, 313-886-9495

6