Why a treaty for the rights of women? The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) – an international treaty that commits governments to removing barriers to women’s equality – is one of the issues addressed by speaker, Staci Alziebler-Perkins, at Zonta’s Awards Event held May 13, 2015. Staci is President of the Zonta Club of New York City, UN Commission on the Status of Women Representative and daughter of local Zontian, Susie Alziebler.
The “Treaty for the Rights of Women,” also known as “CEDAW” addresses the areas of legal rights, education, employment, health care, violence against women, politics and finance and was adopted by the United Nations in 1979. CEDAW does not impose laws on governments that ratify the treaty, but does require governments to examine policies and practices in relation to women and girls and report to an international committee on the status of CEDAW implementation.
As of March 2005, 180 countries have ratified CEDAW; while a few countries have incorporated CEDAW’s provisions into domestic policy, ratification provides women the basis to advocate for legislation world-wide to protect and improve their basic human rights.
The U.S. remains the only industrialized country that has not ratified CEDAW. Ratification of CEDAW is essential if the U.S. is to continue to be seen as a global leader in human rights. Women in this country have not yet achieved full equality as evidenced by equal pay for equal work. www.wedo.org/wp-content/uploads/cedaw-factsheet.pdf
April 14, 2015 marked “Equal Pay Day” – the amount of time the average American woman worked to earn what the average American man did during the previous year. Men and women see inequalities; 77 percent of women and 63 percent of men said this country needs to give men and women equality in the workplace, according to a Pew Research Center survey fall of 2014.
The White House indicates full-time working women earn 77 percent of what their male counterparts earn. Women have to work approximately 60 extra days (about three months) to earn what men did by the end of the previous year.
For young women, the wage gap is even smaller – at 93 percent – meaning they caught up to their same-aged male counterparts by roughly the last week in January of this year. pewresearch.org/…/2015/…/on-equal-pay-day.
Where and how should we pursue the issue of CEDAW ratification? Perhaps our elected officials would be a place to start.
For information about Zonta, please contact Phyllis Walker at 661-251-1172.