Seeking Gender Parity in Your Letters - The New York Times
Seeking Gender Parity in Your Letters - The New York Times |
- Seeking Gender Parity in Your Letters - The New York Times
- A Watergate trailblazer and a high-stakes SCOTUS case - Politico
- American women seeking more than $66 million in damages from US Soccer - Longview Daily News
- Florida Women Seeking $100M From Hotels They Claim Didn’t Stop Sex Trafficking - CBS Miami
- College track and field: UWS men, CSS women favored in UMAC meet - Superior Telegram
| Seeking Gender Parity in Your Letters - The New York Times Posted: 29 Feb 2020 09:00 AM PST  Editors' Note: Thomas Feyer, the letters editor of The Times, recused himself from selecting responses to his own article and delegated that role to another editor. To the Editor: Re "Women, Please Speak Out," by Thomas Feyer (Sunday Review, Feb. 16), a report on progress toward the goal of parity for women on the letters page: I spent 18 years as the letters editor at The Calgary Herald. I believe that your obsession with tallying the gender of letter writers to achieve greater parity between men and women is the height of political correctness run amok. During my tenure at The Herald, I, too, noticed that more men than women wrote letters. However, gender was never among my criteria for publication. Letters that were well written, concise and thoughtful got published in The Herald, regardless of whether a man or a woman wrote them. My goal for The Herald's letters page was simply to offer a mix of topics and a diversity of opinions each day. The best letters were often the two-line zingers we received from a variety of people indulging in delightfully sarcastic commentary on political and other issues. Men write letters to the editor more often than women. So what? Stop being silly. Just publish the best letters you get, regardless of who wrote them. Naomi Lakritz To the Editor: I applaud the Women's Project in its effort to balance representation on the letters page. And I applaud Kimberly Probolus, whose letter inspired the project a year ago. Before we conclude that we can correct that imbalance if more women submit letters and more men listen, I wonder if we haven't simplified the issue. Why aren't more women offering their opinions on matters of both political and personal importance? Why have women persistently lagged in speaking up? Could it be that our voices have repeatedly been censored or dismissed by a system in which men still hold most of the power? That women have, in effect, been socialized not to speak because to do so threatens that system? Women must speak if they want to be heard. And listening is a necessary starting place for men. But to reach gender parity, our society still has a long way to go. Lenore Franzen To the Editor: I would like to share my dismay at the limited coverage (articles and photos) about women in the hard news sections. I love to peruse The Times daily, and often fail to find a photo of a woman and have to wait for the Arts or Style section (soft news) before there is some evidence that women are worth reading and writing about, except as victims. Women make up half the world, do a huge share of the world's work, take care of children and the elderly, and often lack recognition. Please, let's try to remedy this imbalance. Perhaps more women will write if they see themselves, and their issues and values, more fairly covered in the hard news sections. Linda Ashley To the Editor: Our father, Kalman Seigel, letters editor of The New York Times from 1967 to 1980, faced the same issue. In the foreword to "Talking Back to The New York Times," a book of letters to the editor from 1851 to 1971 that he edited, he wrote: "Who writes letters to the editor? Everyone does. Surprisingly, there is little formal research information available, although one study of about 10,000 letters shows that men wrote 46 percent of all letters to the editor and women 37 percent — the others were not identifiable." He went on to cite a 1964 study published in the Journalism Quarterly indicating that published letter writers were male by a 3-to-1 ratio. Still, in 1971, our dad was proud of The Times's efforts to enhance openness and welcome — and print — a diversity of opinion from a diverse readership. Letters, he wrote, "have given the voices of quiet expression and honest persuasion to masses of men and women in a world that shouts more, but listens less." Carolyn Shanoff To the Editor: I have a simple solution to the issues undermining goals to achieve gender parity via the Women's Project. Letter writers should be identified simply with a first initial and a last name. Certainly if the content of the opinion "requires" that the letter writer identify as "a mother of three in Milwaukee" or "a gay male bus driver in Los Angeles," then the integrity of the response should be maintained. Otherwise, let the opinion in the letter run on its own merits, without at the end "outing" the letter writer as male or female. Problem solved? J. Szymczak To the Editor: I applaud the Women's Project. But I think there is another project that needs to be implemented by The Times — getting more young people to write. When I accepted your invitation to attend a meeting of frequently published letter writers, I was struck not only by the small percentage of women but even more so by the apparent absence of anyone, male or female, under the age of 55. Young voices matter, too, especially as they are confronted with the massive problems their elders have created for them. The Times needs younger readers, and engaging them seems like an important undertaking when all of journalism is under attack. Peter Alkalay |
| A Watergate trailblazer and a high-stakes SCOTUS case - Politico Posted: 28 Feb 2020 10:32 AM PST Imagine being known to the world as the "A Lawyer In Miniskirts." That was the headline of a 1973 New York Times profile of Jill Wine-Banks (then Jill Wine Volner), after she ended up, at age 30, as the only woman on the team of Watergate special prosecutors during the sky-high-profile trial of President Richard Nixon's top aides. (In that era, women were required to wear skirts in court.) Wine-Banks, now an MSNBC contributor, went on to be the general counsel of the Army, solicitor general and deputy attorney general of the state of Illinois, and COO of the American Bar Association — and in each case, she was the first woman to have the job. Now, she is out with a new book, "The Watergate Girl" — a reference to another one of her nicknames — documenting her life during the Watergate trial, while she was fighting sexism at work and dealing with a failing marriage at home. (On Amazon) I went to the book event at the Watergate Hotel on Thursday, with Reps. Jan Schakowsky and Jackie Speier, Maureen Dowd and Robert Draper in attendance. Here's a few highlights from the Q&A session: On Impeachment 1973 vs. Impeachment 2019: "If there had been a Fox News back then, if there had been social media, if there had been Russian hacking, Richard Nixon would have survived. … He probably would have accused me [of erasing the 18-minute gap on the Nixon tapes]. And 40 percent of the country would have believed that I did it." On sexism in court: "During my cross-examination of [Nixon's secretary] Rose Mary Woods, [Judge Sirica] interrupted us just as the tension was building, as intended … and said, 'Now ladies, we have enough problems in this courtroom without two women arguing.' You can imagine how, standing at the podium, all the blood drained from my body, but you can't say anything — he's the judge." On workplace equality: "The harassment that I faced and discrimination was legal back then. … [In interviews, women were asked:] What kind of birth control do you use, how many children are you gonna have, if you're having a dinner party and a client has an emergency, how would you handle it? Those were legal questions that if you didn't answer you would not get the job. And so you answered them. … I think the things that were said to me … aren't said [now], but they're still believed. … It may be easier to confront it, when it's said to your face." Happy Friday! Some barrier-breaking news this week: A woman is set to become the first female soldier to pass Special Forces training. Read on for more about Harvey Weinstein, the women fighting coronavirus and the brief time in the 1700s when New Jersey women were allowed to vote. Maya Parthasarathy is the brains behind the "what rulers are reading" section. ... Subscribe here COMING SCOTUS ATTRACTION -- Next week, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in June Medical Services v. Russo, challenging a Louisiana law that requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. (The case was brought by The Center for Reproductive Rights, a legal advocacy organization.) If the law goes into effect, two of the three abortion clinics in the state say they will close. What could happen? Back in January, more than 200 GOP lawmakers urged the Supreme Court to use this case to overturn Roe v. Wade. It's more likely, legal scholars say, that SCOTUS will issue a narrow ruling. But, writes NPR's Julie Rovner, "Even if the court does not overturn Roe, it might do something that could hasten Roe's demise: uphold the Louisiana law by ruling that abortion providers cannot sue on behalf of their patients, something the state of Louisiana is urging the Supreme Court to do. That would make it much more difficult to challenge state abortion restrictions because only women seeking abortions would be able to challenge those laws in court. Many pregnant women seeking abortions don't want to go to the additional trouble of becoming part of a highly public lawsuit that could take years." There's a rally: On Wednesday, celebrities Elizabeth Banks and Busy Philipps will join the Center for Reproductive Rights and dozens of other organizations in a rally in support of abortion access while the Supreme Court justices hear arguments next week. 2020 WATCH -- FIRST PERSON -- "Confessions of a slow learner: American politics really is sexist," by John F. Harris: POLITICO -- "'You Believe He's Lying?' The latest debate captured Americans' exhausting tendency to mistrust women," by Rebecca Traister The Cut -- "Longtime Bloomberg partner on NDA concerns: 'Get over it,'" by Caitlin Oprysko: "Mike Bloomberg's longtime partner said Monday that those concerned about crude and sexist remarks the former New York mayor is alleged to have made about women in the workplace should 'get over it.' … In an interview with CBS News, Bloomberg's longtime partner, Diana Taylor, dismissed the renewed focus on the former mayor's comments, which have surfaced before during his past runs for office. … 'I grew up in that world. It was a bro culture,' she argued, adding that 'we have come a long, long way, and Michael Bloomberg has been at the forefront of that change.'" POLITICO -- "They Saw Themselves in Elizabeth Warren. So What Do They See Now? For some professional women, the struggles of Ms. Warren's campaign feel like a reckoning with their standing in the world." NYT … "Boston Globe endorses Warren a year after urging her not to run," by Quint Forgey POLITICO -- "Pete Buttigieg is not popular with black voters in South Carolina. Miss Black America is trying to change that," by Jada Yuan: "It may seem incongruous, this 30-year-old urbanite glamazon, with her hair in waist-length twists, supporting the white mayor of a small city in Indiana, but the folks here take the reigning Miss Black America seriously. … "[Ryann] Richardson isn't the only African American to endorse Buttigieg. ... But none can command the attention of a packed ballroom just by walking into it quite like Richardson, who is 6-foot-2 in heels and spent 10 years as a black woman in the white-male-dominated tech world, founding Uber's Diversity and Inclusion Task Force and running her own start-ups, after having attended college on scholarships she won in pageants." WaPo NEW WOMEN RULE PODCAST -- This week, Anna sat down with Fox News host Harris Faulkner. Highlights: -- When #MeToo hit Fox News: "We had difficult conversations as a team of women, and we would have them in the bathroom. We would have them in our office. We would have them in the hallway. And then things started to come apart in other places. … I do struggle with how do we take this into the next generation of protecting our daughters and our female co-workers who are young and coming up, and those next conversations about #MeToo; talking about believing one another, and investigating, and making sure that the facts come out, and holding people accountable, and firing people who deserve it, and can we go deeper than that: Were laws broken?" -- A milestone she still wants to achieve: "I want to cover climate change with a Republican, an independent and a Democrat on a voyage to opposite ends of the earth that are experiencing extreme weather. And I would really, really like at some point to be able to produce something big, like produce an election night myself. And not be the person on TV, but do it from the perspective of all that I know as a journalist, listening to the voters and putting that on the air." Read the interview and subscribe #METOO LATEST -- "Harvey Weinstein conviction could pave the way for more sexual assault prosecutions," by Laura Newberry: "Though the Weinstein conviction is no panacea for the pervasiveness of sexual abuse in society, [legal experts and advocates for survivors of sexual assault] say, it expands the possibilities for which sex crimes can be successfully tried in a court of law. And it could embolden prosecutors to take on complex rape cases that they would have previously been reluctant to file. "'I think this verdict will encourage prosecutors to rethink the idea that sex crime cases are too difficult to prosecute,' said Debra Katz, a civil rights and employment lawyer who has represented several women who have spoken out about Weinstein. 'This shows that juries have an ability to discern complicated facts, and they reached this result even though there was a lot of smoke and mirrors from the defense team.'" L.A. Times -- "Why Harvey Weinstein's Guilt Matters to Black Women," by Salamishah Tillet for NYT … "AP PHOTOS: A corps of women covering the Weinstein trial" AP BOOK CLUB NEWS -- "Katie Hill, Who Quit Congress Amid Ethics Inquiry, Will Publish Memoir" NYT IN MEMORIAM -- "Katherine Johnson, 'hidden figure' at NASA during 1960s space race, dies at 101," by Harrison Smith: "Mrs. Johnson, who died Feb. 24 at 101, went on to develop equations that helped the NACA and its successor, NASA, send astronauts into orbit and, later, to the moon. In 26 signed reports for the space agency, and in many more papers that bore others' signatures on her work, she codified mathematical principles that remain at the core of human space travel. … "She did not command mainstream attention until President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the country's highest civilian honor — in 2015. The next year, her research was celebrated in the best-selling book 'Hidden Figures' by Margot Lee Shetterly and the Oscar-nominated film adaptation starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe." WaPo AROUND THE WORLD -- "Shaved Heads, Adult Diapers: Life as a Nurse in the Coronavirus Outbreak," by Alexandra Stevenson: "Zhang Wendan and her family were celebrating the Lunar New Year when the 27-year-old nurse got a notice from the hospital [in China's Hubei Province]: report back to work and join the battle to contain the coronavirus outbreak. … "The most difficult moment for Ms. Zhang came when her superiors — almost all men — told her and her female colleagues that they 'lacked the spirit of devotion' and discipline after they sought help getting pads and tampons. Only supplies cleared by the authorities can make it into the city, so getting these products had become difficult for many women. As the days wore on, she said she felt her spirit was 'breaking down slowly.' It took a group of volunteers to take notice and send some 2,000 adult diapers to the hospital to accommodate its 500 female workers. "Ms. Zhang said the hospital's response to the original request hit a raw nerve for her and so many women who say it's difficult to find time in the day just to go to the bathroom, let alone deal with menstruation while wearing a poorly made full-body protective suit. And this was not the first time that medical professionals on the front line had complained about their working conditions. In Hubei Province nurses and doctors have pleaded for more masks, thousands of health workers have been among recent confirmed cases of infection and several have died. "'I worry about being infected, I miss home,' Ms. Zhang said. Now that her assignment on the front line has ended, she is waiting out her own 14-day quarantine at a nearby hotel before she returns home to her family." NYT … "'I Felt Like Crying': Coronavirus Shakes China's Expecting Mothers" NYT -- "Scottish parliament approves free sanitary products for all women," via Reuters ... "Intimate images of women in the Japanese underworld," via BBC ... "Saudi Arabia launches a soccer league for women," via CNN INTERVIEW -- "Laurene Powell Jobs Is Putting Her Own Dent in the Universe: An interview with the 35th-richest person in the world, who is funding efforts on immigration, education and independent media," by David Gelles NYT WOMEN IN PRISON -- "Federal Report Says Women In Prison Receive Harsher Punishments Than Men," by Joseph Shapiro: "Lashonia Thompson-El, who testified before the commission last February, says prison discipline policies were created to keep safety in men's prisons but don't work when applied to women's prisons, where there is less violence. 'Some of the things that women get punished for that men don't involve stealing from the kitchen, whether it be fruits or vegetables or even a leftover piece of cornbread,' she says. 'Or for disrespecting an officer. They call it insolence.' "Thompson-El spent 18 years in prison. She once got placed in solitary confinement — for three months, she says — after she made an unauthorized phone call to her 10-year-old daughter. Then she lost phone privileges home. 'So when you're in prison, it's difficult to try to transform your life and rehabilitate yourself and be strong and be positive when you can't speak to your kids,' she says. 'Because they're like the most important thing in the world to you.'" NPR REAL ESTATE -- "Single women are losing out in the property market": "The Survey of Consumer Finances, a poll of American households conducted by the Federal Reserve, shows that among single 60-year-olds, men are about twice as rich as women. According to a recent study, some of this disparity can be explained by differences in how men and women buy and sell property. "Using data on 9m housing transactions carried out in America between 1991 and 2017, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham and Kelly Shue of the Yale School of Management found that, on average, single women pay about 2% more than their male counterparts for houses, and sell them for 2% less (see chart). Given that Americans move house an average of 11 times during their lives, this disadvantage can mount up. The authors reckon that the typical single woman loses about $1,600 in housing wealth every year as a result." The Economist CURIOS -- "The Long History of the Hand-Washing Gender Gap: Women are slightly better at hand-washing than men. Here's one theory for why" via Slate … "The Hollywood Con Queen" via Marie Claire … -- "Madame Yale Made a Fortune With the 19th Century's Version of Goop," by Emmeline Clein: "On an April afternoon in 1897, thousands of women packed the Boston Theatre to see the nation's most beguiling female entrepreneur, a 45-year-old former homemaker whose talent for personal branding would rival that of any Instagram celebrity today. She called herself Madame Yale. Over the course of several hours and multiple outfit changes, she preached her "Religion of Beauty," regaling the audience with tales of history's most beautiful women, a group that included Helen of Troy, the Roman goddess Diana and, apparently, Madame Yale. "The sermon was her 11th public appearance in Boston in recent years, and it also covered the various lotions and potions — products that Yale just happened to sell — that she said had transformed her from a sallow, fat, exhausted woman into the beauty who stood on stage: her tall, hourglass figure draped at one point in cascading white silk, her blond ringlets falling around a rosy-cheeked, heart-shaped face. Applause thundered. The Boston Herald praised her 'offer of Health and Beauty' in a country where 'every woman wants to be well and well-looking.' "Madame Yale had been delivering 'Beauty Talks' coast to coast since 1892, cannily promoting herself in ways that would be familiar to consumers in 2020. She was a true pioneer in what business gurus would call the wellness space—a roughly $4.5 trillion industry globally today—and that achievement alone should command attention. Curiously, though, she went from celebrated to infamous virtually overnight, and her story, largely overlooked by historians, is all the more captivating as a cautionary tale." Smithsonian THE GRADE GRUBBING GENDER GAP -- "College men more likely to seek grade changes than college women," by Cher Li: "Using data from a large four-year public university with over 1.3 million grade records between 2010 and 2016, my co-author, economist Basit Zafar and I discovered that men are 18.6% more likely than women to have their grades changed to a better grade. … "The data don't really show why men are more likely to get their grades changed than women. But there are at least three possible scenarios: 1) Male students simply ask for grade changes more often than female students; 2) instructors are more likely to grant the requests to male students than female students; or 3) female students ask to change their grades during the semester, which lowers their need to do so at the end of the semester." The Conversation HISTORY DEPT. -- "On the Trail of America's First Women to Vote," by Jennifer Schuessler: "It has long been seen as one of the flukes of American political history: For three decades after the American Revolution, the women of New Jersey had equal voting rights with men. The state was the first — and for a long time, the only — to explicitly enfranchise women, in laws passed more than a century before the 19th Amendment enshrined the principle of gender equality at the polls in the United States Constitution. "But this being New Jersey, things quickly came to mischief. There were charges of rampant fraud and corruption, as newspapers filled with tales of elections thrown into chaos by incompetent and easily manipulated 'petticoat electors,' to say nothing of men who put on dresses to vote five, six, seven times. And so in 1807, New Jersey — which also had no racial restrictions in voting at the time — passed a law explicitly limiting the franchise to white men. "'The New Jersey exception,' as it's sometimes called, has been puzzled over by historians, who have debated whether it represented a deliberate, widespread experiment in gender equality, or an accidental legal loophole whose importance was greatly exaggerated by the era's partisan press. "But curiously, there has been little to no direct evidence that more than a handful of women had actually cast ballots — until now. After scouring archives and historical societies across New Jersey, researchers at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia have located poll lists showing that women really did vote in significant numbers before the right was taken away." NYT -- "How Women Are Creating a More Inclusive Mardi Gras," by Cassidy George Vogue BOOK CLUB -- "A Feminist Cookbook Meant to Inspire Fuels Outrage Instead," by Tejal Rao: "The book — which is subtitled 'The Transformative Power of Flour, Fury, and Women's Voices' — was meant to celebrate anger and activism in the kitchen. While it may do that, it also ignited a conversation on social media about race, appropriation, feminism and marketing. Shortly after 'Rage Baking' was published on Feb. 4, the Brooklyn performance artist Tangerine Jones wrote a pointed post on Medium, taking Ms. Gunst and Ms. Alford to task. In 2015, Ms. Jones had started a blog and Instagram account that she called Rage Baking — but she wasn't included in the book, or credited in any way. "In an interview on Friday, Ms. Jones said: 'This exploitation keeps happening. No one should be surprised that people feel completely OK not even pretending to be respectful co-opting things from black folks.' In her Medium post, she had shared screenshots of messages sent to her by Ms. Gunst and Ms. Alford, in which the authors explained, 'We have seen a range of people using 'rage bake' and 'rage baking' independently to describe their efforts for the past several years.' … "Preeti Mistry, a chef who contributed a recipe to the book, said the issue is not whether or not Ms. Jones invented the term. (Ms. Jones is the first to note that it was used by bakers before her.) 'That's totally not the point,' said Ms. Mistry. 'There's a larger issue of women of color, but specifically black women in America, being undervalued and overshadowed by white women who take up the brilliant things that black women create and get to profit or get famous from it.'" NYT NO MANSPLAINING ALLOWED -- "Nearly 200 women come to this Ohio church basement to conquer fears and fire guns," by Sharon Coolidge: "On Feb. 8 … [Cincinnati's New Prospect Baptist Church] opened its doors to what state officials believe is one of the largest women-only, concealed carry gun certification classes held in the state of Ohio. Over and over, the women cited the same reason for coming to the class. They were tired of being scared — of guns, of being alone in a home, of walking in some neighborhoods. ... "Douglas Cooper, Arm the Populace's founder and chief instructor, started the class by explaining: 'The Second Amendment is for everyone,' he said. Instructor Bill Maltbie then told the class why women-only classes are important, though they offer classes for everyone, too. 'We do them so there are no men sitting there mansplaining because they've played a lot of video games,' Maltbie said." Cincinnati Enquirer TRANSITIONS -- Erika H. James, dean of Emory University's Goizueta Business School at Emory University, has been named dean of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. She'll be the first woman and first person of color to hold the position. -- Co-founder and vice chairman of BlackRock, Barbara Novick, who built the firm's D.C. lobbying operation, is stepping down; she'll be a senior adviser moving forward. … Natalie Johnson is now press secretary for Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.). She was formerly deputy press secretary for House GOP Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). … Former McSally press secretary Amy Lawrence is now communications director. WISDOM OF THE WEEK -- Danielle Cadet, vice president, Content Strategy and Development, Refinery29's Unbothered: "Take up space. I don't just mean 'show up,' but bring your full self to every room. When I first entered the workforce, I was afraid to speak up and share my perspective because I was just so thankful to be invited. But over time, with the support of other women, particularly black women, I learned how vital my voice, perspective and experiences are; that 'different' is not 'less than' and true allyship lies in accountability. That realization has helped to create a more productive work environment for myself, and for the women who look like me knocking on the door." Connect with Danielle here MARKETPLACE -- Each month, we highlight a female founder by sharing her company's story. This February, we're featuring Bethany Tran, founder and CEO of The Root Collective, an accessories brand dedicated to supporting small business and investing in positive change. "For The Root Collective, I'm so excited about building more partnerships that employ women in the communities we work in. Women are still globally an underserved community when it comes to job opportunities, and the more women are working, the stronger these communities are going to become. I think as more women are starting businesses and being conscious about empowering other women, our world will become a better place." Use the code WOMENRULE for 15% off your purchase  |
| American women seeking more than $66 million in damages from US Soccer - Longview Daily News Posted: 21 Feb 2020 12:00 AM PST   U.S. forward Megan Rapinoe celebrates after scoring against Canada during the second half of a CONCACAF women's Olympic qualifying soccer match Sunday, Feb. 9, 2020.  U.S. forward Megan Rapinoe scores against Canada during the second half of a CONCACAF women's Olympic qualifying soccer match Sunday, Feb. 9, 2020, in Carson, Calif. The U.S. won 3-0. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson) Players on the U.S. women's national team are seeking more than $66 million in damages as part of their gender discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation. The damages were included in slew of papers filed Thursday night in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles ahead of a trial scheduled to start May 5. Among the documents filed were the separate collective bargaining agreements of the U.S. men's and women's teams, which had not previously been made public. Players on the women's national team sued the federation last March alleging institutionalized gender discrimination that includes inequitable compensation between the men's and women's teams. Each side in the class-action lawsuit asked for a summary judgment in their favor. The estimate of damages, including interest, was provided by Finnie Bevin Cook, an economist from Deiter Consulting Group, which was retained by the suing players. The collective bargaining agreements showed a disparity in bonuses but also highlighted the different pay structures between the two teams. "Women's national team players are paid differently because they specifically asked for and negotiated a completely different contract than the men's national team, despite being offered, and rejecting, a similar pay-to-play agreement during the past negotiations," U.S. Soccer said in a statement. "Their preference was a contract that provides significant additional benefits that the men's national team does not have, including guaranteed annual salaries, medical and dental insurance, paid child-care assistance, paid pregnancy and parental leave, severance benefits, salary continuation during periods of injury, access to a retirement plan, multiple bonuses and more." Molly Levinson, spokeswoman for the plaintiffs, disputed the federation's assertions. "In the most recent CBA negotiation, USSF repeatedly said that equal pay was not an option regardless of pay structure," Levinson said in a statement. "USSF proposed a `pay to play structure' with less pay across the board. In every instance for a friendly or competitive match, the women players were offered less pay that their male counterparts. This is the very definition of gender discrimination, and of course the players rejected it." The lawsuit has drawn worldwide attention. When the U.S. won the World Cup final last summer in France, fans in the crowd chanted ``Equal Pay! Equal Pay!" Earlier this month, the players union for the men's national team urged the federation to sharply increase pay for the women's team, while also accusing the governing body of making low-ball offers in current contract negotiations with the men's team. ×  You have run out of free articles. You can support our newsroom by joining at our lowest rate! Loading&hellp;
Thanks for being a subscriber.Sorry, your subscription does not include this content.Please call 877-767-5187 to upgrade your subscription. Also among the documents filed Thursday were numerous pre-trial depositions. Megan Rapinoe, the reigning FIFA Player of the Year, was deposed Jan. 16. She said Russell Sawyer, an outside lawyer for the USSF, stated during a bargaining session in June 2016 that "market realities are such that the women do not deserve to be paid equally to the men." USSF President Carlos Cordeiro was asked during a Jan. 29 deposition about a statement he made when campaigning that "our female players have not been treated equally." "I felt then and I still feel to a degree, that the lack of opportunity for our female players was really what was at the root of some of their issues," Cordeiro said. "The fact that the Women's World Cup generates a fraction of revenue and a fraction of what the men get paid is a reflection, frankly, of lack of opportunity. ... Women's soccer outside of the United States doesn't have the same degree of respect." Former USSF President Sunil Gulati, speaking during a Dec. 17 deposition, discussed the distinctions between men's and women's soccer. "There is an absolute difference, which not everyone seemed to agree to, but do I think that it's less attractive or less entertaining? I'm not saying that. Or relative quality, I'm not saying that," he said. "But I'm also not saying, in terms of absolute level of — whether it's speed or strength, they're the same. I think most people would accept that, too." A U.S. man who was on the roster for all 16 qualifiers during the failed effort to reach the 2018 World Cup earned $179,375 in payments from the U.S. Soccer Federation. An American woman received $52,500 for being on the roster for the five World Cup qualifiers last year plus $147,500 for her time at the World Cup, including a $37,500 roster bonus and $110,000 for winning the title in France. The USSF keeps 16-21 women's players under contract in each year of the current labor deal, which runs through 2021, and pays each a $100,000 salary. The federation also pays a minimum 22 players assigned to a club in the National Women's Soccer League, with each receiving $70,000 to $75,000 this year. Women receive 75% of salary on maternity leave for up to one year, and a player has the longer of three months or two training camps to return to full fitness. A player can receive 75% of salary for up to three months when adopting a child and a $50 daily stipend for child care during training and play. The USSF also pays for health, dental and vision insurance for the women. When the men last qualified for the World Cup in 2014, their player pool got a $2 million payment, and each player earned $55,000 for making the roster and $5,500 per match. The player pool earned $175,000 per point for the group phase, a total of $700,000, plus $3.6 million for reaching the round of 16. The USSF in its filing pointed out it received $9 million from FIFA for the men reaching the second round of the 2014 World Cup, but $2 million for the women winning in 2015 and $4 million for their victory in 2019. There is parity is per diems: the women get $62.50 daily while in the U.S. and $75 internationally, the same as the men received under terms of their expired deal that covered 2015-18. And men and women both receive $1.50 per paid attendance for home matches controlled by the USSF. |
| Florida Women Seeking $100M From Hotels They Claim Didn’t Stop Sex Trafficking - CBS Miami Posted: 09 Feb 2020 12:00 AM PST  NAPLES, Fla. (CBSMiami/AP) — Two Florida women are suing 22 hotels for $100 million, claiming the establishments did nothing to stop sex trafficking. At the hotels around the affluent Naples area, women wandered the hotel hallways strung out on drugs and wearing little clothing, according to the lawsuit by the women who are only using their initials in the complaint. The Naples Daily News reports that men cycled in and out of the women's hotel rooms, and when housekeepers cleaned the rooms they often found drug and sex paraphernalia. The lawsuit was filed at the end of last year in state court in southwest Florida. It claims management at the 22 hotels did nothing to stop the trafficking in 2015 and 2016. Lawyers for the women said they delayed filing the lawsuit until last year's resolution of a criminal case that resulted in the convictions of two men on trafficking and prostitution charges. "What surprised me about this case was how big it was and how open it was in a community like ours," said Yale Freeman, a lawyer representing the women. "These hotels permitted open sex trafficking to occur at each of their locations." The hotels' owners told the newspaper that they never saw anything suspicious, and one owner called the lawsuit "a legal scam." "If we do see it, we always call," said Yogeshkumar Patel, owner of the Glades Motel, one of the hotels. "We're always here. We watch everybody. We don't allow in-and-out people. We don't allow unregistered people to stay." Geraldine Conti, owner of Conty's Motel, said she has never permitted illegal activity, whether drugs or sex trafficking, and she previously has worked with law enforcement to remove criminals from the property. "I deny this completely. Never happened like this. Never," she said. These types of lawsuits are relatively rare, said Linda Oberhaus, executive director of the Naples-based Shelter for Abused Women & Children. Under a new state law, hotel, motel and massage parlor owners must train employees to detect and report human trafficking. Sgt. Wade Williams, who heads the Collier County Sheriff's Office's special crimes unit, said traffickers use a variety of hotels and motels in the Naples area. "We have seen both lower-cost and expensive hotels utilized, though they do seem to prefer lower-cost hotels," Williams said. Florida ranks third in the nation in the number of calls to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, according to the Florida Attorney General's office. (© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.) |
| College track and field: UWS men, CSS women favored in UMAC meet - Superior Telegram Posted: 27 Feb 2020 06:49 PM PST Three-time defending men's champion Wisconsin-Superior will seek to win another UMAC Indoor Track and Field Championship this weekend at the Marcovich Wellness Center in Superior. The Yellowjackets' C.J. Pillrath ranks fourth in NCAA Division III in the weight throw with a season-best of 62 feet, 10.75 inches. He won both that event and the shot put a year ago. St. Scholastica, seeking its first indoor men's title since 2016, owns the top UMAC time in five running events, including Cloquet's Isaac Boedigheimer in the 3,000 and 5,000. The Saints women recorded their 10th consecutive meet victory last year and have the top time in four running events this year, including Anika Kling in the 60, 200 and 400 meters, and the top distance in three field events. Kling also is seeded first in the long jump. The meet begins at 2:30 p.m. Friday and concludes Saturday afternoon. |
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