Survey finds Nebraska women face discrimination

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By JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star

Working women in Nebraska have talked about the same issues for at least four decades.

Equal pay.

Child care costs and family friendly work environments.

Sex discrimination and harassment.

“Discrimination is alive and well in Nebraska,” said Kathleen Neary, attorney with Vince Powers and Associates.

“I’m so busy. I can’t tell you the number of cases I turn down every day.”

And the cost of child care is still making women think twice about whether work is worth the effort,  especially when a large chunk of their salary goes to the people watching their kids.

Child care costs can run as high as $200 for babies, $175 for toddlers and $120 for school-age children. If you have more than one child — and especially if you’re single — it just doesn’t pay to work, said Christy Arfman, formerly with the Working Mom Safe Kids coalition.

Nebraska Women Work! unveiled an informal survey Tuesday of more than 1,000 women in 73 counties that showed much still needs to be done to satisfy working women in the state.

The volunteer respondents give insight into the issues women are facing.  

The group, an affiliate with the Women Work! national network for women’s employment, began collecting comments for the anonymous survey nearly two years ago, said Pat Funk, research consultant and volunteer project manager for survey.

The Nebraska organization has a small budget, Funk said, and could not afford to do a scientific, random survey. But the informal survey is still useful, she said.

The women who answered the survey on paper and on the Internet were more likely to have a college degree and higher incomes, she said. Only 7 percent were women of color.

Funk said the survey showed that many of those who answered believed they had experienced sex discrimination at work. But when that happened, many did not raise objections, saying it would not do any good or they were afraid of the consequences.

Those who did complain said either their complaints were ignored or negative consequences ensued.

Neary said women aren’t raising the issue because they need to pay their bills and their mortgages and take care of their families. They need the job, even if they are experiencing discrimination or harassment, and don’t want to be labeled boat rockers or be targeted for dismissal.

Many companies have anti-discrimination policies, she said. “But a lot of times they’re not worth the paper they are printed on.”

Employers rarely do a good job of investigating a discrimination complaint, she said. They would rather ignore the problem, unless it is costing them money.

The survey also indicated many respondents felt advancement was limited. More training or education was needed, which takes time and money, Funk said.

Erin Ching, an attorney with Nebraska Appleseed, said many working women face challenges in getting child care. Policymakers should continually be called upon to support high quality, affordable child care.

In past years, Nebraska lawmakers reduced the number of families qualifying for child care subsidies by reducing  the income to qualify from 185 percent of  poverty level to 120 percent. People who live at 185 percent of the poverty level are generally not on other types of assistance, but could still use help with child care, advocates say.

Arfman said some women who can’t afford day care leave kids as young as 9 home alone after school, reasoning that it’s only for an hour or two. Or they put kids in less expensive, unlicensed child care, which may be lower quality.

Catrice Jackson, president of Nebraska Women Work!, said the  organization will serve as a gateway for information, resources and opportunities for women.

Members will work with other agencies to prepare girls at an early age for satisfying professional careers and to be supportive future policy makers, she said. It may take a generation or two for these changes to occur.

“We need to wake up Nebraska, to kind of shake things up a bit,” Jackson said.   

 Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.