{"id":519938,"date":"2010-04-07T14:15:28","date_gmt":"2010-04-07T18:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogs.rj.org,2010:\/rac\/\/2.2643"},"modified":"2010-04-07T14:22:50","modified_gmt":"2010-04-07T18:22:50","slug":"gender-equity-starting-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/519938","title":{"rendered":"Gender Equity, Starting at Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LisaPaquetteSmall.JPG\"<\/span>Lisa Paquette is a junior at American University and an intern at the Religious Action Center.<\/i><\/p>\n

Equality in the workplace is an
\nissue that women have been struggling with and continue to deal with. I grew up
\nwith a mother who holds a high-ranking position in the company she works for;
\nit never occurred to me that this was not the norm. As part of an assignment
\nfrom the professor overseeing my internship here at the Religious Action
\nCenter, I had to read a book called Leveling
\nthe Playing Field: Advancing Women in Jewish Organizational <\/i>Life by
\nShifra Bronznick, Didi Goldenhar, and Marty Linsky. This book brings to light
\nthe startling lack of women in high-ranking positions as well as gender equity
\nwithin Jewish organizations and is meant to be
\nused as a physical guidebook to mentor organizational leaders as they attempt
\nto make changes within their organization. <\/p>\n

One organization featured in the
\nbook is Advancing Women Professionals<\/a> (AWP), whose mission is to “advance women
\ninto leadership positions in Jewish life; stimulate Jewish organizations to
\nbecome more equitable, productive and vibrant environments; and promote
\npolicies that support work-life integration and flexibility for professionals
\nand volunteers.” Leveling the Playing
\nField<\/i> discusses much of the work AWP does in order to achieve its goals,
\nusing statistics, personal accounts, and studies to demonstrate the situation
\nin the Jewish organizational life. Expanding upon content provided on AWP’s
\nwebsite, the book suggests some strategies for change that organizations can
\nimplement in order to create gender equity in their workplaces, including
\norganizational evaluations and goal-setting, <\/p>\n

However, the sole purpose of the
\nbook is not to promote women into higher ranking positions but also to further
\ndiscussion about creating gender equity in Jewish organizational life. As a
\nJewish female working for a Jewish organization, I was intrigued by the book
\nand by AWP. Having been involved in various Jewish organizations throughout my
\nlife, I reflected back on the leadership of these organizations and realized
\nthat, at the majority of them, men held the highest ranking positions. From my
\npersonal knowledge of some Jewish organizations, it seems as though many are
\ntaking the necessary steps toward the goal of gender equity, including closing
\nthe salary gap between men and women, hiring women to fill top jobs, and
\ncreating new opportunities for women to excel within these organizations.
\nSlowly, Jewish institutions are providing opportunities for women to advance
\nwithin the organization. <\/p>\n

Here at the Religious Action
\nCenter, one of the leading positions is held by a woman – our Legislative
\nDirector, Barbara Weinstein, directs legislative policy and oversees the RAC’s Eisendrath Legislative Assistant program<\/a>, a one-year
\nfellowship for recent college graduates focusing on Jewish values and social
\njustice. On a similar note, the ratio of men to women in the office is
\nwell-balanced, and rather than focusing on whose position is higher than
\nanother, everyone at the Religious Action Center works as a strong team. I
\nbelieve that the Religious Action Center is a great example of a Jewish
\norganization that is successful at achieving gender equity within the office. <\/p>\n

Besides our own opinions on
\nequity, what does Judaism have to say about the subject? There are a few places
\nin the Torah which point toward equity. Genesis teaches us that men and women
\nwere created equally in the image of God. If this is the case, men and women
\nshould be treated equally in the workplace, as well. This idea is also
\nmentioned is Leviticus 19:13, which states, “You
\nshall not defraud your neighbor.” All workers deserve to be paid fairly for the
\njob they perform, regardless of gender. These two examples from the Torah show
\nthat gender equity is an important issue which Reform Judaism values.<\/p>\n

Want to do your part to promote
\ngender equity? Write
\nto your Senators now<\/a> in support of the Paycheck Fairness Act (S. 182),
\nwhich would strengthen the Equal Pay Act of 1963 to provide effective
\nprotection against sex-based pay discrimination.<\/p>\n

Both within and outside of Jewish
\norganizational life, it is essential that gender equity is at the forefront of today’s
\nsocial and political issues. Women will never receive equal pay and higher
\nranking jobs if we do not fight to make it so. Books such as Leveling the Playing Field<\/i> and
\norganizations such as AWP are here to help facilitate the process, providing
\ninsight into the steps that must be taken in order to ensure gender equity in
\nthe work force. It is now up to us to take these steps forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lisa Paquette is a junior at American University and an intern at the Religious Action Center. Equality in the workplace is an issue that women have been struggling with and continue to deal with. I grew up with a mother who holds a high-ranking position in the company she works for; it never occurred to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4316,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-519938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519938\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}