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Advocacy | Top Issues The commitment of the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce is to work diligently and forcefully to improve and create economic opportunities for women.  Towards this goal, the current top issues of the USWCC are as follows: Top Issue #1 ACCESS TO CONTRACTS: Increase the share of government contracts and contract dollars that are received by women-owned businesses.  Women-owned businesses lose between $5-6 billion dollars annually due to the federal government's ongoing failure to meet their own paltry 5% goal for contracting with women. The U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce has been leading the effort to force the SBA to implement the seven year old Women's Procurement Program which provides a targeted set-aside for women-owned firms seeking federal contracts.  Read the USWCC Report to Congress -- Women Business Owners Blocked from Fair Access to Federal Contracts: The Small Business Administration's Seven Year Legacy of Failure and Subterfuge.  [Which includes details of the USWCC court case against the SBA.]  View CEO Margot Dorfman's testimony before Congress or read her testimony.  Read quotes from the USWCC in the New York Times, LA Times, Inc.com, GovExec.com, Fortune Small Business, Washington Post, Business Journal,  Act now to tell the federal government that access to contracts is important to your business and the failure of the SBA to implement the law is not satisfactory.  Top Issue #2 PROTECT OUR HOMES: Women home owners represent a large share of the predatory lending that transpired in the sub-prime lending scams.  And, millions of women are home owners and the primary bread winners in homes with children present. The statistics are very troubling, but worse yet are the realities of what the subprime lending fallout mean for women whose homes (and family safety and stability) are in jeapardy. Below are articles and reports on this issue: Consumer Federation of America:  Women are Prime Targets for Subprime Lending American Bar Association Journal:  Women Got More Subprime Mortgages The Boston Globe:  Women and the Subprime Crunch (Anita F. Hill) New York Times:  Baltimore Finds Subprime Crisis Snags Women The U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce advocates for:  (1) protection from the loss of home for women and families directly resulting from predatory subprime lending; (b) action to stop predatory lending and provide strong penalties for firms engaging in this practice.   Top Issue #3 PASS THE FAIR PAY RESTORATION ACT (S.1843): Read the USWCC testimony before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee from January 24, 2008. This critical piece of legislation will correct the Supreme Court’s misguided decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., which severely limited the ability of pay discrimination victims to seek a remedy under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Women’s Chamber was deeply disappointed in the Court’s willingness to overturn decades of legal precedents and EEOC practice and believes this erroneous decision must be addressed with a timely legislative fix. Although more than four decades have passed since Congress outlawed sex-based wage discrimination, women working full-time continue to earn only 77 cents for every dollar men earn. Differences in pay can expand exponentially over the course of a worker’s career, dramatically affecting future raises, pension contributions, and other earnings-related benefits. This persistent wage gap can be addressed – and the promise of our civil rights advanced – only if women are armed with the tools necessary to challenge discrimination against them. To effectively address the Court’s detrimental decision in Ledbetter, the Women’s Chamber urges Congress to move quickly to enact a legislative fix for Ledbetter. To ensure that effective remedies are available to women like Lilly Ledbetter, Congress must pass the Fair Pay Restoration Act, amending Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to make it clear that a pay discrimination claim accrues when a pay decision is made, when an employee is subject to that decision, or at any time they are injured by it.   Top Issue #4 THE ECONOMY: Jobs -- Credit -- Mortgages -- Healthcare -- Retirement Women (on the whole) earn less than men, have less assets in retirement, and frequently are the primary provider for their families.  The economic issues America is facing have big, big impacts on women. Righting our economy will take much more than a quick-fix stimulus package.  We need real leadership to tackle job creation, credit and mortgage abuse, healthcare and retirement issues for women.

 

 

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