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8-27-05, 10:45 am
JOHN ROBERTS ON CLOSING THE WAGE GAP
PROGRESS: Since the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the wage gap has closed by half a cent on the dollar per year. Yet, there is much work to do. According to the 2004 United States Census, currently, women earn just 76 cents on the dollar compared with men. The Census Bureau reported that in 2003, median annual earnings for full-time working women declined to $30,724 - while men's earnings remained unchanged, at $40,668. [University Wire, 4/21/05; Institute for Women's Policy Research, 8/27/04]
Roberts Argued Against Closing the Wage Gap: In internal memos, Roberts urged President Ronald Reagan to refrain from embracing any form of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment pending in Congress; he concluded that some state initiatives to curb workplace discrimination against women relied on legal tools that were "highly objectionable"; and he said that a controversial legal theory then in vogue -- of directing employers to pay women the same as men for jobs of "comparable worth" -- was "staggeringly pernicious" and "anti-capitalist."[Washington Post, 8/19/05]
JOHN ROBERTS ON EDUCATION
PROGRESS: Women students have outnumbered male students since 1978. In 2000 there were 2 million more women than men enrolled in college. In the United States, 200,000 more women than men earned a bachelor's degree in 2004. While men comprise 51 percent of the college-age population in the United States, women account for 54 percent of full-time college students, earn more than 56 percent of the bachelor's degrees every year, and graduate in four years or less at a rate 10 percent higher than that of men. [Pell Institute; Bradenton Herald, 5/22/05; National Center for Education Statistics; University Wire, 4/15/05]
Roberts Questioned Women Going To Law School: His remark on whether homemakers should become lawyers came in 1985 in reply to a suggestion from Linda Chavez, then the White House's director of public liaison. Chavez had proposed entering her deputy, Linda Arey, in a contest sponsored by the Clairol shampoo company to honor women who had changed their lives after age 30. Arey had been a schoolteacher who decided to change careers and went to law school. Roberts said in his memo that he saw no legal objection to her taking part in the Clairol contest. Then he added a personal aside: "Some might question whether encouraging homemakers to become lawyers contributes to the common good, but I suppose that is for the judges to decide." [Washington Post, 8/19/05]
JOHN ROBERTS ON TITLE IX
PROGRESS: Title IX allowed more than 2.8 million girls to compete in high school sports in 2004 -- a 900 percent increase since 1972. In 1971-72, only 294,000 girls in comparison to 3.7 million boys played varsity sports in the nation's high schools. Thirty years later, in 2001-2002, boys' participation had increased slightly, to less than 4 million. That year, 2.8 million girls played high school varsity sports. In 1971-72, men in college sports outnumbered women by 170,384 to 29,977 -- nearly six to one. Thirty years later, women's participation had increased more than five-fold, and the numbers were 212,140 men to 155,513 women. [The Herald-Sun, Durham, NC, 7/24/05]
Roberts Proposed Limiting the Role of Title IX: In a memorandum to the attorney general in August 1982, he expressed support for a federal district court decision limiting the reach of a law against sex discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal aid. Judge Roberts said the law, called Title IX, applied only to specific programs that received federal aid, not to the entire university that maintained the programs. "Under Title IX federal investigators cannot rummage willy-nilly through institutions but can only go as far as the federal funds go," he wrote. [New York Times, 7/27/05]
What little we know about John Roberts's record on women's issues is troubling. Want to learn more? A new report from the National Women's Law Center offers a non-partisan review of his positions. You can see the facts for yourself at http://www.nwlc.org/. The White House needs to release key documents so that our Senators can fulfill their constitutional duty to thoroughly evaluate John Roberts.
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