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Status of Women in Broward County
You were expecting a message on women’s history, but this message will be about the status of women now, which does follow from the history of women in the workplace. Just four months before the pandemic began, an ordinance critical to women passed the Broward County Commission. Ordinance 2019-35, creating Article V, Section 16 ½-81 and 16 ½-82, adopted the United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), often referred to as the “Bill of Rights” for women.
CEDAW was adopted in December 1979 by the UN General Assembly. To date, 187 out of 193 United Nations member states have ratified CEDAW. The United States is one of only six countries—along with Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Palau and Tonga—that have not ratified CEDAW. While the United States signed CEDAW in 1980, the ratification of CEDAW has never been brought to the Senate floor for a vote. This is not too surprising as the U.S. has only ratified 5 of 18 UN treaties, and we still don't have an Equal Rights Amendment.
Because the U.S. Senate wasn’t ratifying CEDAW, a movement was started to encourage local governments to adopt the convention. In Florida, Miami-Dade County is the only other county with a similar ordinance, but there are a few cities with a CEDAW resolution (Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota) as of June 2019.
Included in the Broward ordinance is a requirement that the County Auditor provide a Gender Equity Data report biennially to the Commission, focused on economic development, education, health, and safety. FIU’s Jorge M. Pérez Metropolitan Center was contracted to generate the report, which was delivered in March 2021. Click here to read the full report.
For me, the most disturbing part of the report was the gender earnings gap. I knew it existed, but to see it spelled out, with data specific for Broward County, was still a slap in the face. Across all occupations, the earnings gap between women and men working full time was 12.6%. That gap increased to 24.0% if a woman had a Bachelor’s degree and increased to 33.4% if a woman had a graduate or professional degree. Sadly, the report states “the earnings for women with a graduate degree have remained stagnant, increasing by only 0.2% since 2010.”
Even worse, the report is based on 2019 information with comparisons to the previous nine years. We all know that women suffered the most economically during the pandemic and continue to do so. Since a report is to be issued biennially for the County Commission, I think it is safe to predict that the next report will paint an even bleaker picture!
Money may not be everything, but I believe it does influence the other categories examined in this report – educational attainment, health, and safety. So, read the report and decide for yourself –how are women doing in Broward County?
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