WTE; 2-27-05

February 24, 2005

Women of Wyoming! Can we talk? You are being ill served by the current political environment in which you live, and your Legislature is doing far less than it should to improve the situation in which you must live and raise your children.

Perhaps that sounds like a feminist rant to you, but once you stop to think about it, I know you’ll agree. Since women are generally the caretakers of their families, be they young or old, society would be well served by paying attention to the many issues that confront our citizen caretakers and do all that is possible to assist them in their efforts.

The main areas where improvements are needed are: domestic violence and sexual assault, civil court legal services, child support collection, sexual harassment, pay equity, reproductive freedom, child care availability and elder care issues.

I realize that women have been socialized to not complain about their social situation, and the regressive political forces of recent years have made feminism a bad word, but we will never have a fair and just culture as long as these issues remain unaddressed.

Children need a safe and secure home life to be able to grow and thrive and reach their potential, but too often that is not the case. Crafting a comprehensive program to control domestic violence should be legislative priority number one, but is on the back burner for most legislators.

Young women from desperate homes make desperate choices. They make bad choices ranging from whom they sleep with to how long they stay in school to what they smoke to how much violence they will endure. It is ridiculous to expect young adults to make good choices when they have never had a peaceful life to learn from.

The lack of financial resources forces many women and their children to remain in battering situations. Currently there are no programs to provide victims the legal help needed to get a divorce from their batterers and therefore get their children to a safer place. The Legislature could easily provide funding for such a program.

Comprehensive and age appropriate sex education should be available for all young adults through voluntary programs within the school districts. The ongoing and severe resistance to any school based sex education program that still exists across Wyoming would surprise many of you readers. Since females bear the brunt of unwanted pregnancies, this knowledge would obviously be much more helpful to them.

Many mothers live on the financial edge, with the collection of their court awarded child support a dire necessity, but often times it does not get paid by the non-custodial parent. Because of this many kids have to live in a state of potential economic disaster, with a corresponding atmosphere of stress and uncertainty. There is an easy legislative fix for that situation.

The State of Wyoming could create a trust fund, pay the unpaid child support to the custodial parent to ensure prompt payment, and then go after the deadbeat parent for the cash. The children would have a much more stable life and the parent would not have to worry about whether the money to pay the rent was going to be there or not.

Wyoming has been rated the worst state in the nation in terms of pay equity; on average, women here only make 63 cents for every dollar a man makes. Is it always good to be number one? There are limits to what the Legislature can do since most jobs are in the private sector, but some action could be taken in terms of making sure that public sector employment is equal and that laws against pay discrimination are enforced.

Sexual harassment laws in Wyoming come from the both the state and federal levels, but most private employers in Wyoming are so small that they are not covered by the federal act. The Legislature should monitor the sexual harassment law in place and make sure that it really does protect the workers of Wyoming.

Single mothers are in the workforce in large numbers, so childcare is critical to their employment. Childcare choices are extremely limited in most areas of Wyoming. The Legislature should monitor the situation to ensure that the licensing requirements enforced by the Department of Family Services are not so restrictive that private providers are forced out of business or prevented from starting.

Wyoming is one of the most rapidly aging states in the union, and of course women will be doing most of the care giving as their relatives age. The Legislature needs to do all it can to ensure that the system of elder care is as comprehensive and seamless as possible. We need to keep our citizens in their homes for as long as possible, and the best way to do so is to have a healthcare system that funds the needed level of care at every step.

The responsibility for women in all of this is enormous, and it is no wonder that some wilt under the pressure. The Legislature could, and should, address the entire gamut of issues related to women and care giving, it’s only fair.