COLUMBUS – A number of groups are using the occasion of Women’s Equality Day to illustrate just how unequal the world still is in many ways when it comes to the genders.
The day is set aside because it marks the anniversary of the signing of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting women the right to vote nationwide.
The League of Women Voters of Ohio is marking the anniversary with an event it says will highlight the issue of voting equality.
Ninety-five years after women were granted the right to vote, the Status of Women in the States report released by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research gave Ohio a D+ for women’s political participation. The report says, while 68 percent of Ohio women are registered to vote, only about 54 percent actually cast ballots in the last presidential election and some say that results in a woefully small number of women in government at every level.
“Women make up 27 percent of all elected offices in the state of Ohio even though we’re 51 percent of the population. And at this current rate of progress it will be 2121 before women have parity in government office,” says Beth Morrow Lonn, chief grants and operating office for the Women’s Fund of Central Ohio.
“Over the last 95 years, we have made great strides in advancing equality with women now making up nearly half the workforce and women serving in leadership positions in both government and the private sector,” said U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Columbus. “While we acknowledge our progress, we must rededicate ourselves to the fight for women’s equal access and opportunity.”
The gender gap in Ohio is narrower in the area of paycheck parity, and is expected to close more quickly.
The institute’s report says Ohio’s women earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earns and, at the current rate of increase, will earn pay comparable to men in 2066.
The state still performs better than the national average, ranking 15th in the earnings gap, but 38th in the disparity between men and women in executive positions and 42nd in educational attainment, according to the personal finance website WalletHub’s Global Gender Gap Index.
It is widely believed that the overall wage gap exists because men take more dangerous jobs or take less time off for child-rearing. Other statistics point out that there is actually no premium for risks in many areas, such as agriculture, mining or construction.
The league, a longtime advocate for voting fairness, planned to release a report Wednesday at the Ohio Statehouse on the effects of gerrymandering, or shaping voting districts toward political parties.
The league says “Predictable Results II” is a follow up to a 2013 study that examined how political mapmaking affects legislative election results.
The event is part of the league’s support for Issue 1 on the November ballot, a proposed overhaul of the state’s redistricting process.