Based on median earnings for full-time, year-round workers, women are paid 82 cents for every dollar paid to men. Vermont Commission on Women (VCW) presented the second in a series of Equal Pay Day video podcast conversations on March 24th, the day into the year women need to work before their earnings catch up to those of men in 2020 due to the wage gap.
This podcast conversation centers on the ways COVID-19 impacts decisions that women and their families are making. It touches on career choice and advancement, including occupational segregation. It explores the critical role of women as essential workers and as early care and education providers in keeping women in the workforce, while calling attention to how their worth is not reflected in earnings or status. Guests recount personal stories reflecting on the challenges and gifts of this time as women working in Vermont. The podcast concludes with a hope-filled discussion about this unique opportunity to reconstruct and rebuild systems back to be more equitable.
Our guests include educator Lara Scott, the director of Mobilization of Volunteer Efforts (MOVE) at Saint Michael’s College, and Sarah MacDonald, assistant director and classroom educator at the Early Learning Center in Colchester. The conversation is introduced by VCW's executive director Cary Brown and moderated by VCW Commissioner Kellie Campbell, Chief Technology Officer at Vermont Tech and Chair of VCW’s Education and Human Development committee.
This podcast addresses equal pay day and the wage gap for all women in the U.S. VCW’s first podcast launched March 9th, Asian American and Pacific Islander women’s equal pay day, and featured a conversation with Bor Yang, director of the Vermont Human Rights Commission, Senator Kesha Ram, and VCW Chair Lisa Senecal. You can view it below. As the year progresses VCW will produce episodes marking equal pay days for mothers on June 4, for women living with disabilities who work full-time on June 13, for Black women on August 3, for Native American women on September 8, and for Latinas on October 21. They plan to launch a podcast focused on the LGBTQIA+ community during national Pride month, on June 28.
With these video podcast conversations, VCW hopes to raise awareness about pay equity, and the ways racism, sexism, homophobia, and ableism intersect, creating much larger wage gaps for women of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and women living with disabilities. Another goal of the project is to listen to women about their experiences with pay inequity, how it impacts them, and what they think could help.
Watch the podcast on YouTube, or listen to it through SoundCloud or iTunes.