right to work

A Woman’s Choice, A Woman’s Right

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My Body, My Choice

Kirsten Waters is a spokes person for the Pro-Life cause. She makes an interesting and compelling argument until a critical tipping point. She cites the writer’s argument that men have the responsibility to work in order to provide for the woman and her offspring.

Actually, there was an historic prohibition to women’s right to work and earn a living (even before A.D.). Women had to rely on men to provide a livelihood for their survival. The alternative was prostitution.

Then it was discovered that it would be useful to have women included in the industrial mainstream. Unfortunately, old structures rule present day agendas. So women were allowed to work but at 1/3 the rate of pay that men earned. That was one of the reasons why being amenable to sexual overtures in the workplace was acceptable – better pay, suggestion of acceptability, a naive notion that there may be a legitimate opportunity for promotion and better pay without strings.

Let us not forget that even in 18th Century England, there was “recreational” sex between an upper class male and a lower class woman for his relief (and termed benevolent contribution – that didn’t include the sperm left behind – because he left a purse of money for the encounter with her husband who was in the other room). It was a form of survival. What about the child that resulted from the benevolence? Most likely the lord took no further responsibility and denied the lineage.

And if the woman attempted an abortion, it was still her peril alone – just as was fending for herself and the resulting child if the abortion failed. The good news in that scenario is that if the abortion succeeded in ending the pregnancy but also the woman’s life, then we just handled two birds with one backdoor operation.

There’s a lot more to the picture than the black and white of pro-life and the grays of pro-choice. There’s a lot of history and women’s freedom(s) also riding on the horns of that dilemma.

Is it possible that if pay rates were equitable these issues of a woman needing to have the wage support of the man who fathered her child would be removed? Is it possible that were these outdated customs of survival and over protectiveness of women no longer ruling how we think and govern ourselves that women’s rights to choose and survive with dignity would be honored?

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Disabled Sheltered Workshops in Peril

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not impossible

Breaking down the barriers

Some of the news from Disability Scoop talks about “sheltered workshops.” Congress Passes Bill Limiting Sheltered Workshop Eligibility, by  (July 10, 2014).

You may be asking yourself, “What is a ‘sheltered workshop?'” It relates to workforce training and internship for the disabled that is segregated from others who do not have some form of disability. Here’s an explanation from Wikipedia.

Why is this news important? Because those who comprise the disabled population struggle against various types of employment and access discrimination and even voting rights, under certain conditions. They are also paid sub-minimum wage (the minimum wage being, in and of itself, is not even close to a livable wage). If the projections of the IEP are correct, there may be justification for paying minimum, or even sub-minimum, wages to students who graduate with lowered educational attainments.

So we begin to see a picture of certain forces determined to create a population of those who are needy and dependent on government subsidies in order to survive. Even though we see general monthly improvements in our unemployment figures and numbers of jobs created, such is not the case for those in the disabled population. Job Market Rough For People With Disabilities, by  (July 8, 2014)

In actuality, many in the disabled population, even those with intellectual challenges, are capable of being part of the cog works of industry at all levels and deserve to be compensated  accordingly. We would be wise to not think of becoming disabled or categorized as a senior in terms of a person who is no longer an individual capable of adding value to our society. We err when we classify them as relics who spend their days engaged in hobbies and few to any activities that don’t involve mental, or even physical, challenges that keep one in tune.

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