Minnesota can lead for more workplace fairness
It’s too soon to declare that the American women’s movement, begun in 1848 and revived in 1970, is gathering strength for a third wave of sweeping change. But if it is, future historians may note that this time, Minnesota was among the states that got it rolling.
That wasn’t true during two earlier waves. When women pushed for voting rights and the ability to enter male-dominated fields, Minnesota kept pace but was not in the vanguard of change.
But this month’s enactment of the Women’s Economic Security Act (WESA) vaulted this state into the lead in efforts to make work fairer and more humane for women — and along the way, for men, too. So said officials at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for American Progress, who came to Minnesota last week to praise what the 2014 Legislature accomplished (see accompanying text) and to call for more in 2015. With better protection from workplace discrimination for pregnant women, nursing mothers and parents of both genders, “You’re ahead of the curve,” said Lori Lodes, the Center for American Progress senior vice president.
Yet a gathering in Duluth last week for more than 100 Minnesotans who helped pushed WESA into law was not a victory party. Advocates for gender fairness in the workplace left the 2014 legislative session acutely aware of aims not achieved. They came to plot strategy for their own next wave.
A big part of that strategy will be to enlist more of Minnesota’s working people — men and women — to lend their voices and votes to the cause, said Dan McGrath, executive director of TakeAction Minnesota, a cosponsor of the Duluth meeting…
