From our Public Policy director:
Children are our future. Schools don’t just teach facts. They demonstrate and encourage students to think for themselves. The last thing our kids need is “thought police.” It is encouraging that the Pulitzer-Prize winning book Maus, a nonfiction book about surviving the Holocaust in the style of a graphic novel that was banned by the McMinn (TN) County Board of Education, is now in Amazon’s Top 20 sales chart.
Similar arguments are being made to “protect” children from learning aspects of our country’s past and present that might make them uncomfortable. The U.S. has not always gotten it right. Our children need to know that. They should take that knowledge as inspiration to create a better future. Support our teachers by attending school board meetings to be a voice for reason and truth.
Gainesville Branch joins the Florida Hate Crime Coalition
The mission of the AAUW is to “advance equity for women and girls through research, education, and advocacy.” On April 8, 2021, National AAUW endorsed the Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer NO HATE Act, a piece of legislation with bipartisan support that would improve hate crime statistics and improve community response to hate crime. Hate crimes are generally underreported. One of the reasons statistics on hate crime are currently unreliable is the disparity in definitions of hate crime from state to state.
Hate crime laws increase sentences for criminals who commit them. These laws only punish criminal acts, not speech or beliefs. Hate crime laws address acts against people targeted for a characteristic they cannot change and cover victims whether they are in the majority or the minority.
The Gainesville branch of AAUW was contacted by Eric Ross of the Florida Hate Crime Coalition (FHCC) inviting us to support the coalition’s efforts to expand the Florida hate crime law to add the categories of gender and gender identity along with physical disability. This expansion also would add coverage for “association with” hate crimes such as for someone victimized for being in a restaurant with a member of a targeted group. Coverage also would be added for “mixed motive” hate crimes since it is difficult under current law to prosecute an act with a secondary motive like robbery. Our membership voted unanimously to support the work of the Florida Hate Crime Coalition at the October 9 general meeting.
Two-Minute Activist
Send emails and texts to your legislators to fight for equal pay, paid family leave, stopping sexual harassment, equality in education and more. You provide the voice. We’ll provide the megaphone.
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Join AAUW in urging Congress to improve and expand legislation protecting our civil rights, economic security, and access to education. Sign up to get regular alerts to be able to take timely action. Visit here and scroll to the end of the web page to sign up.
Economic Impacts of the Pandemic
The labor participation rate for women with children fell 3 percentage points between February and September, compared to a decline of 1.8 percentage points for women without children and 1.3 percentage points for men.
Black families have been particularly hard hit, according to the Dallas Fed analysis. Black mothers’ labor participation rate plunged by more than 6 percentage points,
by far the sharpest drop.
Labor participation among Black fathers fell by 4 percentage points. One might conclude that these developments are unique to the pandemic and will return to their pre-pandemic levels.
However, the slow recovery from the Great Recession tells us that declines in participation rates, particularly for vulnerable demographic groups, can take years to fully recover and will hinder overall economic growth.
