nytimes-U.S. Will Settle Indian Lawsuit for $3.4 Billion (1887-2009)
December 9, 2009
WASHINGTON — The federal government announced on Tuesday that it intends to pay $3.4 billion to settle claims that it has mismanaged the revenue in American Indian trust funds, potentially ending one of the largest and most complicated class-action lawsuits ever brought against the United States.
Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff, with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is at right.
Elouise Cobell, outside the law offices of Kilpatrick & Stockton in Washington on Tuesday, was the lead plaintiff, filing the class-action lawsuit in 1996.
The tentative agreement, reached late Monday, would resolve a 13-year-old lawsuit over hundreds of thousands of land trust accounts that date to the 19th century. Specialists in federal tribal law described the lawsuit as one of the most important in the history of legal disputes involving the government’s treatment of American Indians.
President Obama hailed the agreement as an “important step towards a sincere reconciliation” between the federal government and American Indians, many of whom, he said, considered the protracted lawsuit a “stain” on the nation.
As a presidential candidate, Mr. Obama said, “I pledged my commitment to resolving this issue, and I am proud that my administration has taken this step today.”
For the agreement to become final, Congress must enact legislation and the federal courts must then sign off on it. Administration officials said they hoped those two steps would be completed in the next few months.
The dispute arises from a system dating to 1887, when Congress divided many tribal lands into parcels — most from 40 to 160 acres — and assigned them to individual Indians while selling off remaining lands.
The Interior Department now manages about 56 million acres of Indian trust land scattered across the country, with the heaviest concentration in Western states. The government handles leases on the land for mining, livestock grazing, timber harvesting and drilling for oil and gas. It then distributes the revenue raised by those leases to the American Indians. In the 2009 fiscal year, it collected about $298 million for more than 384,000 individual Indian accounts.
The lawsuit accuses the federal government of mismanaging that money. As a result, the value of the trusts has been unclear, and the Indians contend that they are owed far more than what they have been paid.
Under the settlement, the government would pay $1.4 billion to compensate the Indians for their claims of historical accounting irregularities and any accusation that federal officials mismanaged the administration of the land itself over the years.
Each member of the class would receive a check for $1,000, and the rest of the money would be distributed according to the land owned. In addition, legal fees, to be determined by a judge, would be paid from that fund.
Philip Frickey, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in federal Indian law, said that of all the Indian land claims and other lawsuits over the past generation, the trust case had been a “blockbuster” because it is national in scope, involves a large amount of money, and has been long-running.
The lawsuit spanned three presidencies and engendered seven trials covering 192 trial days, generated 22 published judicial opinions, and went before a federal appeals court 10 times.
Over its course, the federal judge originally assigned to the case, Royce C. Lamberth, put contempt orders on two secretaries of the interior over their handling of the lawsuit. In 2006, after the Bush administration complained of bias, a federal appeals court removed Judge Lamberth from the case.
Judge James Robertson has handled it since, and he pushed both parties to negotiate — including brokering a last-minute deal over an undisclosed problem that nearly derailed the settlement late Monday, said David J. Hayes, the Interior Department deputy secretary.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Tuesday characterized the case as “intense, and sometimes difficult.”
“The United States could have continued to litigate this case, at great expense to the taxpayers,” Mr. Holder said. “It could have let all of these claims linger, and could even have let the problem of fractionated land continue to grow with each generation. But with this settlement, we are erasing these past liabilities and getting on track to eliminate them going forward.”
The settlement also seeks to resolve an ever-growing headache of the trust system that contributed to the government’s problems — especially in the pre-computer era — in keeping track of the allotments: the original owners, most of whom died without leaving wills, have many heirs, which has “fractionalized” the ownership interests.
For example, one 40-acre parcel today has 439 owners, most of whom receive less than $1 a year in income from it, Mr. Haynes said. The parcel is valued at about $20,000, but it costs the government more than $40,000 a year to administer those trusts.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Attorney General Eric Holder announced Tuesday the settlement of a lawsuit on Indian trust management.
In an effort to resolve such problems — and prevent them from worsening in subsequent generations — the settlement would establish a $2 billion fund to buy fractional interests in land from anyone willing to sell. The program would seek to consolidate ownership in parcels of land for the tribes, while reducing the Interior Department’s work in keeping track of the trusts.
“This is an historic, positive development for Indian country,” said Ken Salazar, the litigation secretary, “and a major step on the road to reconciliation following years of acrimonious litigation between trust beneficiaries and the United States.”
Over the years, the plaintiffs have contended that they were owed tens of billions of dollars, while the government has at times taken the position that it owed them little or nothing.
Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff who filed the class-action lawsuit in 1996, said she believed that the Indians were owed more, but that it was better to reach an agreement that could help impoverished trust holders than to spend more years in court. She said she had originally expected the litigation to last only two or three years.
“We are compelled to settle by the sobering realization that our class grows smaller each day as our elders die and are forever prevented from receiving just compensation,“ Ms. Cobell said.
Robert Clinton, an Arizona State University law professor who specializes in federal Indian law, said the settlement alone would not resolve the trust problem because many of the heirs who own tiny interests in parcels may not be willing to sell them.
Still, the settlement will provide an incentive for such owners to sell: the Interior Department will set aside up to 5 percent of the value of the land interests for a scholarship fund to help Indians attend college or vocational school.
Inspiring mom writer destined for Hollywood.
December 9, 2009
Kavita Daswani is currently a fashion correspondent for CNN International, CNBC Asia, and Women’s Wear Daily. She has written for the Los Angeles Times and the International Herald Tribune among many other publications and has been the fashion editor of the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong.
Her family is originally from Mumbai, and she grew up in Hong Kong. She now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons. Her first novel, ‘For Matrimonial Purposes’, was published in 2003 followed by ‘The Village Bride of Beverly Hills‘ (both G.B. Putnam’s Sons) and ‘Salaam, Paris’ (Plume).
In 2007, she released her first Young Adult book, ‘Indie Girl’ (Simon Pulse) and her latest, another Young Adult work, will be out in 2010 (HarperCollins). Her books have been published in 17 languages.
Grandma Left Kids in Car to Go Shopping – Were They YOUR Kids?
November 25, 2009
From a Jens List member(shellmer@aol.com):
“So today my hubby and I took the kids to run some errands. We parked in the big parking lot for Bed, Bath & Beyond in Canoga Park/Woodland Hills. When we got out of our car, I was a bit startled to see that there were 2 kids left alone in the car that was parked next to us. There were 2 little boys inside, one about 5 in the front seat (illegal for a kid this age to be in the front seat, I might add) and one in the back seat, about age 3, sitting directly behind the passenger seat. The car was left running. The little boy in the front seat looked at me with a look I would describe as worried. The car was a silver Toyota Corolla. Both boys had short, dark hair. I pointed this situation out to my husband and he was also concerned. It is illegal and dangerous to leave small children unattended for a period of time in a parked (and running!) car. I was wondering what we should do, when I saw a woman come out of Bed, Bath & Beyond with a package.
The front of the store was not near the parked car and there was no way she would be able to see the car or the children from inside the store, or outside the store. She was a slender woman with a blonde bob. She put items in the trunk, then got into the car. I didn’t say anything; at the time I was just relieved that she had come back. But who knows how many other errands she went on before or after this excursion, leaving the kids in the car.
I was hoping that maybe someone would recognize these boys as their own. It really just isn’t cool to do this sort of thing in this day and age. It has been bothering me ever since. I can’t get that poor little boy’s worried expression out of my mind. I just wonder if their mother knows what Grandma’s doing with them when she takes them off her hands for awhile.”
Trafficking reports raise heart-wrenching questions for adoptive parents
November 25, 2009
Under the Islamic Veil: Faces Disfigured By Acid
November 24, 2009
It’s hard to look at these photographs. Most of these young, beautiful women from The Arabization or the Saudi-ization of Muslims in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan had acid thrown on their face because they rejected a boy, or was burned by a family member. This is 2009, and this is still going on today.
“Make no mistake. This tendency to disfigure women–even those who wear the Islamic Veil–is real. And, it might be coming our way if we do not stop the Wahhabi and Salafi influence which is funding our universities in North America as well as the Islamic religious schools.”
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These photos show what happens to real women who wear the Islamic Veil. The photos depict horrifying hate and the unbearable suffering it inflicts upon female innocents. The photos were taken by Emilio Morenatti of the Associated Press. The text is based on work done by Nicholas Kristof—one of the few people at the New York Times whose work I am proud to quote. You may find them HERE. (Thanks to Yehuda for calling this to my attention).
What are we seeing?
The Arabization or the Saudi-ization of Muslims in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan is the hidden hand behind these acid attacks upon women. These poor girls and women have had their lives ruined; some have been forced to undergo surgery 20-30 times in order that they may see a little, or breathe a bit, hear something, perhaps in order to eat or make themselves understood. They look like…monsters. That was what their attackers wanted to accomplish. To render their faces into self-portraits of their attackers.
Why was acid thrown into their faces? The main reasons are because they dared to reject someone in marriage or because they wanted a divorce. The “jilted” suitors (or husbands) took their revenge in this fashion. If he can’t have her, no man will; I will make sure that no man will ever want her.” One young girl was gang-raped aftger which her rapists threw acid on her face. Another committed the “crime” of disappointing her father by being born female, not male. Many were disfigured as a result of a “family dispute.”
Thus, the punishment for being born female, for exercising any will of one’s own is, Saudi-style, the most horrible punishment. The men tried to make the women loathsome to humanity, to sentence them to painful surgeries, self-hatred, perhaps to lives lived in isolation.
Make no mistake. This tendency to disfigure women–even those who wear the Islamic Veil–is real. And, it might be coming our way if we do not stop the Wahhabi and Salafi influence which is funding our universities in North America as well as the Islamic religious schools.
For once, I will leave aside the question of what must be done and allow the photos to speak to you.
Irum Saeed, 30, poses for a photograph at her office at the Urdu University of Islamabad, Pakistan, Thursday, July 24, 2008. Irum was burned on her face, back and shoulders twelve years ago when a boy whom she rejected for marriage threw acid on her in the middle of the street. She has undergone plastic surgery 25 times to try to recover from her scars.
Shameem Akhter, 18, poses for a photograph at her home in Jhang, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 10, 2008. Shameem was raped by three boys who then threw acid on her three years ago. Shameem has undergone plastic surgery 10 times to try to recover from her scars.
Najaf Sultana, 16, poses for a photograph at her home in Lahore, Pakistan on Wednesday, July 9, 2008. At the age of five Najaf was burned by her father while she was sleeping, apparently because he didn’t want to have another girl in the family. As a result of the burning Najaf became blind and after being abandoned by both her parents she now lives with relatives. She has undergone plastic surgery around 15 times to try to recover from her scars.
Shehnaz Usman, 36, poses for a photograph in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2008. Shehnaz was burned with acid by a relative due to a familial dispute five years ago. Shehnaz has undergone plastic surgery 10 times to try to recover from her scars.
Shahnaz Bibi, 35, poses for a photograph in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2008. Ten years ago Shahnaz was burned with acid by a relative due to a familial dispute. She has never undergone plastic surgery.
Kanwal Kayum, 26, adjusts her veil as she poses for a photograph in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2008. Kanwal was burned with acid one year ago by a boy whom she rejected for marriage. She has never undergone plastic surgery.
Munira Asef, 23, poses for a photograph in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2008. Munira was burned with acid five years ago by a boy whom she rejected for marriage. She has undergone plastic surgery 7 times to try to recover from her scars.
Bushra Shari, 39, adjusts her veil as she poses for a photograph in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, July. 11, 2008. Bushra was burned with acid thrown by her husband five years ago because she was trying to divorce him. She has undergone plastic surgery 25 times to try to recover from her scars.
Memuna Khan, 21, poses for a photograph in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, Dec. 19, 2008. Menuna was burned by a group of boys who threw acid on her to settle a dispute between their family and Menuna’s. She has undergone plastic surgery 21 times to try to recover from her scars.
Zainab Bibi, 17, adjusts her veil as she poses for a photograph in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2008. Zainab was burned on her face with acid thrown by a boy whom she rejected for marriage five years ago. She has undergone plastic surgery several times to try to recover from her scars.
Naila Farhat, 19, poses for a photograph in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2008. Naila was burned on her face with acid thrown by a boy whom she rejected for marriage five years ago. She has undergone plastic surgery several times to try to recover from her scars.
Saira Liaqat, 26, poses for the camera as she holds a portrait of herself before being burned, at her home in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 9, 2008. When she was fifteen, Saira was married to a relative who would later attack her with acid after insistently demanding her to live with him, although the families had agreed she wouldn’t join him until she finished school. Saira has undergone plastic surgery 9 times to try to recover from her scars.
Celebrate: House of Representatives passed the Affordable Health Care for America Act
November 8, 2009
Bobbi –
Thanks to you, I write to celebrate an historic moment for our country.
Hours ago, the House of Representatives passed the Affordable Health Care for America Act, which includes a strong public option, and will finally end the broken status quo of health insurance for the American people.
It is all the more fitting that we passed this legislation on the third anniversary of Democrats winning our Majority in the House of Representatives – November 7, 2006. Grassroots Democrats like you stood with us then to make Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the House and because you’ve stood with us every day since, today we passed legislation to finally make health insurance affordable for the middle class.
There is still a lot of work ahead to make sure this legislation gets to President Obama’s desk for his signature. We’ll need grassroots Democrats like you to help us finish the job.
For now, I just wanted to say thank you for helping to make this historic day possible.
Sincerely,
Rep. Chris Van Hollen
DCCC Chairman
Now on Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize: for the haters
November 5, 2009
Yea, Obama hasn’t done anything yet.
Iran. Obama authorized the first-ever’ direct talks with Iran, which were held in September. Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in October for his renewed emphasis on international diplomacy. Obama has traveled outside the U.S. more than any other president in his first year of office, visiting 16 countries including Canada. He traveled to Cairo in July to deliver a speech to the Muslim world. Obama reached out to the Muslim world and ‘modified’ a Bush-era proposal for an anti-missile shield in Europe.” Climate change. A White House-backed bill to reduce carbon emissions has passed the House of Representatives. Supreme Court. Obama’s first Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, was confirmed by the Senate.
And for Obama haters: Despite the fact that even President Obama wasn’t sure that his record warranted a Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian committee is defending the decision. The U.S. is the most admired and appreciated country in the world according to a new poll (The Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index (NBI) surve). For those who think he hurt America…. Read More
“What’s really remarkable is that in all my years studying national reputation, I have never seen any country experience such a dramatic change in its standing as we see for the United States in 2009,” Mr. Anholt said in a press release on the survey
And yes, there’s a million people it could have gone to.
A sit down with hot new Entertainment Host Julie Meise
November 3, 2009
Maryland graces Hollywood with their beautiful actress and new popular entertainment TV Host.
By Bobbi Miller-Moro
I had the distinct pleasure of sitting down with beautiful Julie Meise, a new up and coming actress and popular entertainment TV host, recently hosting on the red carpet at the 2009 Alma Awards. Born and raised in a small town in Maryland, she never has lost that small town charm and down-to-earth ‘realness’ that has her gaining in popularity on the red carpet.
After many years traveling in the high fashion modeling world, she wanted a new challenge and found that being on camera “listening and learning” about others is just as much fun as acting.
We might have the next Giuliana Rancic on our hands.
We met in Hollywood at The Standard Hotel on Sunset, she walked in fresh and breezy with a big kilowatt smile. I wanted to discover who Julie is, and with her latest hosting of the “The Best Country Album” at The San Diego Music Awards 2009, Emmy Awards Style Lounge interviews, and various film festivals she is tearing up the red carpet with her energetic one-on-one interviews.
Once we sat down, it was not a few moments into it, where I got to hear Julie’s laugh. From the belly, she let out a beautiful, rich throaty laugh that is completely infectious. Her good attitude and forward approach makes it a blast to have a conversation with her. Here’s what she had to say.
Q: You have a flare for the camera, where does your experience come from?
Julie: I was actually shocked with how natural I was being in front of the camera. I am usually a very shy and private person but when I am in front of the camera, I open up. I think it stems from modeling, I started modeling when I was 16. I think if you truly love something you can’t help but be good at it.
Q: Your known as a established model, why the switch to hosting and acting?
Julie: I believe that when something starts to become just a job you need to push yourself and realize what else is out there for you. I want to continue modeling because it will always be my 1st love. But I want to focus on other things and I love the constant change. TV Hosting & Acting gives me the ability to show myself in such a different light than modeling. I don’t want to be known as just doing one thing. I can never settle.
Q: Your a natural on the red carpet, what is it like interviewing your guests?
Julie: AH! There is nothing like it. It is always exciting being on the red-carpet. There is so preparation that goes into being on the red-carpet, It is a very big deal. Everyone will see those pictures, everyone will see those interviews. So, Interviewing my guests is great because the energy is always so high being on the carpet.
Q: Originally you are from Maryland, when did you leave and where did you go to next?
Julie: I love being from Maryland. Such an amazing state. I am from Dundalk, A very small town in Baltimore county. A huge accomplishment for me, was when I made it on the front page of the Dundalk Eagle (our home-town newspaper). It was titled “A model on the move.” It meant so much to me and my parents! I first left when I was 16 years old, started traveling to NYC a lot. I worked there working with modeling agencies such as Whilimena and Model Management Group. Then my mother-agency in Baltimore sent me to London and Paris to work with FGC management. That was ground-breaking for me. I was 17 years old, traveling internationally, all alone. I had to grow up so quickly. Then I just started doing the back and forth traveling from NYC to LA. and Now I am living in LA.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your background, your family and brothers or sisters?
Julie: I am Ukrainian, Cherokee Indian, and German. My father is my hero. He is a Marine. He has been a pilot, race car driver, you name it. He teaches me that you can do whatever you put your mind to. I can’t even put into words how much I look up to my parents. My mother is amazing, she is my best friend. What a strong woman. She gives me the best advice. I have one older brother, he is six years older than me. He is very strong, him and I have become much closer these past years.
Q: What do they think of your chosen career choice?
Julie: I don’t think I have one solid chosen career choice, I like to keep my options open. I don’t have a plan just yet… I love my modeling, tv hosting, acting, fashion, writing, music.. I love too much! 
Q: Although you are a talented entertainment host, you also love acting. Tell us about that.
Q: What type of actress are you?
Julie: Comedy comes very natural to me, but I love the drama. It takes everything to be a very good actress in drama.
Q: What would be your dream career?
Julie: I want to focus on my TV-hosting and Acting. I can even see myself doing broadcasting for a news channel, or being a host on E! Entertainment. or even doing skits on SNL. Bring it on!
Q: What have you been working on?
Julie: Myself.
Q: How long have you been living in Los Angeles?
Julie: Eight months now. I live in the Valley (Burbank)… I like it.
Q: What do you to to relax?
Julie: Listen to music, read, laying out in the sun. I’d rather be outside than inside, going to the gym.
Q: You have a very distinct and infectious laugh, have you been told that-what do people say?
Julie: Yes! people have always told me that. My laugh usually makes others laugh,
Q: You have a genuine quality about you that instantly puts people at ease. Where do you get that from?
Q: As an actress, you have to have range. We know you are smart and funny, but can you go dark?
Q: What are your plans for this year?
Julie: Keep pushing, meeting new people, going on the auditions and castings…learning and more learning. I think that is just another reason why I love my TV Hosting. You can learn a lot from people, and what they have to say. You just have to listen.
To contact Julie Meise:
http://juliemeise.wordpress.com/
CESD Talent Agency in LA
Carol Scott – Print Division
(310).475.7573
cscott@cesdtalent.com
Alex Fox – Commerical Division
(310).475.2111
afox@cesdtalent.com
powered by http://IndieMarketingGenius.com
Urge your senators to support the Breast Cancer Education and Awareness act to save lives and detect cancer early!
October 27, 2009
| Hi Bobbi,
An estimated 194,280 new cases of invasive breast cancer will occur in the United States this year — taking the lives of 40,610 people. Although both men and women are at risk of breast cancer, when cancer is found in women under the age of 45, it is more likely to be aggressive and less responsive to therapies. October is national Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so please, take this time to urge your senators to support the Breast Cancer Education and Awareness act to save lives and detect cancer early! » Unfortunately, many women do not learn much about beast health unless they breastfeed or they have a problem that needs medical attention. A new bill introduced in Congress would change this. For the past 30 years new cases of breast cancer have steadily increased and while mortality has decreased, increasing education and addressing these life threatening issues earlier would greatly improve cancer survival rates.
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| Take action link: http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AFrAs/zJX1/Apf9k |
Founder of Breast Friends Forever Corinna Gordon Designs Beautiful Jewelry to Help Breast Cancer Patients.
October 27, 2009
Corinna Gordon spends hours collecting healthy, organic fruits and vegetables in Santa Barbara’s famous Saturday morning Farmers market with her volunteers. I had the pleasure of joining her as she cheerfully and tirelessly asks each stand owner if they would participate in donating a few fresh herbs and vegetables to cancer patients recuperating from surgery or in chemotherapy.
She knows what each patient needs and carefully picks foods that will not upset their stomach if they are going through chemotherapy. She would know, she has been through it. She gathers bundles of fresh, beautiful flowers to adorn The Breast Cancer Resource Center of Santa Barbara front lobby for the patients who come in free Reiki Tuesdays.
After experiencing the pain of feeling helpless across the country as my sweet family friend recuperated from a double mastectomy, I was anxious to help others with this too common cancer. Breast cancer affects 1 out of every 3 women and men in America. Devastating. I needed to do something to help.
I researched the local paper and found a great article in The Independent about Corinna Gordon. All she was asking was for volunteers for every day simple chores…like picking up the leaves, or delivering dry cleaning maybe an hour a day. We met to discuss how I could support her.
I found Corinna’s attitude is full of life, and bubbling with ideas. A portion of her gorgeous jewelry designs going towards the Resource Center. She has been participating to make a difference for the patients in Santa Barbara through the Resource Center as she delivers fresh bundles of parsley, lettuce, cucumbers, plums and adornments door to door on Saturday through her founded organization Breast Friends Forever.
Her future plans include a BFF website and farm sponsors links to appreciate the support from the local farmers who have graciously donated.
When you buy from Corinna’s ‘Splenderella’ Collection you are also helping to support the recovering patients of Breast Cancer, helping them get back on their feet and enjoy a life again.
Corinna was raised on her father’s estate in England’s Lake District. After studying at University in Florence, she traveled the world seeking the perfect outlet for her creative talents. After success as an artist, both in watercolors and her unique three dimensional portraits “Miniature Lifestyles” (click here for more information and photographs), she moved to California. After surviving breast cancer, she became an acclaimed interior designer (see www.corinnagordon.com). Her clients have included Kirk Douglas, Marcus Allen, Dr. Dre, William Randolph Hearst II, Dame Anita Roddick and The Biltmore Salon & Spa, and the $50 million Montecito home that was later purchased by Oprah.
(805) 963-9909
http://www.spenderella.com
About Jewelry:
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I am proud to support Corinna Gordon Jewelry here on Women Without Borders.
I am proud to support Corinna Gordon Jewelry here on Women Without Borders.
Happy in our new home, Montecito CA.
October 25, 2009
Filmmakers Luis and Bobbi Moro in their home city Montecito, CaliforniaMaria Shriver’s New report: Wives are earning more than husbands
October 19, 2009
Increasingly, wives are earning more than husbands
While the stereotype of the male breadwinner is still alive and well in many people’s minds, the reality is that a growing number of women are earning more than their husbands.
WATCH VIDEO: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/33368119#33368119
About Maria Shriver
The founder of A Woman’s Nation, Maria Shriver is California’s first lady and co-hosts the annual Women’s Conference. She is an author and award-winning journalist best known for her work on NBC’s “Dateline.” Shriver is the mother of four children.
Download the full report (pdf)
Opening chapter by Maria Shriver
The New Breadwinners by Heather Boushey
Family Friendly for All Families by Ann O’Leary and Karen Kornbluh
The Shriver Report
A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything
By Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress, edited by Heather Boushey and Ann O’Leary | October 16, 2009
Executive summary
By Heather Boushey and Ann O’Leary
Download the executive summary (pdf)
This report describes how a woman’s nation changes everything about how we live and work today. Now for the first time in our nation’s history, women are half of all U.S. workers and mothers are the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in nearly two-thirds of American families. This is a dramatic shift from just a generation ago (in 1967 women made up only one-third of all workers). It changes how women spend their days and has a ripple effect that reverberates throughout our nation. It fundamentally changes how we all work and live, not just women but also their families, their co-workers, their bosses, their faith institutions, and their communities.
Quite simply, women as half of all workers changes everything.
Recognizing the importance of women’s earnings to family well-being is the key piece to understanding why we are in a transformational moment. This social transformation is affecting nearly every aspect of our lives—from how we work to how we play to how we care for one another. Yet, we, as a nation, have not come to terms with what this means. In this report, we break new ground by taking a hard look at how women’s changing roles affect our major societal institutions, from government and businesses to our faith communities. We outline how these institutions rely on outdated models of who works and who cares for our families. And we examine how our culture has responded to one of the greatest social transformations of our time.
Our findings should not be surprising to working men and women. Today, four-in-five families with children still at home are not the traditional male breadwinner, female homemaker. And women are increasingly becoming their family’s breadwinner or co-breadwinner (see Figures 1 and 2). The deep economic downturn is amplifying and accelerating this trend. Men have lost three-out-of-four jobs so far since the Great Recession began in December 2007, leaving millions of wives to bring home the bacon while their husbands search for work. Women working outside the home, however, is not a short-term blip. This is a long-term trend that shows no signs of reversing.
Although our report is titled “A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything,” this is not just a woman’s story. This is a report about how women becoming half of workers changes everything for men, women, and their families. The Rockefeller/Time nationwide poll, conducted in early September as the chapters of the report were being finalized, finds that the battle of the sexes is over and is replaced by negotiations between the sexes about work, family, household responsibilities, child care, and elder care. Yet, while men generally accept women working and making more money, men and women both express concern about kids left behind. Whose job is it? Men and women agree that government and business are out of touch with the realties of how most families live and work today. Families need more flexible work schedules, comprehensive child care policies, redesigned family and medical leave, and equal pay. The aim of this report is to take this conversation up to the national level, to engage men and women in thinking about what this new reality means for our vision of ourselves, our families, our communities, and the government, social, and religious institutions around us.
In short, this report lays the groundwork for how our society can better support the new American worker and the new American family.
The chapters in this report examine a host of ways in which our lives have changed forever because women have entered the labor force in ever greater numbers. The policy implications vary from issue to issue, but the conclusions are clear: We need to rethink our assumptions about families and about work and focus our policies—at all levels—to address this new reality.
Clearly we aren’t going back to a time when women were available full time to be their families’ unpaid caretakers, so we need to find another way forward. This report builds on the decades of work on these issues and aims to spark a national conversation and attract the attention of policymakers and political leaders to focus on the implications of this transformation for our society.
Maria Shriver opens our report with A Woman’s Nation. Her chapter describes the unique ways the Shriver and CAP teams approached this complex set of topics. She details how together we took a “deep dive” into how our culture and our society are responding to changes in women’s dual roles in the workforce and in the family. Shriver takes a historical look at the transformation of the American woman since her uncle, President John F. Kennedy, asked Frist Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to chair the first Commission on the Status of Women in 1961. Shriver connects this overarching social shift to the most consistent roles of her life and of most women’s lives—the roles of daughter and mother. As our country reshapes the face of its workforce, Shriver reminds us that the struggles of the women before us opened the doors for us to guide the next generation of young women through.
In her chapter, Shriver also describes the conversations she conducted with everyday Americans around the nation, discovering that men and women are indeed negotiating everything—from the daily struggle over whether the husband or wife will drop off their child at school in the morning to major life decisions about whether a family will relocate to further one spouse’s career even if it hampers the other’s. You’ll find quotes from these conversations highlighted between the different chapters of this report—insights that bring to life the equally telling analysis of how we work and live today. And alongside our chapters is a collection of essays that Maria Shriver and her team gathered from an intriguing array of women and men, among them Oprah Winfrey, Billie Jean King, Suze Orman, Patricia Kempthorne, and Tammy Duckworth; less famous but equally insightful individuals such as Col. Maritza Sáenz Ryan, First Gentleman of Michigan Dan Mulhern and Accel Partners’ Sukhinder Singh Cassidy; and everyday Americans at the forefront of these monumental changes in our society like Gianna Le, a young Vietnamese-American seeking to enter medical school this year. This chapter captures these insights and matches them to the analysis in the report to sharply define these personal experiences on the larger canvas of our changing nation.
The New Breadwinners, by Heather Boushey, Center for American Progress senior economist, explores the economic underpinnings of the transformation of women’s work. This chapter homes in on who’s gone to work, where women are working, why they are working, how well they are coping, and what this means for the economic well-being of women and their families. The chapter finds that while women are now half of workers and mothers are breadwinners or co-breadwinners in the majority of families, institutions have failed to catch up to this reality. Women have made great strides and are now more likely to be economically responsible for themselves and their families, but there is a still a long way to go. Equality in the workplace has not yet been achieved, even as families need women’s equality now more than ever.
Family Friendly for All Families: Workers and caregivers need government policies that reflect today’s realities, by Ann O’Leary, Center for American Progress senior fellow and executive director of the Berkeley Center for Health, Economic & Family Security at the University of California Berkeley School of Law, and Karen Kornbluh, former visiting fellow at the Center for American Progress, explores the implications of women in the workplace for government policy affecting workers and caregivers. O’Leary and Kornbluh argue that we need to reevaluate the values and assumptions underlying our nation’s workplace policies and social insurance system to ensure that they reflect the actual—not outdated or imagined—ways that families work and care today.
Up until now, government policymakers largely focused on supporting women’s entry into a male-oriented workforce on a par with men—a workplace where policies on hours, pay, benefits, and leave time were designed around male breadwinners who presumably had no family caregiving responsibilities. But allowing women to play by the same rules as a traditional male breadwinner worker is not enough. Too many workers—especially women and low-wage workers—today simply cannot work in the way traditional breadwinners once worked with a steady job and lifelong marriage with a wife at home.
O’Leary and Kornbluh suggest that a fruitful way for government to address this new economic and social reality would be to update our basic labor standards to include family-friendly employee benefits and reform our anti-discrimination laws so that employers cannot disproportionately exclude women from workplace benefits. Their chapter also argues that we need to modernize our social insurance system to account for varied families and new family responsibilities, including the need for paid family leave and social security retirement benefits that take into account time spent out of the workforce caring for children and other relatives. O’Leary and Kornbluh close with suggestions for increasing support to families for child care, early education, and elder care in order to help working parents cope with their dual responsibilities.
Next is a reflective essay, Invisible Yet Essential: Immigrant women in America, by Maria Echaveste, Center for American Progress senior fellow and senior distinguished fellow at the Warren Institute at University of California Berkeley School of Law. This chapter focuses in on how we often overlook the crucial work—child and parental care, home maintenance, food production, and cleaning—once done by the unpaid wives of male breadwinners but which is now the work of immigrant women. These hardworking immigrant women have helped make possible other women’s mass entry into the workforce. Echaveste points out that our economy is increasingly based on a growing service-sector industry, which in turn challenges all of us to value the work of the millions of immigrant women performing these services. Indeed, she concludes that the work these women do will be necessary regardless of how high-tech our economy becomes. They can no longer be ignored.
Sick and Tired: Working women and their health, by Jessica Arons, director of the Women’s Health and Rights Program at the Center for American Progress, and Northwestern University law professor Dorothy Roberts, explores the implications of women working and earning the family income on women’s health, as well as women’s access to employer-based and private health insurance. They find that women’s breadwinning has not always come with greater access to health benefits and, too often, women’s health is compromised as they combine work and family responsibilities. As more women work, the authors note that we are developing a greater understanding of the health implications for women and their families—everything from inequitable job conditions and workplace health hazards to the timing of when women become mothers. Further, they highlight how our current health insurance system, centered as it is on employer-sponsored insurance, fails women in a variety of ways.
Blogger: Bobbi Miller-Moro
Courtesy of: Angela dreams
Bobbi at Moro Films.com
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