Date: Fri 28-Feb-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Elaine-Hendrickson-BPW-pay

Full Text:

State BPW President Works For Equity In The Workplace And The Paycheck

(with photo)

BY KAAREN VALENTA

When Elaine Hendrickson went to Washington, D.C., recently to discuss fair pay

for women with Connecticut's congressmen, she was voicing a concern of women

from throughout the country.

"According to 1995 statistics from the US Department of Labor [the most recent

statistics available], women only earn an average 71 cents for every dollar

that a man is paid," she said. "This represents an estimated loss of $420,000

over a lifetime for every woman in America - money that could lift families

out of poverty and mean the difference between owning or renting a home, going

to college, or being able to afford health insurance in times of need."

A resident of Newtown since 1967, Elaine Hendrickson is a charter member of

Newtown Business & Professional Women and the current BPW state president. She

joined approximately 250 fellow BPW members from across the nation in

Washington several weeks ago as part of BPW's annual Policy in Action

conference.

"Policy in Action `97 focused on the issue of fair pay," Ms Hendrickson said.

"Pay equity is about fairness. Just as we believe it would be wrong to give

our sons a $10 allowance while only giving $7 to our daughters, it is wrong to

pay working women less than men simply because of their gender."

Headquartered in Washington, BPW/USA promotes equity for all women in the

workplace through advocacy, education and information, Ms Hendrickson said.

The organization has 70,000 members in more than 2,000 local chapters

throughout nearly every congressional district.

While attending the four-day conference in Washington, Ms Hendrickson met with

the staffs of Congressmen Jim Maloney, Chris Shays and Sam Gejdenson and the

staff of Senator Chris Dodd to discuss the issues of pay equity. She also took

part in seminars and workshops designed to educate women on the issues and

motivate them to take political action.

Although she has been a BPW member since the Newtown chapter formed 16 years

ago and served on the town's Legislative Council for 12 years, Ms Hendrickson

does not see herself as exceptional.

"I was a typical child of my generation," she said. "I graduated from high

school in 1952, got married three years later, worked for a few years, then

had children. I spent years involved with the children's activities like Girl

Scouts, band parents, PTA and all of that. You can spend as much time with

volunteer work as if you had a [paying] job."

When her youngest child was in elementary school, Elaine decided to go back to

school for a college degree. She finished the four-year program plus student

teaching in three and one-half years.

"I was following the trend of the displaced homemaker," she said. "Within

three or four years every woman in my neighborhood was working, whereas before

they hadn't been. But when I graduated, in 1978, it was the worst time for

getting teaching jobs, so I did substitute teaching for a year."

She became a single parent in 1979 and, realizing she could not support her

family on a substitute teacher's wages, she decided to look for a full-time

job in business.

"I applied for secretarial jobs but was continually told that I was

`over-qualified,'" she said. "Finally someone told me that if I wanted a job,

I should leave the resume home. So I did, and it worked."

Her first job had a work schedule of four ten-hour days each week, which was

not convenient for a mother of five children. So she jumped at the opportunity

when a position was created in 1980 as the full-time clerk of Newtown's new

Inland Wetlands Commission.

"Those were the days," Ms Hendrickson said, laughing. "The commission didn't

have an office at first and when they got one, there was no money in the

budget to furnish it, so Julia Wasserman and I scrounged for used furniture.

The office was upstairs in the Congregational Church House along with the

Building Department and Planning & Zoning, but we didn't have air

conditioning. Some days it was so unbearably hot, I used to go to Julia's

house and type in her kitchen."

She hadn't been working long when, in 1981, she saw a small notice in The

Newtown Bee that a BPW chapter was being organized in Newtown.

"It started with a bang because everyone was going back to work," she said.

"It was organized with 25 to 30 members. The need was there for a chapter and

it has always been very active. Women needed to share their experience in the

workplace."

When her youngest child was in high school, Elaine took a job with a

manufacturing company in Danbury. She also returned to school at night and,

after six years, earned a master's degree in business administration, with a

concentration in human resources. She was also elected to Legislative Council

in the First District and subsequently was re-elected six times.

She was working for Transkrit, a New York printing company, when the company

decided to move to Virginia several years ago.

"I knew it was coming," she said. "I had my house on the market for two years

and had been looking for another job without success. Then the week before I

was to leave, things started to happen."

She went to Virginia to help set up the company in its new location, then came

back to her home on Rock Ridge Road in Newtown and started a new job in human

resources with Children's Services and Green Chimneys School in Brewster,

N.Y., an agency which operates a school for 140 residential and day students,

plus five group homes in Westchester County, two condos in Danbury, a

residential facility in New York City, a program called RAP for runaway

adolescents, and projects like Good Friends in Danbury and cafe and

landscaping projects in conjunction with the Datahr Rehabilitation Institute.

But working in industry for years had showed her firsthand the lack of women

in management and executive positions.

"Big companies need to hire, encourage and promote women," she said. "You just

can't ignore half the population and think you are getting the best.

Unfortunately, the old-boy network still exists. There are very few women -

only about two percent - on corporate boards of directors."

"It's not like women get discounts either," Ms Hendrickson said. "Women are

charged more for their hair cuts, for dry cleaning and other services."

Progress is being made, albeit very slowly, she said.

In 1960, women were paid only 58 cents for every $1 that a man in a comparable

job earned. Today the amount has risen to 71 cents.

"The Paycheck Fairness Act lists eight criteria - such as working conditions,

hours, education and responsibilities - by which you can compare jobs, even

those as different as garbage collectors and nurses," she said. "And just

because jobs have two different titles - like janitor and housekeeper -

doesn't mean they aren't the same. You can't pay differently for the same

work."

"It's too late for my generation but I hope that equity will be achieved in my

daughters' lifetimes. I want them to be able to make a decent living and have

an adequate pension."