Woman News
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2009 - Seven Who Stretch the Possible
Profiles of seven outstanding leaders dedicated to improving women"s lives: Sharon Katz, Lilly Ledbetter, Patrick C. Lynch, Rabbi Diana S. Manber, Anika Rahman, Dr. Linda Randolph and Cathi Rodgveller. Sharon Katz, Defender of the Vilified For over a dozen years Sharon Katz has volunteered her legal expertise to women who live in the margins of society, especially those in prison and undocumented immigrants. "I want to put my effort and energy into the forsaken issues, the less sympathetic constituencies," says Katz, a partner for 26 years at New York law firm Davis Polk and Wardwell. "It is where I can make the biggest difference." Through her work with the nonprofit Incarcerated Mothers Law Project in New York, Katz says she has met many women who have simply made bad choices after growing up with little guidance or help. "Women in prison are very isolated, somewhat vilified, and there are very few people that seem willing to go into the prisons and work with them," Katz says. "But having paid the price doesn"t mean they have to be denied access to their children or access to an opportunity for the future." These women have few resources and much of her work is translating court vocabulary so they can be informed of their options. She has helped dozens of jailed women reunite with their children or arrange visits and helped them handle divorces or child support. "I noticed that many women who are in prison are being charged by the state with child support, and do not know about it," she says. "When they leave jail, they are indebted with $30,000, and there is no way they will be able to pay this off." People simply want to be treated fairly and with respect, Katz says, and that has informed her work. Through the Sanctuary for Families, a New York nonprofit that helps victims of domestic violence, she has helped undocumented women apply for U-visas, which grants them special permission to apply for legal status. Katz and other lawyers at her firm helped the organization process 100 applications in a six-month period. But so far, even though the government is authorized to issue 10,000 U-visas each year, Katz says only one woman has received one. "Most of the cases are domestic violence-related," she says. "It is very hard to say why it is taking so much time; a lot of women are in limbo right now. Patience is my best advice for them." Meanwhile, though, she has attracted more of her firm"s associates to both of the pro bono programs. She says there is no shortage of work. "It is very rewarding to see that other people are actually getting involved." --Iulia Anghelescu [----------] Lilly Ledbetter, Flag-Bearer for Fair Pay Lilly Ledbetter"s crusade for fair pay has taken her from her mailbox at a Gadsden, Ala., tire plant to the steps of the Supreme Court and to the stage at the Democratic National Convention. Through it all she stood up for one single idea: Men and women who do the same job should earn the same wage. Ledbetter describes the night in 1998 when she realized she was paid less than three men doing the same supervisor job at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber plant where she worked. She had an inkling that something wasn"t right, but when she found an anonymous note slipped into her mailbox, she learned the hard truth. The men"s pay was 20 percent higher. "The first names, the black and white numbers, were deflating to my ego, my integrity, my self-worth," she says. "I felt so humiliated." On her next day off, Ledbetter drove to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission office in her area to file a suit, which lasted nine years. Although the initial ruling awarded substantial damages--$3.8 million reduced to $360,000 by the judge--the verdict was appealed. In May 2007 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against her. The 5-4 majority ruled that the law required Ledbetter to file her case within 180 days of the time when the discriminatory act occurred, even though she was unaware of it until nearly two decades later. A dissenting Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called for legislation to undo the court"s "parsimonious reading" of wage bias laws. Ledbetter scoffs at the need to limit the numbers of women suing their employers by such a strict time limit for filing an official complaint. "I would much rather have had my earnings when I should have, been paid more fairly and built up my retirement," she says. "It was never about the money. It was about the right thing to do." The disappointment could have stopped her but Ledbetter continues to fight. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to change the law to more of what Justice Ginsburg had in mind became the first bill signed by President Barack Obama after he took office. Even though the bill was blocked by Senate Republicans in 2008, Obama took up the cause as a candidate, mentioning Ledbetter in a debate and inviting her to give a speech at his party"s national convention. Her time in the spotlight has honored her tremendously, Ledbetter says, even though it has exposed her to other sad stories of women suffering pay discrimination. "If I can get this law changed back it will be a great legacy to leave," she says. "I hope people will say, "She made a difference."" --Sarah Seltzer [----------] Patrick C. Lynch, Prosecutor Dedicated to Protection In early 2007, Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch prosecuted the brutal murder of Lindsay Ann Burke, a 23-year-old woman who was killed in 2005 by an abusive former partner. After the conviction, Lindsay"s mother, Ann, asked Lynch what else she could do to make sure that what happened to her daughter did not happen to other young women. Burke and Lynch wanted a proactive way to stop dating violence before it started. They believed it was the best way to memorialize Lindsay. The two soon identified an area where prevention programs were lacking: curriculums for middle and high school students that directly addressed dating and relationship violence. In a 2006 federal study, one in 11 adolescents reported being a victim of physical dating abuse. "In our state wonderful programs existed but there were also tremendous voids," says Lynch. "While we educate kids about drugs and alcohol, which we should, we"re failing generations of young women by not providing them the education we should." Lynch, who was first elected in 2002, had experience "on the front lines" as a prosecutor with many domestic violence cases and had also worked with advocates for women over the years. On behalf of the Burke family, Lynch pushed for passage of the Lindsay Ann Burke Act, which mandates dating violence education in health classes throughout Rhode Island"s public education system. The bill passed the state"s General Assembly in 2007 and became law. Lynch has taken the cause up with his peers around the country. As president of the National Association of Attorneys General, he ushered through in June 2008 a unanimous resolution that all 50 states endeavor to enact similar laws. Already, some other attorneys general are looking to Rhode Island as a model for what their states can do. "We"re making a push to alert people to the opportunity that"s before us to really turn back the tide," he says. Lynch says the attention surrounding the introduction and passage of the Burke Act has already helped raise awareness that relationship violence can not only affect anyone, but that recognizing the signs can help save the lives of young women. "There"s a tendency for us publicly to assume that it"s something that affects someone else, an older couple," he says. "But stats and the cases we see prove that young people are being subjected far more often than you"d want to imagine." --Sarah Seltzer [----------] Rabbi Diana S. Manber, Finder of the Words for Clergy Six weeks after she began serving as a rabbi, Diana S. Manber was confronted with the problem of domestic abuse from a member of her Atlanta synagogue. Even though 90 percent of people will turn to clergy first for help with family and personal difficulties, Manber says no one taught her how to handle domestic violence during five years of rabbinical school. The battered woman, a congregant of the 1,600-family congregation, came to her seeking marital advice, telling her, "I don"t know what I am doing wrong," Manber recalls. The request for advice reminded her of the time when she felt her own rabbi had failed to help her despite being in a unique position to influence events. Manber was a child witness to domestic violence in her family home. Her mother divorced when she was 19 and was able to create a safe new home for Manber and her sister. Manber recalls seeking answers from her rabbi in her early 20s. "Where were you?" she asked her rabbi, whom she adored. "He told me that he always suspected that something was terribly wrong but that he did not know what to say, how to ask the questions. I cried, because this is a man who was never at a loss for words." After that early experience counseling the young wife, Manber decided that "I did not know how to speak" was not a valid excuse for rabbis to look away. In 2001, she embarked on a journey to study, read, learn and sit with every available advocate involved with fighting domestic violence. On the morning of Yom Kippur in 2002, the sacred Day of Atonement for Jews, she told her family"s story from the pulpit. Manber now sits on the Board of Directors and chairs the Jewish Women"s Caucus at the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She is also the director of Dayenu, the domestic violence initiative of the New York Board of Rabbis, named for the Hebrew word for "enough." The organization works with clergy and congregational leaders of all faiths to prevent violence and bring the issue to the surface. "The assumption is that those who are faithful will not do such a thing," Manber says. "It has to start with me. If I cannot make that difference in the world, then I am doing somethingPages: [1] 2