Amy Dalrymple

Achieving a World of Work Free from Gender-Based Violence and Harassment

McGinnis.Laura.K@dol.gov — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 14:06:09 +0000

Achieving a World of Work Free from Gender-Based Violence and Harassment

Gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) in the world of work is pervasive across all industries and occupations in the United States and around the world. Globally, more than 1 in 5 workers has experienced violence and harassment at work.

In the United States, anywhere from 25% to 85% of women report having experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. Overall, the rate of women’s sexual harassment charges per 100,000 employees is higher in male-dominated industries like mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction; warehousing; and transportation. However, the total number of sexual harassment claims filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are highest in the industries that employ large numbers of women, with the top being the accommodation and food services industry, followed by retail trade.

As unsettling as these figures are, they only represent the reported cases. Due to the fear of retaliation, limited access to legal and supportive services, and a variety of other harmful norms still present in jobs today, many incidents of GBVH continue to go unreported.

Persistent rates and reports of GBVH in the world of work are why we are joining the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign again this year, alongside workers, advocates, unions, employers and other government agencies, to continue to listen, raise awareness and call for the elimination of GBVH. We must shine a light on this violence and lift up survivor-centered and trauma-informed best practices that effectively prevent and respond to GBVH.

Over the past year, the Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau has been leveraging its convening, grantmaking and advocacy powers to end GBVH in the world of work and ensure survivors’ voices are represented in the public policy process. For example, when asked how to get more women into trucking to help solve our nation’s supply chain issues, the Women’s Bureau amplified the voices of women drivers rightly concerned about women entering an industry with rampant and unchecked sexual violence and harassment. In April, we answered the Biden-Harris Administration’s call for a Day of Action to Raise Awareness and Prevent Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment in the Trucking Industry by securing commitments from numerous industry stakeholders to take concrete actions to prevent and respond to such violence, as well as by holding a virtual roundtable on the topic with workers, federal partners and other industry stakeholders.

In the similarly male-dominated infrastructure industry, the Women's Bureau has also been highlighting the issue of GBVH. Our Equity in Focus Summit in September brought together representatives from the private sector, unions, state and local government, workers, and other stakeholders to share strategies on how to use federal funds to increase job quality and advance equity in the workplace. One of the key takeaways from the summit was clear: Addressing GBVH in the world of work is an essential component of securing equitable, safe, quality jobs.

Through our grantmaking authority, we award funds to organizations connecting low-wage and marginalized women workers to services, benefits and legal assistance as part of our Fostering Access, Rights, and Equity grant program. One grantee, the Western North Carolina Workers’ Center, is using its funding to help prevent and address the widespread GBVH occurring in western North Carolina’s poultry industry. Specifically, it aims to deconstruct the systems that perpetuate fear, violence and harassment in the poultry industry, while helping empower women and survivors who are predominantly Latina and Asian immigrant women workers.

Most recently, the Women’s Bureau has been collaborating with the International Labour Organization’s Office for the United States and Canada to participate in a series of roundtables to explore how collaboration and strategy can help eliminate GBVH in the United States. The series, Uniting to End GBVH in the World of Work, emphasizes the meaningful and lasting change we can make in our communities when governments, workers, unions, employers, and advocates act in tandem. The next roundtable on Dec. 7 will feature worker-led education and awareness efforts to make our world of work safer for all workers by enacting culture change, addressing structural risk factors, and centering worker voices in solutions.

During these 16 Days and beyond, we invite you to join these efforts and unite with us. Together, we can make systemic changes that eliminate the harmful norms that perpetuate violence and harassment. Together, we can expand access to safety and support for survivors, while investing in promising prevention measures. Together, we can empower workers and survivors. A world of work free from GBVH doesn’t have to be something we just strive for—together, we can make it the new reality.

Amy Dalrymple and Katrin Schulz are policy analysts in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau. Follow the Women’s Bureau on Twitter: @WB_DOL

McGinnis.Laura… Wed, 12/07/2022 - 09:06

Amy Dalrymple, Katrin Schulz

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Together, We Can Achieve a World of Work Free from Gender-Based Violence and Harassment

McGinnis.Laura.K@dol.gov — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 14:06:09 +0000

Together, We Can Achieve a World of Work Free from Gender-Based Violence and Harassment

Amy Dalrymple and Katrin Schulz are policy analysts in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau. Follow the Women’s Bureau on Twitter: @WB_DOL

McGinnis.Laura… Wed, 12/07/2022 - 09:06

Amy Dalrymple, Katrin Schulz

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Eliminating Violence and Harassment in the World of Work

Koebel.Tiffany.L@dol.gov — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 14:10:35 +0000

Eliminating Violence and Harassment in the World of Work

Each year, from Nov. 25 to Dec. 10, the Global 16 Days Campaign brings together governments, international organizations, the public and private sectors, and individuals to raise awareness about and call for the elimination of gender-based violence. This year’s 30th anniversary campaign is focusing on domestic violence and the world of work. The Women’s Bureau joins these efforts to end gender-based violence in the world of work and believes everyone has the right to be safe at work and live in a world free from violence and harassment.

Gender-based violence in the world of work can be the direct result of domestic violence and can affect both women and men, in all their diversity. Gender-based violence not only affects the survivors who experience it, it also affects the entire community around them and can have multigenerational impacts.

Globally, about 1 in 3 women have experienced some form of physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. In the U.S., 1 in 4 women and 1 in 10 men have experienced domestic violence. Coined the “shadow pandemic,” we’ve seen the rates of domestic violence rise in our communities as COVID-19 social distancing efforts worldwide sent people into isolation and made it harder for survivors to get help. Even before the pandemic, one survey estimated that in the U.S., more than half a million women had missed work in the past year and nearly 8.5 million women had missed work at some point over their lifetime due to intimate partner violence.

Financial independence through employment can help break the cycle of violence and harassment. However, barriers such as domestic violence and workplace harassment prevent women all over the world and in the United States from entering and remaining in the labor force.

One of the Women’s Bureau’s recent initiatives, the Fostering Access, Rights, and Education (FARE) grant program, helps women workers learn about their employment rights and access benefits. These grants are intended to ensure that women who are paid low wages at work, and are otherwise marginalized and underserved, can access the services, benefits and legal assistance they need.

Guam’s Bureau of Women’s Affairs, one of six recent FARE grantees, is addressing workplace harassment among women throughout Guam. University of Guam data indicates that 63% of residents most affected economically by COVID-19 were women. Data also shows that of the 1,030 domestic violence cases reported in 2020, 74% of the survivors were women. Additionally, approximately 78% of workplace establishments in Guam employ fewer than 20 people, and many do not have the resources to address workplace complaints, including workplace harassment.

By conducting targeted, multilingual outreach to communities and small businesses throughout Guam, the Bureau of Women’s Affairs is expecting to connect directly with more than 400 women workers to educate them about workplace harassment, inform them about their rights, and provide access to benefits and resources. They also hope to reach people across Guam via a print, broadcast and social media campaign.

Violence and harassment in the world of work is pervasive across sectors and countries and therefore requires innovative solutions that invest in comprehensive services for survivors, as well as robust prevention efforts. As the world continues to cope with the pandemic, we must take action to eliminate violence and harassment at work.

Learn more about the 16 Days Campaign, and watch an International Labor Organization panel on ending workplace violence and harassment featuring Women’s Bureau Director Wendy Chun-Hoon on Dec. 15.

Amy Dalrymple is a policy analyst in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau. Follow the bureau on Twitter: @WB_DOL.

Koebel.Tiffany… Thu, 12/09/2021 - 09:10

Amy Dalrymple

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7 Stats About Working Women to Celebrate the Women’s Bureau Centennial

Koebel.Tiffany.L@dol.gov — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 12:43:10 +0000

7 Stats About Working Women to Celebrate the Women’s Bureau Centennial

On June 5, 1920, the Women’s Bureau was established in the U.S. Department of Labor with the duty to “formulate standards and policies which shall promote the welfare of wage-earning women, improve their working conditions, increase their efficiency, and advance their opportunities for profitable employment.”

Today, the Women’s Bureau honors its centennial. For 100 years, the Women’s Bureau has been championing working women and the issues they care about most.

As we look ahead, it is important to highlight the accomplishments women have made in the workforce over the last 100 years. Using data from the Census and the American Community Survey, the Women’s Bureau published an interactive visualization to display how the landscape for working women has changed over time. The interactive features data on the top 10 occupations employing the largest number of women, the number of women in the workforce, and the share of women employed in the top 10 occupations for each decade from 1920 to 2018. View the interactive on the Women’s Bureau’s interactive visualization on women in the labor force since 1920.

Here are seven highlights:

In 1920, 8.2 million women were working, representing 20.3% of the workforce, while in 2018 there were was 78.6 million women working, representing 47.3% of the workforce.
Domestic service/maid/private household worker was the most common occupation for women in 1920.
Farming and laundering are two occupations that have not been in the top 10 since the 1930s.
Teaching has been a top 10 occupation for women in every decade from 1920 to today, while nursing has been a top 10 occupation since the 1950s.
In the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, the top occupation employing women was “operatives.” Women working in this occupation were primarily factory workers in apparel and textile manufacturing. In each of these decades, the number of women in the workforce increased.
The share of women employed in the top 10 occupations in each decade rose from 52.8% in 1920 to a high of 69.8% in 1950, but fell to 32.8% in 2018, indicating greater diversity in job opportunities for women today.
In 2018, teachers and nurses were the top two occupations employing the largest number of women. There were 4.2 million teachers and 3.9 million nurses; combined they have about the same population of all women workers from 1920.

As women have progressed in the workforce over the past 100 years, the Women’s Bureau’s mission has remained the same. We are dedicated to representing and advocating for the welfare and opportunities of wage earning women. At the Women’s Bureau, we have adapted our work to the changing needs of women over time. From studying the working conditions of women in the 1920s and 1930s, to advocating for equality in the workplace in the 1960s, to supporting access to child care and paid leave today, the Women’s Bureau has met its mandate to research the issues and pioneer innovative policies and programs as the landscape of the workforce changes for women.

As we honor the 100th anniversary of the Women’s Bureau, we are also looking toward the future by increasing opportunities for women in the workforce. Learn more at dol.gov/wb.

Amy Dalrymple is a policy analyst and presidential management fellow, and Christin Landivar is a senior researcher in the U.S. Department of Labor's Women's Bureau.

Koebel.Tiffany… Fri, 06/05/2020 - 08:43

Amy Dalrymple, Christin Landivar

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