April
18 , 2003 Young
Lobbyist Makes Take the Lead Action Project a Reality
|
Utah
Governor Michael Leavitt (center) signs House Bill 81 with
Utah Representative Ty McCartney (to his left) and former
Take the Lead participant Susan Sparrow (to his right) and
her classmates from Rowland Hall St. Marks High School on
April 4 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
|
Women’s
eNews correspondent
Elizabeth Mehren wrote the following account of 2002 Take the
Lead participant Susan Sparrow’s determination and recent
success. Mehren’s substantial piece appeared April 13 in
the online publication at www.womensenews.org.“They
stalked this state’s notoriously conservative state legislators,
pressing each state senator and representative to talk about the
grave disparity in state salaries paid to men and women in Utah,”
Mehren writes. “They handed out fact sheets filled with
talking points, so none of the legislators could say later that
the information was unclear. They kept a log, recording each lawmaker’s
reaction. A smiley face after the legislator’s name meant
the response was positive. A frown meant there was work to be
done. After each meeting, even if it was the briefest of hallway
conclaves, they wrote thank-you notes. According to seventeen-year-old
Susan Sparrow, who led the charge, whenever they went to the capitol—especially
when testifying in committee—they wore ‘big, obnoxious
blue buttons,’ that said: ‘Aren’t We Worth It?’
Last week, the work of Sparrow and nineteen other young lobbyists
who championed a bill (HB 81) authorizing a study on salary inequities
between male and female state workers paid off. They attended
a ceremony on April 4 to celebrate the measure’s 71–1
passage. The landslide was all the more satisfying for them because
in previous years at least two similar efforts by adult supporters
had collapsed. . . . Sparrow launched her campaign after attending
a leadership conference last year at Mount Holyoke College in
South Hadley, Massachusetts. She decided that if she was going
to change the world, she should probably start with her home state.”
The bill pushed through by Sparrow and nineteen other young lobbyists
mandates a study regarding pay among Utah state employees. It
will be the first time that the state’s Department of Workforce
Services will collect payment data by gender. Sparrow considers
the study, which will be conducted on a select group, to be an
important first step toward both closing the gender pay gap in
her home state of Utah and her goal of involving young women in
politics in the state. Dismayed by the uneven distribution of
men and women in politics in Utah, the junior at Rowland Hall
St. Marks High School in Salt Lake formulated a plan during Take
the Lead to involve young girls in her state’s political
process.
“I’ve always had a passion for politics and I’ve
always wanted to share it with others, but I never knew how until
coming to Take the Lead,” says Sparrow. Upon returning to
Salt Lake, Sparrow hit a roadblock with her initial plan, but
in November, she learned about the citizen interest group Utah
Progressive Network and its role in working for pay equity in
the state. Sparrow met with the network’s lobbyist Lorna
Vogt, who explained that a proposed pay equity bill sponsored
by Representative Ty McCartney, D-Salt Lake, had recently failed
out of committee and warned that future progress on the bill looked
bleak.
With a copy of the proposed bill in hand, Sparrow headed to the
library to look into the issue. She was galvanized by her findings:
Utah is the second worst state for pay equity, with women earning
only sixty-six cents for every dollar a man earns.
To engage peers in
her new cause, Sparrow held a pizza party with a movie about women’s
rights on December 12. Thirty-nine students turned out. A group
of twenty core members from Rowland Hall and two students from
other schools continued to meet throughout the following months,
practicing lobbying techniques learned from Vogt and gaining notoriety
through the press.
On Valentine’s Day, the young activists dramatized their
issue at the capitol by handing out large heart-shaped cookies
and 34 percent smaller ones, symbols of the sixty-six cents women
earn for every dollar men earn. The cookies displayed messages
such as “Aren’t we worth it?” “Yes on
H.B. 81” “.66 or $1.00—which do you prefer?”
“We are worth it” and “Pay Equity,” and
a string of cookies spelled out “Women make 66 cents to
every man’s dollar in Utah.”
Bill 81 for pay equity passed in the House, with the group of
teens showing up frequently to pass notes to elected officials
and speak with aides. Stuck in the Senate’s Rule Committee,
the bill almost died with just days left in the legislative session,
but intensive lobbying pushed it through to a final vote on March
3. It passed 25–0.
“As we listened to the votes being tallied, five months
of hard work and devotion seemed to all come together for us.
We were thrilled to see the results of our efforts,” notes
Sparrow. At the bill signing, Governor Mike Leavitt gave the signed
bill to Representative McCartney, who turned it over to Sparrow,
saying, “This bill really belongs to Susan.”
For information about Take the Lead, visit www.mtholyoke.edu/go/takethelead.
ounter
is
1,347
|
