1.) Paid Sick Days Campaign

We kicked off the year in full force with an exciting new campaign for a critical protection: paid sick days. While, unfortunately, the bill did not make it through the legislature this year, significant advances were made by way of increasing public understanding and dialogue of the policy and demonstrating public support for this workplace standard.

A highlight from the campaign was when we partnered with the Maine People’s Alliance and MomsRising.org to deliver a heap of fortune cookies with personalized messages in support of paid sick days to the legislature. Why? Because healthy workplaces are worth a fortune!

What’s next? We’re not giving up! Right now, more than 200,000 Maine workers lack even a single paid sick day from work. Thousands of others risk discipline or termination simply for using time they’ve already earned. Maine Women’s Lobby will continue to work with the Maine Working Family Coalition to advance legislation to support working Mainers, including paid sick days.

Read all about it here – for all of our blog posts from the campaign.

2.) Lilly Ledbetter in Maine

Right now, the wage gap is at 77 cents to the dollar – which is to say that for every full dollar a male earns, a woman earns, on average, 77 cents. The plaintiff in the employment discrimination case Lilly Ledbetter vs. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. and namesake for the 2008 Lilly Ledbetter Fair Paid Act, Lilly is one of the nation’s foremost advocates for closing the wage gap. We were incredibly fortunate to have Lilly come to Maine and deliver an inspiring speech on her long-fought battle for equal pay. In the midst of our campaign for paid sick days, her passion and story were particularly inspirational for our work.

Check out some great photos from the event here.

3.) Safe Cosmetics

Toxic chemicals in my shampoo? Oh my! This year, the Maine Women’s Lobby’s sister organization, the Maine Women’s Policy Center, vamped up organizing with young women and worked to support the formation of a student-run group, Women Against Toxic Cosmetics Harm (WATCH). This group of 20 passionate young women worked together to advocate for needed political reform of our broken chemical safety system. In their first six months of operation, they successfully launched three creative and successful press events, conducted campus and community-wide public education, initiated online actions, organized in-district visits, and placed a number of opinion pieces in both campus and local newspapers.

In 2011, we will continue this work by engaging with student leaders and working with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England to create a statewide network of young women advocating for chemical safety reform.

For press clips, and videos from this work, click here.

4.) Elena Kagan

On August 5, with a 63-37 vote, the United States Senate confirmed Elena Kagan as the next associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. And this fall, three women took their seats together on the bench for the first time in United States history. The Maine Women’s Lobby was there all along working to engage Mainers in the process and to advocate for Kagan’s confirmation. We convened a coalition in support of the effort, organized watch parties across the state, and met with our Senators’ staffers. We want to sincerely thank Senators Snowe and Collins and all of our activists out there for making sure that Elena Kagan was confirmed as the fourth woman to join the bench in the Court’s 221-year history.

Read more about the confirmation process here.

5.) She Decides

This fall, the Maine Women’s Lobby launched a new campaign to make sure that women’s economic concerns were front and center this election year. SheDecides is a nonpartisan campaign to demonstrate the importance of women – particularly unmarried women – in the elections. SheDecides is our pocketbook agenda, and it’s a roadmap for candidates who want to speak to the economic reality of women’s lives.

We asked candidates to share where they stand on the minimum wage, paid sick days, family friendly workplaces, paycheck fairness, and access to jobs and education. And, we took those messages to the campaign trail. After holding a kick-off event on Women’s Equality Day, women in bright green SheDecides t-shirts were visible at forums across the state and earned coverage on WMTW and in the Bangor Daily News and the Portland Phoenix. We matched these on-the-ground efforts with online action—our activists generated 500 e-mails to ask candidates where they stood on our pocketbook agenda. Then, the SheDecides team knocked on doors and shared these answers with women voters by sending a voter education mailing to more than 14,000 women statewide. Check out www.SheDecides.org to learn more.

And, that ain’t all! As we gear up for the start of the new legislative session next week, look out for the SheDecides team! We’ll be brushing off those green t-shirts and heading to the legislature to advocate for Maine women!

In 90 years women voters have made a lot of progress – we’ve seen pioneering women like Shirley Chisholm, Hillary Clinton, and Margaret Chase Smith make bids for the presidency, and we have passed landmark legislation such as FMLA and the Equal Pay Act.

But while women may have the right to vote – too often, our state and federal policies still fail to reflect the needs of women voters – and the families they support.

Fortunately, Maine women are flexing their electoral muscle through a new campaign called SheDecides.org!

SheDecides will ensure that this election cycle, campaign messages and priorities speak directly to the economic realities of women’s lives. And we need you to bring women’s economic security front and center this fall.

Today, women voters gathered in Bangor to officially launch the SheDecides campaign. Their message to candidates? “Speak to me if you want my vote.”

Now it’s your turn to make sure your candidates are listening.

Email your candidate here to ask them to respond to the SheDecides candidate questionnaire which asks where they stand on the minimum wage, family friendly workplaces, paid sick days, equal pay, and, education and training programs. Visit shedecides.org to learn more about this “pocketbook agenda.”

Make sure your candidates know that you will be looking for their answers.

Spread the word!

•    Click here to tweet about SheDecides or make your own message with the #SheDecides tag.
•    Make this your facebook or Twitter Status: Maine women to candidates: Speak to me if you want my vote!  #SheDecides
•    Like SheDecides on Facebook: and stay tuned for at-the-minute updates and information about your candidates.
*** stay tuned for updates and photos form our campaign launch tomorrow!

This legislation makes Maine the 33^rd state in the nation to allow for a rebuttable presumption when a firefighter contracts cancer due to exposure to harmful chemicals while on the job.  It’s all part of our work here at the Maine Women’s Lobby to ensure that every Maine family lives in a home free of harmful chemicals.  When firefighters risk their lives to put out fires in our homes, they shouldn’t have to risk cancer as well, just because of the toxins contained in our everyday household products.

Over the course of the months it took to pass this bill, I got to know many of the firefighters who took time out of their jobs, and away from their families to talk to legislators about the need for this legislation. It was a real honor to work along side these brave men and women and honestly, a lot of fun too!

I have to admit I got a real kick out of the surprise expressed by legislators when I asked them if they had a moment to discuss this bill.  Legislators were taken aback when along with the 10 to 20 burly men dressed in uniform, there was this little lady from the Maine Women’s Lobby talking to them about this legislation!

Always a pleasure to break a stereotype!

Congratulations to all of Maine’s Firefighters and the many advocates who worked on passage of this bill.  And thank you to Senator Bartlett for the sponsoring the bill, to the members of the Labor Committee for your tireless efforts, and to Governor Baldacci for signing the bill into Maine law!

Maine State House

If you’re like me – you often feel lost when anything tax related hits home.  Terms like tax reform and Tabor II make my skin crawl – causing me to have random outbursts as I run to Google for comfort.

Fortunately for us, the Penobscot County Democratic Committee has come to our rescue.  On Tuesday, July 28th, from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm, at Husson University, a panel of well informed tax specialists will come together to answer our questions.  Yes, our questions – yours and mine.

The forum will be lead by Senator Joseph Perry of Bangor, Senate Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Taxation, the panel also includes Rep. Elsie Flemings (Bar Harbor), member of the Taxation Committee; Kurt Wise, Maine Center for Economic Policy; Dan Tremble, owner of Fairmount Market in Bangor; and David Casavant, Director of the Frank M. Carter Tax Institute at Husson University.  Both Tremble and Casavant are Board members of the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce.

Join this expert panel, and me,  in a discussion about current changes in the state tax code and upcoming referenda items facing Maine’s voters on the November ballot.  And yes, questions will be taken from the audience.

Husson University

Kominsky Hall inside Peabody Hall

Tuesday, July 28th

6:30pm – 8:00pm

For more information contact Cliff Guthrie @ 207-991-0731

See you there!

So, I started asking around … and here are some reflections from the women of the Maine Women’s Lobby:

Director of Public Policy, Laura Harper, and some of her lobbyists cohorts.

Here’s what Laura had to say:

I feel certain that my experiences lobbying for marriage equality will never be matched. Every day, I came out to legislators. I shared with them my commitment for my partner, Lauren, our engagement, and the fears and discrimination I have faced during our partnership because we can’t get married.

It was a rush. It was exhausting. It was scary. It was joyful.

When the Governor signed the bill into law, I was waiting with other advocates outside his office. When a member of his staff discreetly stuck her head around the door and whispered, “He signed it,” I knew I was a part of Maine history. I knew it would be a moment I would never forget, similar to when President Obama was elected or when we finally passed the anti-discrimination law in Maine.

I will return to that moment again and again. There will always be a part of me that will never age, there will always be a young woman standing there in her little suit with her sweaty armpits and rumpled tissue thinking, “Oh my God, we’ve actually won.”

Here’s Sarah, our Executive Director:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s Kim Simmons, one of our board members:

The highlight of the 124th Legislative session, for me, was the passage of the Marriage Equality Bill!  I am impressed with the cooperation that emerged in the 124th Legislature and with the fact that our leadership is female. Nevertheless, I was disappointed not to see more radical and progressive action taken to redistribute wealth in our state, to protect the poor, and to address the absence of paid sick leave which creates both the potential for a public health crisis and family emergencies on daily basis. It seems to me that we have a unique moment to truly push for tax policy that is rooted in social justice priorities and reflects the interests of most Maine people, and I hope that more progressive and innovative thinking will emerge in the second session of the 124th!

Charlotte at the State House

And, here’s what I think:

So, when I think back on the 124th session of the Maine Legislature, my first thought is, “phew … it’s over.” And don’t get me wrong, I love the excitement of the session. I love the exhilaration of the wins – and the opportunity of the losses. And, I guess in a lot of ways I would describe this past session as a roller-coaster ride – we were up, we were down, we were recessed, we were tabled … Oh yeah, I was paying attention to the play-by-play afforded to us by Laura, her Blackberry, and Twitter … and I was addicted! Check out our newsletter archive to review the roller-coaster ride.

So, enough about us. What do you think? Add your reflections today.

PS: Yes, “phew” is actually a word. It’s in the dictionary and everything.

Thanks everyone,

Charlotte

Throughout the past 2 weeks this giant baby bottle has been traveling across the state.

In the photos below, a group of children from a local daycare joined us – with their own handmade signs.

For more information about our work to “Get BPA out of our bodies,” and to sign the petition, check out the action page of our website.

Check out the article from the Times Record.

Now, we get to celebrate again (ok, celebrate is the wrong word, since we’re essentially talking about how long into the 2009 year it takes a woman to earn, on average, what a man earned in 2008) or rather, *commemorate* Equal Pay Day on April 28. The American Association of University Women released a chart ranking us at number 22 among all the states for our gender wage gap. They have Maine women earning 78% of what men do. Our data has us at 76%… but we won’t trifle over pennies.

We want the whole dollar.

Here’s a good way to celebrate Equal Pay Day. Talk to Senator Snowe and Senator Collins about passing the Paycheck Fairness Act.

20th Anniversary Celebration
Join us for an inspiring weekend to honor Maine women and girls who are making change happen in our communities. Learn about the 2008-09 award recipients and grantees. And celebrate how far we’ve come!

Friday, May 1
5:00-6:00 pm Red Portfolio VIP Reception
State Farm Insurance invites Maine Women’s Fund event sponsors, leadership donors and volunteers to celebrate 20 years of lasting change!

Susan Maasch Fine Art Gallery
29 Forest Avenue, Portland
(near the corner of Forest and Congress Streets)
By invitation Only
Sponsored by State Farm Insurance

6:00-8:00 pm Dux Femina Facti: A Woman Is In Charge Art Show
Susan Maasch Fine Art Gallery
29 Forest Avenue, Portland
(near the corner of Forest and Congress Streets)
Free/Open to Public 

Saturday, May 2
1:00-4:00 pm Film Screening: WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS? and Art Panel Discussion
From the producing team that won an Academy Award for Born Into Brothels, comes Who Does She Think She Is?, a film that examines some of the most pressing balancing-act issues of our time: parenting and work, partnering and independence, economics and art. Who Does She Think She Is? follows five women artists as they navigate the economic, psychological and spiritual challenges of making work outside the elite art world.

Film introduced by Brenda Garrand, Garrand. Q & A with local artists will follow the screening from 3-4 pm. Women in Art Panel:

Ann Barrengos, Moderator
Tammie Grieshaber, L/A Arts Gallery 5
Laurie Hyndman, Port City Life
Kate Philbrick, Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
SPACE Gallery
538 Congress St, Portland
$15/ticket RSVP
8:00 pm – Midnight Brew Girls Live Benefit Concert
Join us with other activists for an evening of great music and beer – all for a great cause! Performances by Monique Bidwell, Sara Cox, Lynn Deeves, Vanessa Torres and Touching Ground, Kate Schrock, Katie Webber, and Megan Jo Wilson

SPACE Gallery
538 Congress St, Portland
$10/ticket or $15/ticket and Brew Girl pint glass RSVP
Hosted by the New Girls’ Network
Sponsored by WCLZ

Sunday, May 3
10:00 am – 1 pm Celebration Brunch
Join us for a delicious brunch where we will honor Maine women and girls who are making change happen in our communities. Also, learn about our 2008-2009 award recipients and grantees, celebrate how far we’ve come, and enjoy inspiring rhythmic drum session by Inanna.

Ocean Gateway Ferry Terminal
Commercial Street, Portland
$45/ticket for adults
$20/ticket for children under 12
Free for children under 2 RSVP

1:00 – 3:00 pm Past and Present Girl Scouts Beach Celebration
Willard Beach, South Portland
Free/Open to Public
Come share memories and make new ones. If you were ever or are presently a Girl Scout, join us at 2:00 pm for sign-in, song and fun getting together. We’ll be there from 1:00 – 3:00 pm rain or shine. Contact Troop 1921 with questions: 207-775-7501.