The Shriver Report - "A Woman's Nation" Still Has Far to Go

For me, the fuss about Maria Shriver's report brings to mind Halley's Comet, an event that only happens once in a lifetime.

What I'm talking about is this: California First Lady and former NBC correspondent Maria Shriver spearheaded a nationwide study on the changing roles of contemporary women, conducted in collaboration with the Center for American Progress. Last week, they released the Shriver Report, subtitled "A Woman's Nation Changes Everything," and yesterday, the Free Press (an imprint of Simon and Schuster) published the Shriver Report as an eBook exclusive.

The Shriver Report prompted me to think about the legendary comet because -- unlike viewers of the once-every-75-years phenomenom -- I've lived to see two (reportedly) groundbreaking studies on the status of women.

The First Time Around

In 1961, the year of my birth, President John F. Kennedy created the President's Commission on the Status of Women and put Eleanor Roosevelt in charge. And now, nearly 50 years later, his niece has returned to this issue with her own take on how American women and families are doing.

The Second Time Around

What does the Shriver Report say? Half the workforce is female. Nearly two-thirds of working mothers are either breadwinners or co-breadwinners in their households. Over 80% of men and women believe that businesses that don't adapt to the needs of modern families risk losing good workers. And 70% of men are comfortable with women working outside the home. Those are verifiable facts.

But it's the assumptions accompanying the Shriver Report that have me worried -- assumptions trumpeted to the world in the first 13 words of the press release announcing the study: "The Battle of the Sexes is over. Now it's Negotiations Between the Sexes."

It's a great soundbite and an optimistic take on where women stand in society. But it's more rooted in PR 'good spin' sentiment than any honest assessment of the lives of working women today.

Equal Number of Women, But Not Equal Benefits

Though attitudes may have changed, workplace policy and gender polity haven't advanced at the same pace as women's entry into the workforce. Just because there's an equal number of men and women doesn't mean they earn the same wages, hold the same positions based on merit and skill, are promoted in equal numbers and at equal rates, and enjoy the same benefits in terms of health care, paid leave, and retirement.

The quantity of female workers may be the same as male workers, but the quality of their work experience still falls short of what men enjoy on the job:

• Look at what women CEOs earn -- much less than men.
• Look at the experience of Lilly Ledbetter, who was shortchanged hundreds of thousands of dollars on her earnings simply because she was a woman, and had to go to court to fight for her fair share.
• Look at the women who faithfully worked for AT&T for many years, never realizing that the company regarded maternity leave as different from any other medical leave and basically reset the clock on their pensions so that they were considered "new hires" after they returned to work, thus earning far less in retirement benefits.
• Look at how insurance companies regard women, denying them coverage because of "pre-existing conditions" such as domestic abuse and c-sections.
• Look at how David Letterman 'treated' some of the women who worked for him.

Is this what workplace equality looks like?

A Kick in the Pants

The battle of the sexes isn't over. Instead, a temporary cease-fire is in effect, while those who oversee big-picture strategy figure out if change is necessary now that half the troops are women.

If anything lasting comes from the Shriver Report, it won't be a pat on the back that we're doing okay, but a well-placed kick in the pants that propels us to reconfigure the workplace to address the needs of working women.

Third Time Around?

If 80% of men and women believe that businesses will lose good workers if they don't make the necessary changes, what is the private sector waiting for? Hopefully not a third go-round over the status of women in America, because I highly doubt I'll be around in 50 years for that one.

More on the Shriver Report and whether it accurately addresses the issues of women in the workforce:

• WowOwow (The Women on the Web) with the Shriver Report press release
• New York Times on NBC's special week of coverage on women
• PunditMom Joanne Bamberger on the report and a conversation with Maria Shriver
• Women's Media Center and Gloria Steinem's take on a Woman's Nation
• Huffington Post and Jesse Kornbluth on the gloomy trends the report reveals
• AAUW on why women should read the online summary, if not the entire report itself
• The Shriver Report website including that online summary