Women's Empowerment Wednesday Lecture at IWU

The lecture "Women's Empowerment is Smart Economics" will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Illinois Wesleyan University's Hansen Student Center.

Through a gift from President Eckley, IWU's Economics Department is able to invite a distinguished member from the economics profession to deliver a lecture every year at the university. This year, Professor Yana van der Meulen Rodgers of Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University will discuss women's empowerment in the labor market and the consequent benefits to their families and economies as a whole.

"In the era of smart phones and smart cars, empowering women can be a 'gender-smart' way to achieve economy-wide gains," Rodgers argues.

Rodgers earned her Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University, and her interests include the impact of public policy and labor laws on women's employment and wages; how ownership rights and access to resources for women can not only improve their children's welfare but also reduce their household poverty level; the consequence of international trade on gender wage gaps; and how gender disparity, growth, and development are all interconnected, just to name a few.

Much of her research has focused on East and South Asian Economies and she has consulted for the Asian Development Bank and The World Bank.

Ernestine: Commission Seeing Resurgence in Discrimination

While Ernestine Jackson has witnessed racial and cultural progress in the Twin Cities over her 13 1/2–year tenure with the Bloomington Human Relations Commission, she has witnessed resurgence in local discrimination in key areas and, in some cases, in a more subtle, “sophisticated” manner.

The municipal commission’s mission is to work with the community in addressing racial, religious, cultural, gender, and age discrimination in housing, employment, financing, and other areas, under the provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. It also educates the public on civil/human rights and expectations and ensuring police and other city agencies and their contractors comply with their own minority hiring and anti-discrimination practices. In essence, commissioners “really try to bring the community together to deal with those issues and hopefully eradicate racism and discrimination in any form,” said Jackson, who investigates discrimination complaints.

“I’m going to be honest with you -- I have seen us going backwards as it relates to civil rights,” Jackson said during Saturday’s Cultural Festival at Illinois State University.  “I have been doing this kind of work for more than 40 years, and I’ve just been saddened that we’re at a point now where we’re still working on those issues that we thought we had fixed years ago. The complaints I’m getting are almost identical to complaints we were getting over 40 years ago.

“The things we’re seeing, the things we’re dealing with, are things we thought we had conquered. If you look at what’s happening, not only in Bloomington but all over, if you shut your eyes, you’d think you were back some time ago. That isn’t to say we haven’t been successful in areas; that’s not to say there haven’t been things that were done that haven’t been good. But now, we’re having to confront issues that most people thought were over.”

The BHRC, established under , is structured along the lines of Illinois’ Department of Human Rights and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Following an investigation to determine whether an individual complaint constitutes a “probable cause case,” the commission attempts to resolve the issue and, if a resolution can’t be reached, the complaint moves to public hearing.

To an extent, the Twin’s Cities’ growing diversity has revived old-school discrimination in new directions. Housing discrimination remains a major concern for Muslim-Americans and other cultural groups, Jackson reported.

“Why would there be a resurgence of Not In Our Town if we didn’t believe things were happening that shouldn’t be happening,” she posed. “We’re fighting some of the same battles – they’re just more sophisticated.”

For information or to file a complaint, contact the commission at 309-434-2215 or by emailing hr@cityblm.org. To view Bloomington’s Human Relations Ordinance, visit the commission at http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=263.

NIOT:B/N at Saturday's Cultural Festival, gathering youth input on the state of Bloomington-Normal.