DWU Supporter Profiled in Ms. Magazine

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22 Nov 2011

Making Change, by Amanda Robb. Excerpted from the Fall 2011 issue of Ms.

Even though Anika Rahman has lived in the United States more than 20

years, the Bangladeshi native can still be stunned by gender

inequities in “the land of the free.” There’s that persistent wage

gap, for example, that has U.S. women earning 77 cents to a man’s

dollar, with African American women making significantly less and

Latinas less still. And then there’s the treatment of U.S. domestic

workers, who are explicitly excluded from federal rules written to

protect virtually all other wage earners.

But the Ms. Foundation for Women, the philanthropy where Rahman serves

as CEO and president, helps to fight such inequality. One recent

victory: New York state’s nannies, housekeepers and other domestic

workers have now been granted minimal employment guarantees—overtime

after 40 hours of work a week, one day off every week, three paid days

off a year and protection from harassment. And the force behind the

new law—Domestic Workers United, an 11-year-old organization of

Caribbean, Latina and African nannies, housekeepers and elderly

caregivers—has been funded and ardently supported by the Ms.

Foundation.

TO READ MORE, please cut and paste link below.

http://www.msmagazine.com/Fall2011/makingchange.asp.

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