Tag Archives: AAUW Oregon

Update: Pay Equity Lawsuit with UO Settled

Editor’s Notes: As we reported in mid-March, UO Professor Emerit Jennifer Freyd shared with us an important update on her pay equity court case (funded in part through the AAUW Legal Advocacy Fund).  Jennifer has sent us additional updates since then! We will continue to post updates in our Branch News column as she shares them. Below is the latest news. 

July 16, 2021

Dear Colleagues,

I’m pleased to share with you this statement issued jointly by the UO and me:

Professor Emerit Jennifer Freyd and the University of Oregon are pleased to announce that we have settled our lawsuit after more than four years of litigation. Under the settlement, the University will pay Prof. Freyd and her attorneys $350,000 to cover her claims for damages as well as attorney’s fees over the four years of litigation. In addition, the University will make a $100,000 donation to the Center for Institutional Courage, the foundation founded by Prof. Freyd dedicated to scientific research and action promoting institutional courage.

We are pleased to put this litigation behind us and together affirm our continued commitment to uncover, acknowledge, and address gender inequity and other forms of discrimination.

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AAUW Oregon 2020-2021 State Meeting and Awards Ceremony

By Sheila Ramerman

Not to be daunted by COVID-19, AAUW Oregon held its April 18-20th Annual State Meeting and Awards Ceremony. Following are some highlights.

State Meeting News

Attendance statistics: This is the FIRST year ALL 23 Oregon AAUW branches were represented at the State Meeting. A total of 147 members registered to attend, 123 attended, and 101 were delegates. Eugene-Lane Branch’s delegates were Jean Simutis and Cindy Parker; also attending were Gail Goshert and Elena Rae (in her capacities as Online Branch President and Central District Director as well as branch member).

Keynote Speaker Jessica Vega Pedersen: Currently a Multnomah County Commissioner, Pedersen also spent several years as a member of the Oregon House of Representatives. After giving an overview of her political career and her experience working with (and appreciation of) Oregon AAUW, she talked about the Universal Pre-School initiative that won with a 64% “yes” vote in Multnomah County last November. The free, full-day, year-round program for 3- and 4- year-olds will be funded by a tax on high-earner households in the country, and is one of the most progressive in the nation according to this piece in The New York Times. Teachers will be paid on par with what public school kindergarten teachers make, which is more than what a ‘day care’ or preschool teacher currently makes.

Business: AAUW Oregon officers introduced the slate of State officers for 2021-2023 and the Nominating Committee for 2021-2022; there were no nominations from the floor and both slates were elected with no opposing votes. The 2022 Annual Meeting will be April 8 – 10, in Ashland.

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AAUW Oregon Virtual Lobby Day, March 18, 2021

By Elena Rae and Sheila Ramerman

Virtual Lobby Day was held via Zoom on Thursday, March 18. First, Trish Garner gave a tutorial titled “Tips for Communicating with Legislators” that was full of practical advice such as how to find out what’s in front of the Oregon legislature, how to prepare for a conversation with a legislator, how to find out who’s in favor and who’s opposed, how to identify a legislator’s staff, how to present your information, how to listen to what the legislator is saying (nuance is important!), and how to close the conversation. It’s important to be prepared – not only with what you want to say, but with information or data to counter opposition.

Then Trish introduced a panel that consisted of:

  • Rep. Karin Power (Milwaukie)
  • Carrie Leonard, PhD (Physical Oceanography), Chief of Staff to Rep. Power
  • Alicia Temple, Legislative Advocate at Oregon Law Center

This is Rep. Power’s 5th year/3rd term in the legislature. She is an environmental law attorney, who enjoys learning about things she previously knew nothing about. She has worked on Oregon’s environmental policy (cap & trade). This term she is working on early childhood issues, and is also on I-5 bridge replacement committee, among 3-4 other committees. She is also championing the bill to require publicly traded corporations to have a minimum number of women and people from underrepresented communities on their boards of directors.
Her strengths are being able to look at the landscape and figure out what’s feasible, who’s needed, what needs to be done, what’s not working, how to make progress in this session. She’s helped finish the Clean Air Oregon Program, helped to get Cap & Trade and Diesel phase-out bill for the Portland area passed in the House, and removed ‘very old’ trans-phobic language that has been in law for a long time and others were afraid to tackle.

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Oregon AAUW Town Hall w/Julia Brown, March 21, 2021

By Sheila Ramerman

Julia Brown, AAUW National Board Chair

On Sunday, March 21, AAUW Oregon co-presidents Pat Lehman and Sue Klumph hosted an online Town Hall, featuring AAUW National Board Chair Julia Brown. Brown gave an overview of the work the board is doing, presented work and discussion to date on the proposed bylaws change to remove the requirement to hold a degree, and responded to questions and comments from the group.

Over 50 members from across the State were in the meeting, and we heard a summary of the national online Town Hall to discuss the bylaws amendment. All of the feedback from the national town hall is posted on the AAUW website. In general, most members speaking up were in favor, and the prevailing comments were related to remaining mindful of AAUW’s mission (advancing equity for women and girls); that education, knowledge, and capabilities come from life experience as well as from formal studies. Julia Brown reminded us that many women of distinction – Eleanor Roosevelt, Maya Angelou, Lilly Ledbetter, Oprah Winfrey – did not go to college or did not finish college.

Julia herself wasn’t always a fan of removing the degree requirement, but from her involvement in a branch Tech Trek program, she saw girls, who wouldn’t otherwise have considered college, realize that it was possible. Some girls realized that college wasn’t always necessary; there were vocational paths that would get them to where they wanted to be.

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