At the 1996 LWVUS Convention, Making Democracy Work was adopted as the national issue of emphasis. As part of that campaign, each local League was asked (among other things) to look at diversity of representation in our communities. Diversity among officeholders and policy makers contributes to the strength and vitality of our political system. It helps assure community wide solutions to problems and builds confidence that the political process represents all voices equally. At that time, the Diversity Committee of LWVCA took on the responsibility of looking at diversity of representation in our region. We looked at the racial and gender make-up of current office holders and board members in the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County government as well as a sampling of townships and villages.

Women in elected positions never met or exceeded their proportion of the population EXCEPT on school boards in our initial sampling. The elected bodies that we looked at in 1996-1997 are shown below.

In addition to elected positions, we looked at appointments to boards and commissions in Hamilton County. Of the 212 individuals serving on Hamilton County’s boards and commissions, women filled only 39% where they comprise 53% of the population. In looking at other local governments, the percentage of women serving on boards and commissions ranged from 23% to 46% for each jurisdictional unit. However, we noticed boards/commissions varied greatly in their percentage of women vs. men. For instance, in Lebanon where our overall totals were 57% men/43% women; the Planning Commission, Zoning Appeals Board and Building Appeals Board were 100% male while the Festivals and Tourism Commission and The Shade Tree Commission were 100% female. Among Hamilton County boards, Building Appeals, Regional Planning Commission and the Storm Drain Variance and Appeals Board had no women although women were the majority on the Children’s Services Commission (67%) , The Children’s Trust Fund (63%), The Housing Advisory Board (52%) and Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (57%).

This year, the Diversity Committee decided to look at the status of women in Cincinnati and Hamilton County - have we made gains in the last 30 years? We review some of our legislative gains as well as looking at some basic economic facts and female participation in political life.

A Brief Note on Methodology

We looked at the representation of women on a sampling of Hamilton County’s various Boards and Commissions. There are no concise records of the personnel on these entities; all of our numbers are derived from going through the County’s documents and micro fiche indexes for each of the boards and commissions mentioned to determine who served on the Boards and Commissions during the years studied. We have attempted to be as thorough as possible.

To answer the above question — have women made any progress — we need a starting point. The 1960s before the Equal Rights Act, Affirmative Action and Equal Pay Act seems like the best place to start.

The 1960s were an era of civil unrest and protest. Many people questioned whether civil rights in this country extended to all in our society; especially African-Americans and women.

1960 - The birth control pill went on sale nationally.

1963 - Woman’s City Club of Cincinnati established the Civil Rights Committee to work for “job opportunities for minorities”. The Equal Pay Act passed. For the first time both political parties and the Charter Committee ran women for Cincinnati City Council - all three lost.

1964 - President Johnson signed both the Civil Rights Act and Anti-Poverty Legislation for job training and education of poor youth. The LWVCA’s Civil Rights study group conducted a survey of race relations in Cincinnati.

1965 - The president created the Office of Federal Contract Compliance which requires a company receiving federal funds to establish minority hiring goals.

1966 - Construction on Riverfront Stadium was started. Contractor discrimination charges were made. Andrew Doppins sued the IBEW Local 212 here in Cincinnati to be admitted into the union. He won his suit opening the doors of the local building trades for other black men and for women.

• LWVCA had 848 members and 21 units in 1968.
• Women earned 58 cents for every dollar a man made (1963).
• The poverty rate for children in Cincinnati was 22% (the average for the 50 largest cities in the U.S. was 18%).
• Women received 10% of all doctoral degrees.

1970s

In the early 1970s, discrimination in the workplace persisted. Federal funds were used for establishing offices of compliance and oversight to ensure more equal pay and less job discrimination on jobs where federal funding was involved. Job opportunities for women and Blacks peaked in the late 70s and early 80s.

1971 - The National Women’s Political Caucus was formed by 300 feminist in Washington DC. For the first time in the 150 year history of the U.S. Senate girls were appointed as Senate pages. LWVCA was invited to submit a monthly column to the Greater Cincinnati Building Tradesman. LWVCA participated in the “World of Women '71” exhibition at Cincinnati Convention Center.

1972 - The League of Women Voters admitted men for the first time.

1973 - The Supreme Court decision (Roe vs. Wade) prohibited states from banning early abortions. The Ohio House of Representatives ratified the Equal Rights Amendment.

1973 - LWVCA supported the passage of the ERA by selling ERA bracelets.

1974 - The Ohio Senate ratified the ERA.

1977 - The Public Works Employment Act required states or local governments to set aside 10% of the federal contracts it received for minority or women owned businesses.

1978 - Prep-Jet program received funds to recruit and train women in construction trade apprenticeships. President Carter’s Executive Act 11246 provided for “immediate equal employment opportunity for women in the construction industry” when building with federal funds. Ohio women included in full-time private sector job employer pension plans was 36%.

1979 - LWVCA’s Women’s Rights and Justice Committee reported on new state laws pertaining to domestic violence.

• In 1970, LWVCA had 1073 members, by 1974 the number was down to 692. Members were not rejoining because of the increase in dues, some were moving out of town and many were now working. “The League was caught in a paradox: as it had promoted equality of opportunity for women in education and employment, those opportunities ... propelled many members out of the organization”.
• 49.9% of Hamilton County females had completed high school in the early 1970s.
• The poverty rate for children in Cincinnati was 29% (the average for the 50 largest cities in the U.S. was 23%); 9% of Cincinnati’s children under 15 were living in distressed neighborhoods (the average for the 50 largest cities in the U.S. was 3%).
• 14% of computer and information science degree recipients were women.
• 73% of nursing home patients were women over 65.

Elected Positions

• Hamilton County Commissioners were all men.
• Cincinnati City Council had up to two women at one time on a 9 member council.
• Cincinnati Board of Education had two to three women on a 7 member board.

Appointed Hamilton County Boards & Commissions

• Hamilton County Regional Planning - 1 woman served during the 1970s on the 7 member commission.
• No women served on the Board of Building Standards (5 members), Board of Building Appeals (5 members), Rural Zoning (5 members) or Hospital Commission (17 members)
• Board of Zoning Appeals ((5 members) had 2 women during the 1970s.
• The Library Board (7 members) had one women.
• Children’s Services (19 members) - not established until 1982.
• Community Mental Health Board (18 members) - 15 women served at different times, with as many as 8 serving at one time.

1980s

1980 - The Supreme Court ruled that minority set asides are Constitutional.

1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor was appointed first woman U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

1981-82 - The Federal Budget for Equal Employment Opportunities Commission and Office of Federal Contract Compliance were cut almost 50% effectively crippling Affirmative Action.

1982 - LWVCA helped register over 1000 people at Women’s Equality Day events. Male violence against women became a social and political issue. Women of all races, cultures, ages, abilities and walks of life spoke out exposing violence they suffered.

1984 - The Federal Family Violence Prevention and Services Act passed. LWVUS joined the Women’s Vote Project with emphasis on registering lower-income, less educated, single head of households and young working women. LWVCA participated and, with other local organizations, registered 1,340 women.

1985 - The Federal Family Violence and Response Act mandated arrest in domestic violence cases when probable cause exists.

1986 - LWVCA units supported the concept of pay equity and were in favor of League action in this area

1988 - President Reagan vetoed the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988. Congress overrode his veto.

• Women representation among manager positions was 40% an increase of 23% since 1970. It was reported that “women do appear to be making progress into male dominated occupations and narrowing the wage gap. However, there is one notable exception, women managers exercise much less authority than men. This authority gap, plus the continuing existence of high level segregation and of sizable wage gap, means that progress toward equality has far to go. Researchers take the position that women’s gains are if not illusionary, certainly compromised, falling far short of true integration and parity. Male dominated occupations represent increased opportunity over remaining in a female dominated one.”
• LWVCA membership was around 300 members.
• 37% of computer and information science degree recipients were women.
• 42% of Ohio mothers with children under 6 worked.
• 63.2% of females in Hamilton County had finished High School.
• The poverty rate for children in Cincinnati was 37%. (The average for the 50 largest cities in the U.S. was 27%); 24% of Cincinnati’s children under 15 were living in distressed neighborhoods (the average for the 50 largest cities in the U.S. was 14%)
• Women earned about 69 cents for every dollar a man earned.

Elected Positions:

• Hamilton County Commissioners were all men.
• Cincinnati City Council had up to three women at one time on a nine member council, however there were no women in elected in 1985.
• Cincinnati Board of Education had three to four women on a seven member board.
• Five to seven women were elected as Township Trustees or clerks in every election during the 1980s.

Appointed Hamilton County Boards & Commissions

• Hamilton County Regional Planning - five different women served at different times during the early 1980s, but the reorganization of the Commission in 1986 eliminated most of them.
• No women served on the Board of Building Standards (5 members), Board of Building Appeals (5 members) or Board of Zoning Appeals ((5 members).
• Rural Zoning (5 members) had two women members.
• Hospital Commission (17 members) had four different women with up to 3 at one time.
• The Library Board (7 members) had one woman.
• Children’s Services (19 members) - 20 different women served during the 1980’s with up to 11 (a majority) at one time.
• Community Mental Health Board (18 members) - 18 women served at different times, with as many as 10 serving at one time.

1990s

1990 - President George Bush vetoed a Civil Rights Bill that would allow minorities and women who were victims of employment discrimination to collect damages as well as back pay.

1991 - A compromise Civil Rights Bill was introduced which President Bush reluctantly signed.The first ever class action sexual harassment lawsuit - 100 women miners in Minnesota alleged that the Eveleth Taconite Company engaged in hiring, compensation and promotion practices that discriminated against women and that male employees verbally abused women. The Americans with Disabilities Act was created to protect millions of Americans who can work effectively despite physical or mental disabilities.

1993 - The Eveleth Taconite women won their suit. LWVCA cosponsored a dinner for women candidates running for City Council; the Diversity Committee was formed.

1996 - In 1996 Hamilton County voters approved a 1/2 cent sales tax increase to build two new stadiums - 15% of sub contract dollars were to go to minority and women owned businesses.

1997 - Gov. Voinovich attempted to change Ohio’s “minority set-asides” to the economic and “socially disadvantaged”. The next year the U.S. District Court ruled against “minority set asides”.

1998 - The Supreme Court ruled that employers can be held accountable for a supervisors harassment even when no one else knew about the situation or no adverse job consequences resulted. 150th anniversary of the of the Seneca Falls Convention was observed. The November elections gave us the Fab 5 Females in Arizona - five women won Governor, Secretary General, Attorney General, Treasurer and Supervisor of Public Instruction in Arizona state government, a women’s first in any state. The Equal Pay Act turned 35.

1999 - Only 7% of contracts for the new Bengals Stadium have been awarded to minority or women owned businesses.

• LWVCA membership increases to an average of 500 members.
• In 1991, 29% of computer and information science degree recipients were women, a drop of 8% since 1984. “The decline in women’s share of computer science degrees is not the by-product of their greater attraction to alternative male-dominated fields such as business or engineering. The masculine connotations of technical and scientific work have been borrowed by computer science. In that sense, gender stereotypes in computer work are not new, but rather are newly applied versions of longer-standing images. As women increasingly entered the field, they tended to be segregated into lower-paid specialties, computer programming - the lowest status, most female dominated specialty, while men monopolized the higher paid jobs”.
• Women are paid 74 cents to every dollar men are making. In Ohio it is even lower - 68 cents per dollar. “Pay inequities are not just about the raw dollar and cents differences in weekly paychecks. É Research shows that lower-paid workers are less likely to have health insurance and pension benefits. These factors have an impact on the long term economic security of women. Statistics show that college educated women entering the job market earn only $2000 more annually than high school educated men underscoring a significant bias against females that still exists in our labor market.”

• According to the Coalition of Labor Union Women, manufacturing jobs are the best paying - average weekly earnings $825.85 (about 43 thousand per year) on 1995, but unfortunately the Cincinnati area is losing these high paying manufacturers. Ohio Bureau of Employment Services, Labor Market Information Division, reports show a lose of approximately 5,000 manufacturing facilities between 1987 and 1996. In 1995, the Service industry employed the most workers in Hamilton County (158,836) and was the fastest growing, with a 4% increase since 1994 and a 28% increase from 1987 to 1996. Service industry jobs are lower paying jobs and rank next to the bottom of weekly earnings. According to a study released in December of 1998 by Jobs With Justice, of Ohio’s fastest growing jobs, nearly 40% are poverty-level wages. The four fastest growing jobs are cashiers, janitors, retail sales people and waiters. Along with child care workers, nursing aides, teaching aides, receptionists, and security guards, these pay as little as one-third of what is considered to be a livable wage. Few of these jobs provide health insurance or other benefits, many are part time or temporary and the employers strongly oppose unionizations. U.S. Department of Labor statistics show union women earn 38% more than non-union. Ohio ranks 36th in the ratio of women’s earnings to men’s. In other words, while Ohio’s women may earn wages about average for women in the nation, their earnings are substantially lower than the earnings of Ohio men in comparable positions.
• Social Security is the mainstay of retirement income for women. More than half of women 65 or older are unmarried because they are widowed, divorced or never married, and the average older woman relies on Social Security for 72% of her income; twenty five percent have only social Security. Only 25% of women get pensions and and in 1996 half of those women received less than $3,679 per year.
• Working women are still less likely to participate in pension plans than working men - since 1980 there has been a 32% drop in those covered by a defined pension plan. The trend will probably continue since historically pension coverage has been widespread in manufacturing but less common in construction, retail trades, apparel, business services and professional services (except hospitals). Medicare covers nearly all people 65 and older but provides little coverage for two services that women use more than men - nursing home care and long-term care.
• 31% of Cincinnati’s children under 15 were living in distressed neighborhoods (the average for the 50 largest cities in the U.S. was 17%).
• 19,226 children in Hamilton County lived in extreme poverty and received help through Ohio Works First.
• Women received 40% of doctoral degrees.
• 68.1 % of women in Ohio were registered to vote, 56.8% actually voted in 1992 and 1994.

Elected Positions

• One woman served as a Hamilton County Commissioner for four years.
• Cincinnati City Council had up to four women at one time on a nine member council.
• Cincinnati Board of Education had three to four women on a seven member board.
• Up to nine women were elected as Township Trustees or clerks during the 1990s.

Appointed Hamilton County Boards & Commissions:

• Hamilton County Regional Planning had two different women served at different times during the 1990s.
  No women served on the Board of Building Appeals (5 members).
• Board of Building Standards (5 members) and Board of Zoning Appeals (5 members) each saw one women serve during the 1990s.
• Rural Zoning (5 members) had three women serve with two at one time.
• Hospital Commission (17 members) had five different women.
• The Library Board (7 members) had one woman.
• Children’s Services (19 members) - 29 different women served during the 1980s with up to 17 (a majority) at one time.
• Community Mental Health Board (18 members) - 19 women served at different times, with as many as 11 serving at one time.

The American Women 1988-89 A Status Report, Sara E. Rix ed.

A Chronicle of the League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area: 1920-1995

Children’s Defense Fund of Ohio

The Cincinnati Enquirer

The Cincinnati Post

City of Cincinnati Personnel Dept., EEOC Division

Coalition of Labor Union Women

Dorsey and Whitney Employment Law Update, July, 1998, vol.9, issue 2

Gender Inequality at Work, Jerry Jacobs, ed.

Greater Cincinnati Buildings Trades

Know Hamilton County

The Status of Women in Ohio by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research

U.S.Census Bureau

We would like to thank J. Panioto and League member Diane Goldsmith of the County Offices for all of their help.