January 23, 2002

by Michele Keller, Web Editor

A Bush administration proposal that threatened to eliminate the ten regional offices of the U.S. Department of Labor's Women's Bureau has reportedly been withdrawn following the protests of activists and members of the House of Representatives.

A Labor Department spokeperson was quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle on Jan. 15 saying that the plan to close the regional offices — made late last year by the Office of Management and Budget — will not be included in the new federal budget.

"The idea of contemplating the closure of the regional offices is completely off the table," spokesperson Sue Hensley said. "The Secretary (of Labor Elaine Chao) did not want them to be cut."

NOW activists celebrated the news, saying that closing the regional offices of the Women's Bureau — the only federal agency mandated to represent the needs of wage-earning women workers — could have been a first step toward a larger plan of eliminating the bureau entirely.

"This is a major victory," said NOW President Kim Gandy. "The Women's Bureau has stood for equality and progress for women in the workplace for 81 years."

A History of Fighting for Women

Congress created the Women's Bureau in 1920 after the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Co. factory fire in New York City, which killed and injured 146 women and girls, exposing horrible working conditions. Many of the factory workers were immigrants who, trapped in the sweatshop, fell to their deaths from windows while their male supervisors escaped safely.

One of the bureau's earliest victories was the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which set minimum wages and maximum working hours for the first time.

Throughout its 81-year history, the bureau has worked to improve conditions for wage-earning women. It successfully campaigned for the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, and in the 1970s, began advocating for women's right to enter nontraditional occupations. During the 1980s and 1990s, it championed the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which provides employees with up to three months of job-protected, albeit unpaid, leave per year.

Today, the bureau's local offices — in ten major cities including New York, San Francisco, Dallas and Atlanta — educate women about their rights in the workplace, run campaigns about gender and pregnancy discrimination and work with local employers to establish child care programs and flexible hours.

"The Bush Administration would like us to believe that there's no longer a need for the Women's Bureau, but women still make only 73 cents for every dollar men make, and they're working longer hours than ever," Gandy said. "It would be a terrible mistake to close the regional offices and shelve the progress we’ve made so far."