Women of Note

Janet Yellen before the Joint Economic Committee, US Congress "With the job gains this year, 17 million more Americans are employed now than eight years ago. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate, which stood at 4.1 percent in October, has fallen 0.6 percentage point since the turn of the year and is nearly 6 percentage points below its peak in 2010. In addition, the labor force participation rate has changed little, on net, in recent years, which is another indication of improving conditions in the labor market, given the downward pressure on the participation rate associated with an aging population." more »

Jo Freeman writes: Forty years ago over 20,000 people gathered in Houston, Texas to celebrate International Women's Year (IWY) and identify goals for women for the next decade. On November 6 and 7, 2017, a few hundred people gathered at the University of Houston to celebrate the 40th anniversary of that conference. It was not sponsored by the federal government, though some would argue that today's federal government made it necessary. Speakers discussed what happened in 1977, what didn't happen, what should have happened, and what it all meant. more »

It was the spring of 1973, and 34-year-old Thompson had just started her first term in the Texas House of Representatives. Earlier that day, she was walking into a popular lunch place near the Capitol in Austin when Democratic state Rep. C.C. 'Kit' Cooke saw her and said loudly, for everyone to hear, "Oh, here comes my beautiful black mistress." She was infuriated. That same afternoon, Thompson, a Democrat, stepped onto the House floor to tell her mostly white, male colleagues she would not tolerate racist or sexist insults. more »

Testimony of Antonella Pianalto before the House Small Business Subcommittee on Health & Technology October 12, 2017: Women receive just 7% of venture capital funds and less than 5% of conventional business loan dollars, despite making up more than a third of all businesses. At the US Small Business Administration (SBA) flagship 7(a) lending program, only 17% of loans go to women-owned firms... if American women business owners were their own country, they would have the 10th largest GDP in the world, outstripping entire nations like Canada, Mexico and even Russia. more »