Status of Women and Girls

I'm very excited about attending this! Will report back! MSMC is my alma mater!

In the Spotlight

Mount St. Mary's to release annual Report on Status of Women & Girls in California, March 21

As part of Mount St. Mary’s continuing commitment to the well-being of women, the College will release its second annual Report on the Status of Women and Girls in California, on March 21. The Report is a compilation of the most up-to-date, existing research that explores key areas crucial to the advancement of women.
“As a college for women of the 21st century, we have an inherent interest in the forces that shape women’s lives,” says Mount St. Mary’s President Ann McElaney-Johnson. “Despite some high-profile advances, this Report shows that striking gender gaps still exist, particularly among women of color.”
The Mount will release the Report to the public during a free event from 10 a.m.-noon on Thursday, March 21, at the College’s downtown Doheny Campus. Attendees will be the first to hear about the 2013 Report’s findings and recommendations on a dozen key issues affecting the lives of California’s women and children, including: education, employment, leadership, poverty, health, violence, media and more.
To RSVP, visit http://statusofwomen.msmc.la.edu.
Among the day’s scheduled speakers and panelists are Geena Davis, Academy Award®-winning actress and founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media; Madeleine Brand, of SoCal Connected; Elise Buik, president and CEO of United Way of Greater Los Angeles; Kathy Magliato, cardiothoracic surgeon and director of Women’s Cardiac Surgical Services at Saint John’s Health Center; and Janice Bryant Howroyd, CEO and founder of the Act-1 Group.
“This groundbreaking report has been instrumental to the work of the [California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls],” says Davis, who also serves as chair of the Commission. “It is an invaluable tool for educators, legislators and advocates working to improve the lives of women and girls. We are proud to partner once again with Mount St. Mary’s College to share the latest findings from the 2013 Report.”
Why compile and create an annual Report on the Status of Women and Girls in California? Because there are more than 18.9 million women and girls in the state who are striving to create a better life for themselves and their families. Yet too many California women lack a seat at the table when political and business decisions are made. Too many women work in the same fields as men but still bring home less money than their counterparts. There are too few women role models in the media that young girls can watch and emulate. And, far too often, violence continues to silence women’s voices and blocks women’s dreams.
As the 2013 Report's overview states: “It is the mission of [our College’s founders] the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet to support women to become all they are capable of being. That is only possible when women and girls are provided equal opportunity to pursue all they are capable of being.”
In creating this year's Report, a Mount St. Mary’s team of academics identified the largest gender-based gaps, and highlighted the statistics that have changed the most since last year. There is both progress to cheer and progress to be made, as a sampling of key findings show:

• Women and girls remain underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math careers.
• The pay gap between working women and men in California is real.
• 2013 marks a historic year for the number of women in the U.S. Congress, but California women lost ground in political leadership roles at the state level.
• More than two out of every five women and girls in California have been victims of intimate partner violence.
• Access to healthcare continues to rise and infant mortality rates drop to historic lows.
• In a media-rich state, the role of women in media remains far too limited.  

Mount St. Mary’s College publishes this annual Report with the hope that illuminating the conditions faced by the women and girls of California will inspire efforts to address the difficulties and inequalities that they face.
“As we mentor and prepare the next generation of leaders,” McElaney-Johnson says, “we must empower them to fill in these gaps, and give them the tools they need to think deeply and critically, to understand collaboration with people from a diversity of backgrounds, and to be fearless in the face of change.”
To learn more about the 2013 Report on the Status of Women and Girls in California, visit http://statusofwomen.msmc.la.edu. Web visitors can also RSVP to attend this year’s public release of the Report on March 21, and learn more about the day's speakers and events.