Executive orders provide the legal basis for requiring equal pay for equal work, and recourse for women who suffer other forms of employment discrimination.

It is the responsibility of this committee to review the process of such laws and regulations in alleviating discrimination against women and to determine which future action may be necessary to achieve the goal of equal opportunity.

We want to recognize the contribution women have made to our American economy in the past as well as their role in the revitalization of our Nation's economy in this decade. This committee is anxious to establish a dialog with all working women. I hope this hearing will be a formal beginning to a long and healthy relationship in which we will exchange information and viewpoints in an effort to identify issues of common concern and arrive at constructive solutions.

I will be frank to ask, with some 30-plus Federal statutes and many State statutes on the books granting equal rights to women in the workplace, why are women not getting equal rights in the workplace?

We hope that we can address this particular issue among others, not only in this hearing, but in a number of hearings that I expect to have on women's issues as we go through the next 2 years of this particular Congress.

So this is only the opening hearing. We will have other hearings, and we hope that we can address all the issues that have been dividing some of us in our society today, and help bring about more coalition for freedom and equal rights for women in America. With that, I recognize Senator Kennedy.

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR KENNEDY

SENATOR KENNEDY. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

I want to express my appreciation to the chairman of the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, Senator Hatch, for initiating our oversight work in this Congress with today's inquiry into the problem of sex discrimination in the workplace.

The witnesses today represent those women's organizations which have been the most forceful advocates of the rights of working women in our society. They have awakened the Nation to the problems facing women at all levels of our economy. And they have been participants in the legislative, judicial, and administrative process aimed at finding solutions to these problems.

The testimony which we will hear today emphasizes that sex discrimination in the workplace is far more than a technical legal argument over standards and mechanics. It is a pervasive social and economic evil which appears to be spreading rather than receding in today's economy. Its effects are widespread poverty, and unrealized potential for the majority of our population who are women. Its causes include lack of job opportunities, inadequate education and training programs, and the painfully slow pace of Federal law enforcement efforts.

More women are working now than ever before.

In 1950, only 34 percent of American women worked; today, 51 percent are employed; 25 million more women are working today than in 1950; the number of working mothers has increased tenfold

in that 30-year period. Yet, this statistical progress masks very real and serious problems.

These following charts indicate clearly what some of the particular problems have been for working women between 1968 and 1978. Mr. Chairman, I ask that the following charts be made part of the record.

We see that even though the salary levels have increased for both men and women between 1968 and 1978; we still find that in both 1968 and 1978, women were only earning 59 cents on the dollar compared to me. There has been virtually no change in that percentage over a 10-year period.

And the numbers for black, Hispanic, and other minority women show an even wider disparity.

The next chart illustrates the representation of women in the work force today-42 percent of all jobs are now held by women. But we find out that in the professional areas, the percentages are much lower. Only 25 percent of all managers are women, and fewer than 1 percent of top corporate executives are women. This compares with 98 percent of household workers who are women. This chart also indicates where the greatest number of employment opportunities for women exist today-in clerical work and also in service employment. Once again, only 17 percent of women work in the professional and technical fields. Only 7 percent of women work as managers and administrators.

This next chart, which I think is perhaps the most significant and most important, Mr. Chairman, shows why women work. As this chart illustrates, 73 percent of all women today have to work as a matter of necessity. This isn't a second job as a matter of convenience. It is a matter of necessity.

Twenty-six percent of these women never married; 19 percent are either divorced, separated, or widowed; 9 percent are married with husbands earning under $7,000; 7 percent with husbands earning between $7,000 and $10,000, and 13 percent with husbands earning less than $15,000.

Only 27 percent have husbands earning $15,000 or more.

So 73 percent of the women in our work force are working not as a matter of convenience, but as a matter of necessity: A virtual requirement if they are going to be able to provide for their families.

With that kind of a profile, we see the importance of eliminating all aspects of sex discrimination, which we will hear about over the course of today's hearing.

These gaps in a national commitment to improve the status of women in our economy fall clearly within the jurisdiction of this committee. It is my hope that in the coming months, as we examine these problems in detail, we will seek to develop a comprehensive approach to the problems of women in the workplace.

President Reagan has promised the American people that restoring economic health and getting the people back to work will be a top priority of his administration, and we all hope that he will be successful in that effort. But as we begin to grapple with the difficult economic problems facing the country we must make sure that the burdens are shared equally.

Those laws which have already been enacted must be vigorously enforced. We must not abandon enforcement of our equal employment opportunity laws just as they are beginning to bring a measure of fairness and equity to millions of blacks, women, and Hispanics.

I am hopeful that we can all agree on this paramount issue so that we can turn attention to the other serious problems we will hear about this morning.

At the conclusion of my remarks I want to express my appreciation to the chairman of the committee for the effort that he made in behalf of the women in science legislation, which we passed in the last Congress, and signed into law, with the support of many of the groups that will be appearing and testifying here today. I want to acknowledge his active involvement in that legislation and say that I am very hopeful that, with past achievements of the last Congress, and with the opportunities that exist in this Congress, that we can make some meaningful progress in this important area of public policy.

[The charts referred to follow:]