Contracts with less than 5% women Painters Natl Joint Apprenticeship Committee, 17 states Laborer's Union-Modular, 35 cities .665 661 55 235 Natl Assn for Retarded Citizens, 26 states & D.C. .994 840 307 36.5 Robert P. Hunter Chief Counsel and Staff Director United States Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources 4230 Dirksen Senate Office Building Enclosed please find our corrected copy of the transcript We have attached additional comments which respond to questions posed by members of the Committee during discussion at the hearing. If any further information is needed please feel free to contact me or the Network staff at 347-0522. Sincerely, Shiley Sandage Shirley Sandage, 76-638 0-81--8 The following additional testimony is submitted by the Displaced Homemakers Network, Inc. in response to questions posed by members of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee at hearings on sex discrimination in the workplace held January 28, 1981: THE NEED FACTS ABOUT DISPLACED HOMEMAKERS UNDER CETA TITLE III Displaced homemakers are persons who have spent many years in the home caring for family members, and subsequently lose their source of support through separation, divorce, death or disability of the spouse, or ineligibility for continued government assistance. The majority are middle-aged women without recent paid work experience, who face many personal and social barriers to employment and economic self-sufficiency. LEGISLATION Federal legislation to assist displaced homemakers was introduced in the 94th and 95th Congresses; following House and Senate hearings in 1977 and 1978, displaced homemaker provisions were included in the reauthorization of CETA in 1978. Under PL 95-524, Title III, Section 301, displaced homemakers are recognized as a group facing special disadvantages in entering the paid labor force. Under this legislation, the Secretary of Labor may spend up to 2% of all Title III funds for special programs to assist displaced homemakers. APPROPRIATIONS Of In FY 1980, $5 million was appropriated for services for displaced homemakers. this amount, $3.25 million was earmarked for prime sponsor awards and $1 million was reserved for national demonstration grants to private non-profit organizations through the Department of Labor's Office of National Programs. (About $175,000 went through the Women's Bureau for a 15-month contract with the Displaced Homemakers Network, Inc. to provide technical assistance to 37 prpgrams, and about $170,000 was contracted in Autumn 1980 to a private firm, Berkeley Planning Associates, for a 12-month formal evaluation. The remaining $405,000 covered other costs.) PROGRAM INITIATION In response to solicitations for grant applications, 270 prime sponsors and nearly 400 non-profit organizations submitted proposals. In 12-79 and in 7-80, the Department of Labor announced 31 prime sponsor and 6 national demonstration grant awards in 27 states. Special target groups for these programs included minority, rural, and older displaced homemakers. These programs serve displaced homemakers at 60 locations under the operation of YWCA's, community-based women's organizations, Community Action Agencies, educational institutions (voc-tech schools and community colleges), OIC, Urban League, AFL-CIO, and Commissions for Women, in addition to a few run directly by prime sponsor staff. Programe stress job-orientation, adequate skill training or vocational education, then Referrals are given for such typical displaced homemaker problems as The sand for legal assistance. |