National Clearinghouse for Legal Services 500 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 1940 Chicago, Illinois 60611 Nonprofit Org'n PAID 05738 C2 08/74 MI 48104 UNIV OF MICHIGAN Berkeley, CA 94704 (415) 548-2600 National Health Law Program 2639 S. La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90034 (213) 204-6010 1424 Sixteenth St., NW, Suite 304 Washington, DC 20036 (202) 232-7061 (Service calls should be directed to the California office.) National Housing Law Project 2150 Shattuck Ave., Suite 300 Berkeley, CA 94704 (415) 548-9400 1016 Sixteenth St., NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20036 (202) 659-0050 (Service calls should be directed to the Berkeley office.) *National Legal Aid and Defender Association 1625 K St., NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20006 (202) 452-0620 NLADA Access to Justice Project Same address and phone number *National Paralegal Institute 2000 P St., NW, Suite 600 National Senior Citizens Law Center 1636 W. Eighth St., Suite 201 Los Angeles, CA 90017 (213) 388-1381 1424 Sixteenth St., NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20036 (202) 232-6570 National Social Science and Law Project 1825 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 401 Washington, DC 20009 (202) 797-1100 National Veterans Law Center 4900 Massachusetts Ave., NW Washington, DC 20016 (202) 686-2741 *Not funded by the Legal Services Corporation The Clearinghouse Review National Clearinghouse for Legal Services 500 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 1940 Chicago, Illinois 60611 (312) 353-2566 Dennis Glynn, Editor and Director Karen Blasingame, Deputy Director Lucy Moss, Staff Attorney Katherine Stevenson, Librarian Carol Ann Kimball, Production Editor M. Nazim Khan, Bookkeeper Phyllis Birton, Library Assistant Patricia Gordon, Secretary Murtle Mae English, Order Dep't Clerk Virginia Vejar, Order Dept Clerk Nancy Carey, Order Dep't Clerk Debra Marks, Order Dep't Clerk Zelda Barnett, Receptionist Patricia Laurence, Copy Editor Legal Services Corporation 733 Fifteenth St., NW Washington, DC 20005 (202) 272-4000 The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and should not be construed as representing the opinions or policy of the organizations by which they are employed, the Legal Services Corporation or any agency of the United States Government. Annual Subscription price: free to attorneys and paralegals practicing in LSC-funded programs; one copy free to each State and Area Agency on Aging Office; $50 for subscriptions outside the Continental United States; $30 to all others. Back issues are available at a cost of $3 per copy. Copyright 1981 by Legal Services Corporation. All rights reserved. WOMEN AND POVERTY: WOMEN'S ISSUES IN LEGAL SERVICES PRACTICE by Deborah Bachrach, Kathleen B. Boundy, Dorothy T. Lang, Beverly Leopold McDonald, Poverty is a women's issue. Women represent nearly two out of every three poor persons in the United States, and three out of every four persons receiving public assistance.' Women working outside the home earn 59 cents for every dollar earned by men.' Nearly one out of every seven families was headed by a woman in 1977.' However, among poor families approximately one-half were headed by women,* and five times as many female-headed households live below the poverty line as do male-headed households.' Over two-thirds of the clients served by legal services are women." Women are not poor by chance. As will be reflected in each of the sections of this article, the poverty of women is an indicium of a broader oppression of women. Women are not only denied economic power, they are also denied control of their bodies and the power to define their own sexuality. They are socialized into the role of primary caretakers of children, yet denied the power to define their rights in that role. The institutions which oppress women are regularly confronted by legal services clients. It is incumbent upon us in legal services to understand the nature of the oppression of women and the relationship between the oppression and poverty. The failure to recognize the relationship between women's oppression and poverty results in a failure to ad dress the causes of that oppression. Legal services offices traditionally have not dealt with women's issues. When we are not looking for the broader issues affecting women, we tend to see our client's problem as her individual problem, or incorrectly as part of a problem suffered by more than women, not as a problem suffered because she is a woman. Thus, for example, a woman may come to legal services with a housing eviction case and we fail to perceive that it is also a "case" of sexual harassment by her landlord. Or by defining battering as only assault we do not see a woman, who has been psychologically terrorized or raped by her husband, as a battered woman. Or we may have perceived women's issues, but not had the time to explore the interrelationships between them. This article is a first step towards identifying the ways in which our clients are discriminated against, have their freedoms restricted, are denied power, and are otherwise oppressed because they are women. This article addresses seven major legal areas and in each identifies the issues confronted by our women clients, discusses legal developments and explores future strategies. We hope this article is the first of many to raise the questions and to search for solutions. The authors wish to express their appreciation to Mary Johnson, Joanne Schulman, Andrewnetta Williams and Laurie Woods of the National Center on Women and Family Law, Inc., Deborah Bachrach of the National Employment Law Project and Dorothy Lang of the National Health Law Program for their work coordinating, editing and typing the manuscript of this article. 1. 2. 3. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, BUREAU OF CENSUS, STATISTICAL ABSTRACT OF THE United States 1978, Table 756 and 766 at pp. 466-467; UNITED STATES COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS, WOMEN STILL IN POVERTY 1 (1979) [hereinafter cited as WOMEN STILL IN POVERTY]. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, WOMEN'S BUREAU, THE EARNINGS GAP BETWEEN WOMEN AND MEN, Table 1 (1979) [hereinafter cited as THE EARNINGS GAP]. 48.8 million families have male-headed households, while 7.5 million families have female-headed households. WOMEN, THE POORER SEX, A REPORT OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL ON WOMEN, WORK AND WELFARE, 6 (May 1978) [hereinafter cited as WOMEN, THE Poorer Sex]. 45 percent of all families living below the federal poverty line are female-headed households. Id. at 6. 4. 5. Id. STAFF POSITIONS AVAILABLE The Clearinghouse has openings for staff writing and editing positions and is soliciting applications from the field. This is a desk job. Most work activities consist of reading, writing and thinking. People contact is largely limited to the 20 other staff members and to telephone contacts with legal services attorneys. Attorneys or legal workers who would like a change of pace from client interviews and going to hearings should consider applying. Applicants should have the ability to write clearly, although an extensive writing background is not required. We would be happy to have you call to discuss the job, moving to "da great City of Chicaga," as the late Mayor would say, or other interests and concerns you may have. If you call, talk with Dennis Glynn, Karen Blasingame or Lucy Moss. To apply, send a resume and short writing sample to Director, National Clearinghouse for Legal Services, 500 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1940, Chicago, IL 60611. We especially encourage minorities, women and people with experience in legal services to apply. Beginning salary up to $25,000, depending on experience, with good fringe benefits. |