In the United States, the average woman who works full-time earns 77 percent as much money as the average man who works full-time. To address that problem, a group of women in Keene recently presented mayor Kendall Lane with a petition signed by 65 people. “We want him to designate April 8 as Equal Pay Day in Keene,” Dawn Andonellis told the Valley Post. She is a spokesperson for the Keene chapter of the American Association of University Women www.aauw.org.

April 8 symbolizes how far into 2013 women had to work to earn what men earned in 2012.

“The mayor rejected our request,” Andonellis said. “We are considering our next step. We might invite the public to join us in speaking out at an upcoming Keene city council meeting.”

On average, women are paid less than men in occupations that are mostly done by women, and in occupations that are mostly done by men.

The statistics in this article are from:

www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap

The National Organization for Women www.now.org is lobbying for passage of a law that would give workers in the USA the right to talk with their co-workers about their wages.

A 2011 study by the Institute for Women's Policy Research concluded that about half of all workers say their boss bans them from talking about how much money they make.

Between 1917 and the victory in 1920 of the movement for women's right to vote, members of the National Woman’s Party, led by Alice Paul, were arrested several times for non-violent civil disobedience at the White House. This story is told in the movie “Iron Jawed Angels” and the book “A Woman's Crusade,” by Mary Walton.