Study on SM women to go before City Council
When it comes to women in power, Santa Monica is ahead of the curve.
Females sit in many highly visible and influential posts in Santa Monica — from the city manager to the president of the community college to the presiding judge at the local courthouse.
The city attorney and city clerk are both women, as is the head of the planning department. Both public high schools in Santa Monica have female principals. Women head both the local chamber of commerce and the visitor’s bureau, and two local newspapers are edited by women.
Females also chair boards overseeing local public schools and the pier, and direct the nonprofit organization that manages downtown. Another woman oversees City Hall’s real estate assets. The list goes on.
But when it comes to women as a whole, Santa Monica’s better half still lag behind men. At 52 percent, females make up the majority of Santa Monica’s 84,084 residents. Although women overall achieve similar education levels and even outnumber men in some advanced academics, women earn far less, and are more likely to live in poverty and rely on government assistance, a recent study shows.
Twenty-seven women and City Councilman Mike Feinstein packed into a small room at the Ken Edwards Center this week to pore over the results of what’s believed to be the first-ever study on women in Santa Monica. The report was delivered by City Hall’s Commission on the Status of Women.
City Councilwoman Pam O’Connor, who spoke at the event, said women have made important inroads but still face an uphill battle — especially because their wages are significantly lower.
“I think that’s the crux — the economics of it,” she said. “If women are still making less than men, they’re just further behind. It makes housing affordability more crucial, more of a problem. If the woman is a single parent raising the children, they may or may not get support.”
Median income for local females is $32,000, as opposed to $51,000 for males, according to the report. Only 30 percent of Santa Monicans who earn over $55,000 a year are women, and that percentage drops as income rises.
The study — which relied heavily on data from the 2000 Census, along with other sources — looked at various categories, including education, employment, poverty and disability. The women’s commission also made several recommendations and suggested local women be studied further.
Darlene Evans, chair of the Commission on the Status of Women, said she hopes the report will be used as a starting place to identify what’s needed in the community.
“We wanted to be able to provide the City Council and the public of Santa Monica the information about women in terms of what their status is,” she said. “It’s beginning steps.”
“It’s beginning steps.”
Nearly 70 percent of local households are comprised of married couples. About 14 percent of Santa Monica households consist of single women — and 5 percent of those women have children, the study shows.
Only about 5 percent of Santa Monica women older than 25 years old don’t have a high school diploma. Women on average have similar education levels as men — except in professional and postgraduate degrees. They even outnumber men in advanced placement courses, which can count for college credit. However, of the females taking advanced courses, 79 percent were enrolled in English, art and social science, and only 21 percent in the traditionally male-dominated fields of mathematics and science.
But, the study shows, the number of Santa Monica women currently enrolled in all levels of higher education is significantly higher than men, in both public and private schools.
When it comes to the workplace, 37 percent of local woman described themselves as not part of the labor force. Still, 47 percent of the local workforce living in Santa Monica is female, and 29 percent said they were self employed. The types of work women do tend to follow traditional gender-line norms — a majority are in healthcare support, personal care, administrative support, education and social services. Only 24 percent are in computers or math; 27 percent in architecture and engineering; 40 percent in law and 44 percent in various management positions, according to the study.
Women comprise 63 percent of the poor population over age 55, the study says. A full 56 percent of people living in poverty in Santa Monica are women, though the report says that number is actually higher when the high cost of living, women’s lower earnings, and the cost and availability of childcare is considered. Poverty is set at less than $8,501 a year or $17,650 for a family of four.
Only about 25 percent of the local transient population is female, the study says.
The findings of the report beg for interpretation, members of the Commission on the Status of Women said. They recommended several next steps — including studying whether minority women’s social service needs are underserved, studying elderly women’s needs, examining how to better encourage young women to pursue advanced math and science courses, and looking more closely at employment, earnings, health, homelessness, domestic violence, and voting statistics, among other areas.
Established in 1981, the Commission on the Status of Women is charged with working to eliminate inequality between the sexes in all areas of life including, but not limited to, employment, health, education, political life and law enforcement. The commission is comprised of nine local residents. Commission members plan to present their findings to the City Council later this month.
283,O’Connor — the only woman currently on the City Council — said there is much work to be done.
“The most important thing, if people will pay attention,” she said, “is that while women have made inroads — in terms of jobs and other status, power, all those aspects of life — there’s still a glass ceiling that exists, not necessarily in city government in Santa Monica, but exists in Santa Monica. And although inroads have been made, it’s still there... The reality is still that it’s not an equal world.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 1, 2004. Read the original PDF.