Women on the Job

Women on the Job (WOJ) was founded in 1981 as a private, not-for-profit advocacy organization dedicated to achieving women’s equality in the workplace on Long Island. WOJ was a project of Resources for Program Development, Inc. (RPD) and was supported financially by individual members, corporate sponsors, fundraising events and grants. RPD itself had been established with funding from the North Shore Unitarian Universalist Society VEATCH Program. The WOJ program was initiated in October 1981 by co-founders Lillian McCormick and Charlotte Shapiro. Its mission was to foster equal employment opportunities for women and combat workplace discrimination against women in Long Island communities. The group worked to promote awareness of gender issues at work and in schools, to lobby for and monitor enforcement of relevant laws, to support the principle of equal pay for work of equal value, and to offer training in sexual harassment prevention. Women on the Job programs included community education, community organizing, coalition building, advocacy, counseling, research, information and referral services, and the publication and distribution of information concerning women’s employment and employment opportunities on Long Island. The group’s constituency included individual women, women’s groups, and public, private and not-for-profit employers, including women and men.

The WOJ Task Force was formed in 1982 as an outgrowth of WOJ, and was a major project of the program. The Task Force met monthly, providing a forum for diverse women to unite, network and respond to employment challenges and problems affecting working women in the Long Island community. The coalition advocated for improvement in employment policies and practices affecting women and, more broadly, for legislation that protected working families. Membership was open to all organizations interested in promoting equitable employment practices and opportunities for women in the Long Island area.

The Task Force provided a number of services in the Long Island workplace for both employees and employers, including: a forum in which women facing unfair employment practices could safely report their complaints, obtain information, develop stronger advocacy skills, and obtain referrals to appropriate enforcement agencies and legal advocates. The group provided speakers and distributed newsletters to educate the public about the concerns of working women, and disseminated information on pay equity, race and gender equality on the job, the opening of non-traditional jobs to women (including both blue-collar trades and technical jobs), and ending pregnancy discrimination. It also worked to assure that lawmakers and law enforcers fulfilled their commitments in the area of equal employment opportunities for women. WOJ participated in a number of projects to support employment equality for women including: the Working Smarts Education Program, the Working Smarts for Teenagers Program, the Coalition to Advocate for Women of Color in Education, and Sexual Harassment Prevention and Training Workshops. The organization produced and distributed a number of publications, including newsletters, reports, and a manual relating to employee equity projects at the local community level, Working for Pay Equity, which was distributed to more than 40 states. WOJ closed its offices in 2006, when some of its functions and programs were taken up by, or merged with, other organizations.