Women’s Work

It’s been tough for women at work during the past year. First, the Supreme Court set the bar very high for proving wage discrimination. Then in late December, after a seven-year delay, the Small Business Administration (SBA) finally issued guidelines for enforcing rules that require 5% of government contracts to go to women-owned businesses. In a move that is being widely criticized, the SBA designated only four business categories out of a total of 140 categories that would be subject to the 5% regulation.

The dismissive nature of the regulations could have been predicted after watching testimony from SBA head Steve Preston last September. Women miss out on billions of contracting dollars annually because of the preference given to male-owned businesses, a disparity that the Congress tried to address seven years ago by requiring 5% of government contracts to be awarded to women-owned businesses. Congress members held a hearing to find out why, after seven years, the SBA had still not issued regulations that would allow the program to start.

Representative Yvette Clarke (D-NY) asked Preston, “Do you believe the government is discriminating against women-owned businesses?”

After Preston said flatly, “no”, Clarke pressed on, reading the dictionary definition of discrimination into the record and asking, “How do you feel comfortable coming back to this committee time after time and excuse after excuse and not coming with anything tangible that says the commitment is there?…I want you to really think about the definition of discrimination, and think about whether in fact your intent does not match your action.”

Preston was visibly angry at the accusation, responding “I take great exception with any implication that I’m showing any discrimination in this process. So let me just tell you right now if that’s what you’re implying I’m offended by your comment.”

Clarke shot back, “I’m offended and the women of America are offended. If the shoe fits you need to wear it.”

Margot Dorman, the CEO of the US Women’s Chamber of Commerce, also testified at the September hearing and predicted exactly what the regulations would finally outline:

“Remarkably, even though women own nearly one third of all businesses in America, we received only 3.4% of the 2006 total federal contracting dollars. The loss in revenues to women-owned businesses averages between five to six billion dollars annually. This is a travesty that Congress sought to address back in the year 2000 - but the SBA sabotaged your efforts.

Even today, after two thousand four hundred and sixty three days have passed since the Equity in Contracting for Women Act was signed into law, the SBA still is not ready to implement this important program and has even signaled that they may only implement a very, very narrow version of the program. We have heard from many confidential sources that the SBA plans to ignore the recommendations provided by the National Academy of Sciences and select only a very narrow set of industries to participate in this program. Clearly, if the SBA takes this action, the intent of Congress will not be fulfilled and women business owners will not receive increased access to contracts.”

Advocates now hope that the Congress and the Courts will intervene. Meanwhile, an advocacy campaign is underway to submit comments about the regulations. So far reaction has been swift.

Erin, Fuller, Executive Director of the National Association of Women Business Owners said that the new rules “gut the program”. Barbara Kasoff, President of Women Impacting Public Policy, said, “Women business owners are not important to this administration”. Senator John Kerry urged the SBA to scuttle the December rules and create a new proposal that “respects women”.

One of the four industries included in the SBA requirements will be furniture and kitchen cabinet manufacturing. Business owner Annette Taddeo told the Miami Herald, “I don’t know how many kitchens the federal government buys, but come on, where are the big budget items?”