Tune in for State of Affairs on WFPL (89.3 FM)
For the first time in history women make up half of America’s workforce. This is affecting women, men, families, coworkers and the entire community. As men and women both work outside the home there are new negotiations taking place as we learn how to share household chores, navigate child care and care for our parents too.

Tune in to WFPL (89.3 FM) State of Affairs on Thursday, February 18, 1:00 – 2:00
p.m. for a live panel discussion on the challenges women and families face with this new reality.

In The Shriver Report – A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything, we learned that women are half of the U.S. Workforce and are the primary, or co-primary breadwinners in two-thirds of America’s families. The panel will explore what individuals and institutions can do to help and what policies and practices need to be changed to meet the new demands that are being placed on our nation’s families.

The panelists include: Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Catherine E. Aponte; Associate Professor of Women’s & Gender Studies at University of Louisville, Karen Christopher; President and CEO of Women 4 Women, Ann L. Coffey; and Associate Professor of Law at the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, Susan Hanley Duncan.

Catherine E. Aponte is a clinical psychologist in private practice for 27 years, has taught in the School of Professional Psychology at Spalding University, and was the Chair of a 2009 Conference on Work, Family and Community: Shared Responsibilities sponsored by the Kentucky Psychological Association.

A particular focus of the last few years for Dr. Aponte has been on gender, work, and family. She has been an active participant in the ThirdPath Institute, a national, non-profit organization committed to help working parents share the responsibilities and rewards that come with caring for children. She is a proponent of egalitarian models of marriage and family that emphasize working together to mange work, family and child (or elder) care.

Karen Christopher is Associate Professor of Women’s & Gender Studies and Sociology at University of Louisville. She received her PhD in Sociology from University of Arizona in 2000. Since then, she has published numerous research articles and book chapters in the areas of gender, race, and labor markets; motherhood; and gender and the welfare state. Her current research project is a cross-national comparison of U.S. and Canadian mothers with young children. This project extends the “choice-centered” literature on mothers’ employment and caregiving decisions by exploring the contexts of mothers’ decision-making: how employers, government policies, partners, and other social networks affect mothers’ employment decisions.

Ann L. Coffey is President and CEO of Women 4 Women a local non-profit working to improve the health and economic well-being of women and girls in our community through education and access. Ann joined Women 4 Women full-time in 2003 building on her experience and extensive knowledge in the private, public and nonprofit sectors. Career highlights include serving in Governor Martha Layne Collins’ administration as a special assistant to the Governor; working on the first Bluegrass State Games and helping coordinate the Governor’s educational efforts across the state. Ann was a National Leadership Kellogg Fellow studying social marketing to address societal and community issues. She founded Z Marketing in 1998 working with a wide range of public and nonprofit clients.

Susan Hanley Duncan joined the Brandeis School of Law faculty as an adjunct in 1997 and full time in 2000. Professor Duncan’s scholarship has focused primarily on the issues surrounding children, including the need for anti-bullying laws and laws protecting children from pornography on the Internet. Professor Duncan serves as chair of the University of Louisville’s President’s Commission on the Status of Women which exists to promote gender equity at the University of Louisville. The Commission advises the President on issues related to women and just completed an update of a 1994 Report on the status of women.

For more details on The Shriver Report – A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything, go online to www.awomansnation.com.