Norton to Open Briefing on Mobilizing Women to Defeat Income Inequality that Burdens Senior Years, Today

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today will give opening remarks at a press and congressional staff briefing as part of an effort to mobilize women to remedy long-standing inequality with men in income, income security, and health protection. The briefing, sponsored by the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM), will be held in the Cannon House Office Building, room 121, at noon. NCPSSM will feature a new initiative named for Eleanor Roosevelt, the "Eleanor's Hope" project. The project was developed to encourage women of all ages to advocate for gender equality in income security and health through public activism. The committee has invited Norton, a former chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, who administered the Equal Pay Act and has sponsored legislation to prevent and remedy the wage gap, and has fought against cuts to Social Security and Medicare, to speak at the briefing.

"Women's wage gaps, compared to the wages of men, follow women into old age, leaving them ironically with longer lives than men and less income," Norton said. "In a democratic society, such disparities do not change without mobilization of those affected. The leadership of ‘Eleanor's Hope' is a vital new spark for the needed mobilization."