April 2, 2008

Tracey Brooks today met with legendary feminist activist and author Gloria Steinem at the State Capitol to advocate for pay equity for women.

“We won't truly have a democracy until Congress looks a lot more like the country,” said Ms. Steinem. “We need to elect Congressional candidates like Tracey Brooks -- smart, experienced, hard working and devoted to voting as if everyone mattered.”

Ms. Steinem spoke at the Legislative Office Building and then held a town hall meeting sponsored by the Capital District Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, and the New York State Pay Equity Coalition (NYSPEC). NYSPEC is advocating for passage of the New York State Fair Pay Act (A.2712), which would ensure equal pay for equal work.

“There is no excuse why equal work does not result in equal pay,” said Tracey Brooks. “That is why I’m proud to stand with Gloria Steinem, the Capital District Area Labor Federation, NYSPEC and others who believe that forty years after the Equal Pay Act, women should not still be paid 77 percent of what their male counterparts make. That's just unacceptable.” 

Ms. Steinem went on to say that “jobs have too often been valued by the supposed social value of the doer rather than the importance of the job.  In this bill, we have a very important opportunity to set things right.”

Tracey Brooks received the full endorsement of EMILY’s List, the nation’s largest political action committee and financial resource for women running for elected office. Brooks has also been endorsed by the Women Under Forty Political Action Committee (WUFPAC), a nonpartisan political action committee that supports women forty years of age and under running for federal public office.

As a lifelong resident of the Albany area and the Capital Region Director for Senator Hillary Clinton for the last three years, Brooks enters the race with working knowledge of the problems facing the region and experience in finding solutions to them.

-30-