My night live blogging is coming to a close. Time for me to head out.

It was a night filled with great stories about women who are determined to make a difference and it was a night filled with people realizing we have a long way to go when it comes to respecting all workers.

I asked Gloria Steinmen, is it just going to take a lot of time before there is equity in pay and equity in work recognition.

She says it won’t just take more time. “Change isn’t going to happen unless we make it happen.”

Ai-jen Poo, an award recipient is thanking her mother.

She is the founder of Domestic Workers United.

She is calling for a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.

Let’s recognize and respect all work, she pleads.

I just interviewed Sallie Krawcheck, the chairman and CEO of Citi Global Wealth Management, who’s accepting the award on behalf of Citigroup Inc.

She was quite refreshing. She told me, and I’ve written about this before, that women don’t speak up at raise time. They have, she says, the prince charming syndrome. Someone is going to come along and take care of them and they will ride off on a white horse. Translated to the workplace, “someone will realize what great work I’m doing.”

Well ladies, they won’t notice, not usually. You have to speak up and ask for what you’re worth.

It’s not easy, for sure. Krawcheck admitted she breaks out in blotches on her neck every time she has to go in and ask for money. Her advice: wear a turtleneck. At least that’s what she does when she comes a knockin on the Citi Global top bosses’ doors for more money. And she takes in some water to drink because she says the process makes her spit dry up.

And she wanted to tell women with kids out there that figuring out what the heck you want to do with your life isn’t easy. When she had her kid 13 years ago she left Corporate America and decided she wanted to be an entrepreneur. But, she explains, “I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do.”

She decided to become a research analyst because she thought it would provide her flexibility but being an overachiever ended up doing tons more work than expect. She ended up back in the corporate world and it’s working for her now.

There are no rules everyone out there. Make your life/career what you want it.

It’s not just about individual women tonight.

The Gloria Awards are also honoring Citigroup Inc. for their support, money mainly, of the Collaborative Fund for Women’s Economic Development. It’s a donor partnership between the Ms. Foundation, that created it, and corporate, private and family foundations, says Yma Gorndon, the program officer for economic development at the Ms. Foundation. The fund is pooling resources to fund women entrepreneurs and business owners that are primarily low income. It helps them start businesses and gives them money to built those firms.

Citigroup have provided over $500,000 in support since mid 1990s, and they’ve participated in decision making of where the grants will go…the money mainly goes to organizations that provide training and general help to women entrepreneurs.

If you’ve got a buisness idea but no cash, check out ..the Association for Enterprise Opportunity..www.microenterpriseworks.org.

One of the recipients of the Gloria Awards I was most interested in talking to is Ai-jen Poo, lead organizer and founder of Domestic Workers United. She is working to help get fair pay and work conditions for domestic workers throughout the New York greater metropolitan areas. And it turns out, she says, there are 12 such organization nationwide that she knows about.

I got to corner her before the event. She hasn’t spoke yet to the crowd. But she told me “historically this group (domestic workers) hasn’t been valued.” Housework, she says, is not recognized or compensated. She pointed to the many women, moms, wives, etc., who are home breaking their backs to keep homes clean and running, and how, if they aren’t recognized for their hard work, why would be expect society to value such work in the many individuals who come to our homes and clean for us and take care of our children.

“Alot of employers of domestic workers don’t think of themselves as employers,” she explains.

There in lies the problem I suppose.

And she’s not just talking about the many illegal aliens who work in homes across the country. Many are Americans struggling to support themselves and their families but ended up with subpar wages and rarely any benefits. No health insurance. No pensions.

If you guys want to read blog entries on Blogher.org, a great community of women bloggers, where a fellow blogger Nordette Adams who’s sitting right next to me is also sharing her thought on the event, check out, www.blogher.org/node/20205.

Betty, the five piece pop rock band, lauched the event.

The members told us a bit about themselves before they sang a song.

Alyson Palmer said: “I just had a baby.”
Elizabeth Ziff said: “I’m a recent breast cancer survivor.”
Amy Ziff said: “I’m chubby, sexy and proud.”

Ok, I just had a fancy salad with mixed greens and this fryed parmesan cheese circle on top. And there was a flower on top. I had to eat the flower, right? Well, it tasted like a flower.

You guys are problably wondering what the Gloria awards are. To be honest, I really didn’t know much about them until just a few weeks ago.

Here’s a quick snapshot: The Ms. Foundation choses the recipients based on their commitment and achievements in the areas of social justice, reproductive freedom, and women’s leadership.

OK, everyone. I’m sitting in the ballroom of the lavish Mandarin Oriental in Columbus Circle, New York. The Ms. Foundation is holding the 19th Annual Gloria Awards and I’m here to live blog the event for you. (As promised, I’ll try to offer what ever tidbits I can get on the celebs here. Unfortunately one of the presenters I was dying to meet, Pam Grier, is sick and won’t be here. Remember her? The 70s bombshell from the blaxploitation films.)

I did just hang with Gloria…you know, Gloria Steinem. She’s smartly dressed in a black see-through mesh tunic looking as fit as ever. (She was born March 25, 1934.)

And she still has the fire in her belly when it comes to the women’s movement and issues of equality.

I asked her if she’s frustrated that after all these decades women are still battling for equal pay for equal work and she asked: “What kind of blog is this?” before she launched into a bunch of expletives about how after centuries of living in a male-dominated society change can not happen over night.

She said she was “touched and moved” by the great progress our society has made, but “angry” that we have so far to go.

It’s about not valuing the work that women do, she says. “It’s based on the social identity of workers, not the work.” A nurse makes less than the garbage man that cleans out the trash at a hospital. The parking attendant makes more than the child care attendant.

On that note, this low paid journalist has to go get some free fancy food.

I’ll have more for you guys in a moment so keep checking the blog and comment, comment, comment. Do you have questions you want me to ask the great women here in attendance, many of which have spent their careers helping to empower women.

Lately it seems legislators and judges are more concerned with the welfare of large corporations than the individuals who work for them.

Today’s decision by the Supreme Court is the latest example.

FROM the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court limited workers’ ability to sue for pay discrimination Tuesday, ruling against a Goodyear employee who earned thousands of dollars less than her male counterparts but waited too long to complain.

The 5-4 decision underscored a provision in a federal civil rights law that sets a 180-day deadline for employees to claim they are being paid less because of their race, sex, religion or national origin.

Without a deadline, Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court, employers would find it difficult to defend against claims “arising from employment decisions that are long past.”

Alas, Justice Alito, it takes a long time for workers to even realize that they are victims of discrimination. Sometimes it takes years for an employee to figure that out, not to mention how much time it take for a worker to get up the nerve to take on his or her company…knowing full well they will either be fired or treated so badly they will want to leave once they make such a claim.

In this case the woman in question, Lily Ledbetter, a longtime supervisor at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.’s plant in Gadsden, Ala., suspected that she was being paid far less than her male counterparts but things don’t happen overnight.

The AP goes on to quote Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg who seemed to understand the Catch 22 workers face:

Ginsburg said in court Tuesday for the dissenters, “In our view, this court does not comprehend, or is indifferent to, the insidious way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination.” She noted that Ledbetter’s pay started out comparable to what men were earning but slipped over time.

Ginsburg said Ledbetter faced an impossible choice: sue early and probably lose a half-baked case, or wait until the evidence is strong enough to win and be told she sued too late. Siding with Ginsburg were justices Stephen Breyer, David Souter and John Paul Stevens.

Debra Friedman, a lawyer with the Cozen O’Connor law firm who represents management, said Ginsburg put her finger on a problem for women and others who are covered by civil rights law. “Pay discrimination is difficult at times to discover until it’s too late,” Friedman said, though adding she believed the court correctly interpreted the law.

I’m not sure I get why so many people in power feel compelled to protect the rights of a corporation over the rights of employees.

Do corporations have any rights?

This from the Center for Corporate Policy:
The U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and subsequent Amendments do not explicitly mention corporations. Nevertheless, under U.S. law corporations have obtained substantial rights through key court decisions that have established particular legal doctrines and provided corporations some of the same rights as human beings.

Thanks to the Supreme Court, the trend continues.

I could go on and on about the Iraq War, but will not. This blog is about careers, jobs, and all things work related.

What does concern me though, and I feel is appropriate to address in this space, is the growing number of emails I get from veterans, many from Iraq, about how hard it is for them to find jobs when they return.

They have lots of experience, everything from managing platoons, to figuring out how to rescue wounded while people area shooting at them. It’s hands on experience you will never get in an office, and I would think such thinking on your feet would be valuable to any company in the U.S.

Alas, just seeing military service on a resume seems to be turning off many hiring managers. At least that’s what these Vets tell me.

I’m addressing the issue in my column this Monday, on Memorial Day, and I hope I can provide a small bit of advice to these guys. No matter where you stand on the War there is no way you wouldn’t be for making it easier on returning veterans when it comes to finding a job.

Let’s all somehow help them exchange their guns for briefcases.