Pregnancy Complicates Working Women’s Life 
Maryland is One of at Least Eight States to Pass Pregnant Worker Protections

By ALLISON GOLDSTEIN
Capital News Service 

ANNAPOLIS — Rebecca Salsbury, 31, has less than one month to go before she becomes a mother. She plans to readjust her work-life balance when the time comes, but so far her pregnancy has meant little professional change at the private law firm in Baltimore where she’s an associate.

“Lucky,” is the word she used to describe her circumstances on the cusp of a paid three-month maternity leave, which she hopes will be followed by a nanny-share program she’ll arrange with a neighbor. The parents plan to share the cost of a single, child caretaker during the workday.

“I feel very fortunate that I can make that decision, that I can choose from different child- care options,” said Salsbury, a board member at the Women’s Law Center of Maryland.

Salsbury’s luxury of choice aligns with the experience of some pregnant women navigating the workplace in Maryland, but the experience for others, like Shayvon Omosanya, 24, could hardly be described as luxury, or even choice.

In an effort to correct that imbalance, Omosanya testified in a March hearing that led to Maryland’s passage of a pregnant worker protections act. The bill ensures that pregnant women cannot be forced out of their jobs or denied reasonable accommodations in the workplace.

Maryland — where, according to Department of Labor data, 78 percent of women in the childbearing age range of 20-44 are in the workforce — is one of at least eight states to pass pregnant worker protections.

Nationally, the number of pregnancy discrimination charges in the workplace has increased by 35 percent over the past decade, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Omosanya, as a woman within that demographic, had a personal stake in the cause.

 Shortly after she became pregnant with her second child, the young mother learned that she had an incompetent cervix, a medical condition that prevented her from lifting anything more than 20 pounds.

She loved her job at Spa Creek Center, a Genesis HealthCare rehabilitation and nursing home in Annapolis where she had been working for eleven months. But lifting food trays and pushing heavy carts would put her and her baby at risk, so she asked to be moved to another department or work in the café making soups and salads.

Omosanya submitted a note from her doctor about her medical circumstances and was called to the human resources department soon after. There she was told that the home could not accommodate her requests and her employment would be terminated.

“Not only did I lose my job, I lost my home, I lost my income, I couldn’t take care of my children,” said Omosanya.

Today, she lives with her family in a transitional homeless shelter in Annapolis.

“I felt that they made me choose between being able to provide for me and my 5-year-old or risking the safety of my unborn child. It was just really unfair to me, and it broke my heart,” she said.

Omosanya gave birth in April and plans to look for a new job as soon as she recovers. For Omosanya, it is a relief to know that once the bill takes effect on Oct.1 she will not face the same outcome if she becomes pregnant again.

Salsbury, the expectant lawyer, is one of the 75 percent of Maryland women between the ages of 16 and 54 who are in the labor force, meaning they are working or looking for work, according to 2012 data from the Maryland Department of Labor. By comparison, 82 percent of men in that age range are in Maryland’s labor force.

Nationally, the effects of these numbers can be seen in the outpouring of feminist voices on what it means to be both a professional woman and modern mother.

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Anne-Marie Slaughter, former director of policy planning for the U.S. State Department, are just two of the many high-profile women to recently weigh in on the rewards and challenges for ambitious females in the workplace.

Sandberg’s book, “Lean In,” argues that women ought to dedicate more energy to professional success, while Slaughter’s 2012 Atlantic article, “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All” suggests that professional success often comes at the cost of a satisfying motherhood. Both pieces have reinvigorated the ongoing feminist debate as women gain more powerful business roles.

But for many women, climbing to the top of an executive ladder is not what defines their work-life struggles when they become pregnant.

“We are working on federal legislation for reasonable accommodations for pregnant women in the workplace, particularly for women in blue-collar jobs where they may need some reasonable alterations to their job to continue working,” Sarah Crawford, director of workplace fairness at the National Partnership for Women and Families. Her organization is working to expand those efforts nationally.

Pregnancy protection alone would not mean an end to other struggles for working mothers, Crawford said. Wage gaps and restrictions on family and medical leave offer other challenges.

A paid three-month maternity leave like the one Salsbury receives from her private law firm is rare in the U.S.

“We are really the only First World country that does not have a policy requiring paid leave for new parents,” Crawford said. “There are 178 countries that guarantee paid leave for new mothers.”

As in the experiences of Salsbury and Omosanya, challenges facing working women may be shaped by circumstance. Salsbury, for example, recognizes that implementation of the pregnant workers fairness bill in Maryland will have little effect on her work life as a lawyer.

Some challenges, however, may be universal for working women who are considering having a child.

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Maryland Politicians Land Softly at Law Firms

By JEREMY BARR
Capital News Service 

WASHINGTON — Faced with the choice of running for a third term as Prince George’s County state’s attorney or returning to a law firm job and the cushy salary that comes with it, Glenn Ivey knew what he had to do.

“The college tuition mountain is certainly something we want to make sure we can handle, and retirement is getting closer and closer,” said Ivey, 52, who has two adult children, two children in high school and a middle-school-age child with his wife, Prince George’s County Delegate Jolene Ivey.

Ivey is enjoying a “six-figure increase in compensation,” compared to his state’s attorney pay, in his new position at Leftwich & Ludaway, a boutique, predominantly African-American firm, he said. The state’s attorney makes about $150,000.

Ivey’s path is a typical one for a lawyer-politician. Corporate law firms provide a safe, well-compensated landing pad for many outgoing Maryland politicians looking for a new gig.

Ivey has shifted between public service and private practice for most of his career. After working for the Justice Department, on Capitol Hill as counsel for the Senate Whitewater Committee and former Sen. Tom Daschle, and as chairman of the Maryland Public Service Commission for two years, Ivey joined what is now K&L Gates in 2000. He left the Washington law firm when elected state’s attorney in 2002. Ivey served for eight years, leaving office in 2010, and worked at another firm, Venable, before landing at Leftwich & Ludaway.

“This is the first time I’ve really kind of hit the point where I’m not going to go back into running for office or working full-time in a government position,” Ivey said in a conference room on Washington’s high-powered K Street corridor. “At this point, it makes more sense for me and my family to stay in the private sector.”

When former U.S. Sen. Joseph Tydings lost his bid for re-election in 1970, after serving just one term, he started practicing law again and hasn’t looked back.

“Being a lawyer, you knew that if you were defeated, you could go out and take care of your family,” said Tydings, 84, who served as a U.S. attorney in Maryland before running for Congress. “In my case, my first year in the practice of law after I left the Senate I made almost as twice as much as my Senate salary.”

Tydings, who comes from a long line of lawyers, has worked on counseling and government representation issues for Dickstein Shapiro, a downtown Washington firm, since 1996.

He has more time to do pro bono work and lobby for causes he cares about, like the Chesapeake Bay, as a senior counselor, he said.

Tydings isn’t the only former Maryland politician at Dickstein Shapiro. He’s joined by former Rep. Al Wynn, who signed on in 2008 after losing his bid for a ninth term representing the Fourth District. Wynn could not be reached for comment.

Public officials are extremely valuable assets to law firms, which prize them for their understanding of government processes and access to decision-makers.

That’s one of the reasons why King & Spalding, an Atlanta-based firm, hired former Maryland Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich after he lost his bid to retake the governor’s mansion in Annapolis in 2010.

“He knows a lot of people,” said Michael Cain, a political science professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. “He can pick up the phone and someone will answer at the other end.”

Ehrlich, in his role as senior counsel in the firm’s government advocacy and public policy practice group, spends most of his time pitching to potential clients, giving speeches and explaining how Congress works.

The former governor knows what he’s talking about. Ehrlich served four terms in the House of Representatives before becoming governor in 2002. He also served in Maryland’s House of Delegates for eight years.

“Bob Ehrlich brings to King & Spalding incomparable insight and connections at the busy intersection of business and politics,” said Wick Sollers, the office’s managing partner in a March 2011 press release announcing the hiring.

Ehrlich spends one day writing each week — he’s penning his second book, a follow-up to “Turn This Car Around: The Roadmap to Restoring America,” in addition to a weekly column for The Baltimore Sun — and is also a familiar face on cable television, where he often rails against the Obama administration.

“I think there’s a real cultural battle going on with regard to American values,” Ehrlich, 55, said by phone, adding that Obama has the “wrong values, wrong policies.”

Asked whether his meshing of politics and legal work is problematic, Ehrlich said it’s just the opposite.

“The firm encourages it,” he said. “(It) has a deep, rich tradition of politicians. I love the firm. It’s been wonderful.”

Ehrlich has been able to create a “mini version” of his political team at King & Spalding, bringing along his former communications director, Greg Massoni.

While Ivey enjoys working at Leftwich & Ludaway, he misses the good will that comes with being a public servant.

“I loved that being my job — to get up in the morning and try to help folks out who were having trouble,” Ivey said. “Sometimes it doesn’t take a lot to make a really big difference in peoples’ lives.”

To that end, Ivey launched an abortive campaign to take on Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Fort Washington, in November 2011. He dropped out of the race after just two months, citing fundraising difficulties.

Ehrlich, on the other hand, seems resigned to the fact that the state he once ran no longer aligns with his political ideology, making a future run improbable.

“The direction of Maryland is really clear,” he said. “It’s not the direction I wanted.

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Md. Looks to Buses to Loosen I-270 Traffic

By NICOLE MACON
Capital News Service 

WASHINGTON – When Margie Weaver accepted a job in North Bethesda, she didn’t think much about driving 42 miles from her home in Unionville to her workplace – until a trip she thought would take her about 45 minutes took up to two and a half hours in traffic on Interstate 270.

“When you add that (commute) on to an eight-, nine-hour day, you’re 14 hours away from home,” Weaver said.

Because she needed her car for work, Weaver had no choice but to drive each day. She tried to change her schedule to avoid peak travel times, but eventually quit her job after about a year to work closer to home. Now Weaver helps link Frederick drivers with others who share similar commutes and helps residents plan routes that reduce the amount of time behind the wheel.

Interstate 270 is typical of the 65 percent of Maryland interstate highways that are congested, according to a study compiled by the Maryland chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Major improvements to ease traffic congestion on the highway are years from completion or have been put on hold.  Decreased revenue projections and the state’s use of transportation funds for other purposes have delayed the more expensive options and forced planners to devise cheaper alternatives.

“We’ve fallen way behind on our infrastructure plans,” said Richard Parsons, board member of the Suburban Maryland Transportation Alliance.

The Maryland chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the state’s roads and transitways a C- rating in its 2011 report on the state’s infrastructure that came out in March. A key factor in the rating was inadequate funding for planned projects.

“It is critical that funding for capital improvement projects be increased,” the study concluded. “Failure to do so will continue to result in costly roadway repairs and reconstruction and increase time delays for Maryland residents.”

Maryland is doing better than the country on average, which received Ds for roads and transit in the same ASCE report.

The Maryland State Highway Administration and the Maryland Transit Administration have been working since the mid-1990s on developing a combination of road and transit improvements to Interstate 270 to improve traffic flow. When the first public hearings were held in 1997, average daily traffic on the interstate south of Interstate 70 was 83,750 vehicles. In 2012, average daily traffic in the same area was 103,960 vehicles, a nearly 25 percent increase.

The Maryland Transit Administration and the Maryland State Highway Administration conducted a multi-modal study on the 30-mile highway that presented five different options to add lanes. Expanding the highway was put on hold in 2011 in favor of transit options after the study estimated the cost at up to $5 billion.

The Corridor Cities Transitway, a rapid-bus system, began as a branch of the multi-modal study and became an independent project when highway lane expansion was abandoned. The first phase of the project will stretch from the Shady Grove Metro Station to the MARC Metropolitan Grove Station with nine stations in between.

The rapid bus transit system could ease traffic congestion on the lower portion of I-270 since buses will have designated lanes and would only interact with traffic at intersections.

“Regardless of how congested the roads become, the transitway will be able to maintain its travel speeds,” said Rick J. Kiegel, project manager for the Corridor Cities Transitway.

Relief for travelers, however, is years away. The first phase of the project, which would link the MARC Metropolitan Grove Station with the Shady Grove Metro Station, is expected to be completed by 2020. The completed transitway will stretch to the COMSAT Laboratories in Germantown, but there is no set timeline for this second phase. The plan is to wait for that area to increase in density, Kiegal said.

But even a completed transitway will make little dent in the problem, Kiegel said. “The reality is that I-270 carries such a large volume of traffic that one transit system is not going to have a significant impact.”

The Maryland State Highway Administration has focused on improving segments of Interstate 270. A project to construct a new interchange at the Watkins Mill Road Extended would provide access from I-270 to the MARC Metropolitan Grove Road Station. Partial engineering is still underway, with the right-of-way construction to begin later this fiscal year.

With the passage of the Transportation Infrastructure Investment Act in Maryland, Parsons is more optimistic that some of the state’s stalled transportation projects will resume.

“I’m feeling optimistic for the first time in a long time,” Parsons said.

The bill passed by the General Assembly in March would increase the gas tax by up to 5 percent by 2016. The legislation would bring an estimated $4.4 billion to the Maryland Department of Transportation. The gas tax has not been increased since 1992.

A pilot program is underway for “bus-on-shoulder” lanes along Interstate 270. The Maryland State Highway Administration is studying how to create shoulder lanes that can withstand bus traffic. Buses would use the shoulder lanes when highway traffic slows to a particular speed. A similar project is underway in Virginia to improve shoulders for buses on Interstate 66 inside the Beltway that could be completed as soon as next year.

While Suburban Maryland Transportation Alliance Chairman Doug Duncan said that “bus-on-shoulder” lanes are a good idea in the short term, the highway needs transit with a dedicated lane. “Long term I think you need to look towards separate bus lanes,” Duncan said.

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Metro DC Shed Image, Put Young Designers on Fashion Runway

By ANAMIKA ROY
Capital News Service 

WASHINGTON -- The nation’s capital has long been known as a place full of stuffy gray suits and neatly pressed ties, but these days, designers are loosening the top button.

“There has been a stigma with D.C. fashion,” said Michelle Gibson, a fashion designer and Howard University senior. “It’s gray, tacky and uninspiring.”

That stiff image is being erased by a confluence of forces that are putting D.C. on the fashion map: Up-and-coming, home-grown designers, showcase venues in DC Fashion Week and the DC Fashion Incubator, plus a young, hungry, well-heeled consumer market.

Gibson is a prime example. She’s one of a handful of students at Howard to have started their own clothing line as a college student. Hers is called “Simply L3ve,” and she showcased her collection at DC Fashion Week’s Emerging Designers Showcase in February.

Gibson traces her fashion aspirations back to when she had to wear a uniform for school. Her peers all had to wear the same, bland uniform, but she noticed how each made subtle adjustments to make those costumes their own.

“I was a quiet observer,” she said.

This was the inspiration for Simply L3ve -- a customizable clothing line that allows her customers the creative freedom to create their personal style.

To Gibson, personal style is about being able to take a template and add colors and prints of the wearer’s choosing.

“I want my customers to wear something no one else has,” said Gibson.

That’s exactly the DC fashion vibe, said Janice Wallace, editor-in-chief of Façon Magazine, who has lived in the Washington area her whole life. She founded Façon Magazine in November 2011 to showcase local designers.

“It’s about people who do their own thing and don’t need to look like anybody else.” Wallace said.

This characteristic of fashion in the Washington metropolitan area provides greater opportunities for young designers, she said.

To Wallace, D.C. has always been stylish, but now more people are paying attention.

“Before, if it didn’t appear in The (Washington) Post, it didn’t happen at all.” she said.

Blogs like Refinery29 D.C., which targets an audience ranging from college students to young professionals, are supplementing more traditional fashion media, Wallace said. The site features articles on fashion, style, beauty and events taking place around D.C.

“You would think this kind of information is always available but it’s not,” said Holly Thomas, editor in chief of Refinery29 D.C. “Bloggers have created a more comfortable environment for people interested in fashion.”

Nurturing this nascent fashion industry is the area’s own showcase: DC Fashion Week, the fifth- largest fashion week in the United States. Historically, it has brought in designers from all over the world, but lately it’s been courting designers from around the nation’s capital. The weeklong event helps designers get exposure in front of big-name buyers, who might then agree to carry their line.

The DC Fashion Incubator and Style Studies DC also are helping to build the area’s fashion scene by working with emerging designers to assist them with their brands and network with potential buyers.

Macy’s has partnered with the DC Fashion Incubator to give up-and-coming designers the opportunity to sell their line at the company’s Metro Center store. Talks for this partnership began in October 2012 and are expected to be put into action in the next year. Macy’s has created partnerships for similar programs in Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

Wallace works with the DC Fashion Incubator and says she is “optimistic” about the future of the organization’s partnership with the Metro Center Macy’s.

Style Studies DC was founded in February by 22-year-old Kiah Leigh Rhode, from Bowie, to bring together influential members of the fashion industry and young people interested in fashion. The program is still under construction and held its first series of seminars earlier this month. These seminars were led by players in the local fashion scene, like Wallace, and attended by young people interested in becoming designers, editorialists and public relations representatives in the fashion industry.

Rhode calls herself a “professional DIYer & creative” and has an eponymous jewelry line.

Rhode says the influx of young people in the D.C. area has helped Washington’s relationship with fashion.

“We have more fashion initiative.” said Rhode.

Seven of the 10 wealthiest counties in America are in the Washington metropolitan area, according to the American Community Survey conducted in 2011. The 2010 census found that a third of the population in Washington is between the ages of 20 and 30, a 23 percent increase from the last census.

Retailers are noticing the trend. Established designers, including Kate Spade, Burberry and Michael Kors, have all brought their stores to the area in recent years.

While this is good news for the young shopper, this development, ironically, is making it increasingly difficult for small boutiques and vintage shops to stay in business.

“Every massive chain store is headed our way and smaller stores can’t handle that.” said Thomas.

But young designers like Gibson continue to be optimistic about opportunities available to them: “I used to think about moving to New York but now I’m considering staying in D.C.”

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