CHEYENNE - A new two-year campaign will try to dispel the notion that the gender wage gap and other barriers are strictly women's issues.

"What is good for Wyoming women and children is good for Wyoming communities," is the theme of the Equality Initiatives campaign sponsored by the Wyoming Community Foundation and the Wyoming Women's Foundation.

The mission is to highlight both the successes of women in Wyoming and the challenge facing the state's women and girls, said Sarah Mikesell Growney of Cody, who has been hired to lead the campaign.

The initiative is the outgrowth of meetings of various groups of people and organizations who agreed there is a need to look at data "with a gender lens" and raise awareness and show this is a community issue, not just a women's issue, she said.

The beginning point will be the gender wage gap. Statistics show that Wyoming working women receive 57 cents for every dollar their male counterparts are paid.

Growney cited a 2003 University of Wyoming study that said reducing the wage gap would improve the productivity of Wyoming's existing work force, as businesses would better use the existing labor pool in the state. In turn, this would result in lower turnover for businesses and associated cost savings.

Growney said policies have not been cast in a beneficial way for Wyoming women, and lots of time the women don't succeed in advocating for policy changes because of barriers or misconceptions.

She likened the situation to a funnel clogged with misperceptions about women and such things as their need for child care and opportunity in the workplace.

"If we can educate on the reality of the situation to clear up the misconceptions and unclog the funnel, then policy will begin to pass in a way that benefits women, children and all our communities in Wyoming," she said.

Growney said she believes one misconception is that there are people available to take care of women's children so they can work and it's a matter of choice. The reality is that 60 percent of Wyoming women believe child care is a serious problem in Wyoming and its cost, availability and quality are major limitations to earning more money, according to the initiative's fact sheet.

Another misconception is that hiring a woman of child-bearing age will be costly to a business.

"The reality is that lots of men in business tell us how much they benefit from keeping that woman on board, working with her, working through the issues and the loyalty she has to that employer," Growney said.

The group's fact sheet said health care, family, employment and wages and child care are what Wyoming women most often report as serious personal problems.

Nearly a quarter of women between the ages of 18 and 64 are without health insurance, and women in Wyoming are more likely to die from suicide than women in all but three other states, the report said.

This year Growney will conduct a grassroots and "earned media" campaign, using interviews and news releases to get out the group's message.

The paid media campaign will begin in April in conjunction with the introduction of a documentary that Mickey Babcock of the Equipoise Fund of Jackson is having produced and will donate to Equality Initiatives. The documentary, which Growney said will be positive, features more than 20 Wyoming women.

Equality Initiatives received start-up financing from the Wyoming Community Foundation, the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole, the Tate Charitable Foundation, the Equipoise Fund, the Snowdon Family Fund, the Wyoming Council on Women's Issues and an unnamed private donor.

The Wyoming Community Foundation and the Wyoming Women's Foundation are the fiscal sponsors of the collaborative effort.

Capital bureau reporter Joan Barron can be reached at (307) 632-1244 or at joan.barron@casperstartribune.net.