Ecuador RPCV Cynthia Marano fought for women in workplace
D.C. activist fought for women in workplace
Her projects focused on economic equality, training opportunities
YVONNE SHINHOSTER LAMB
Washington Post
WASHINGTON - Cindy Marano, an activist who fought for equal pay, economic self-sufficiency and access to nontraditional jobs for women, died of adenoid cystic carcinoma April 28 at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. She was 57.
Marano, who had lived in Washington for 28 years, was a former director of the National Workforce Network and president of Wider Opportunities for Women, a national organization that works to promote nontraditional employment opportunities and economic independence for women and girls. She led the Washington-based organizations from 1976 to 1997.
She developed legislative proposals and testified before congressional committees regarding job training, welfare-to-work and vocational education. She also helped to create women's literacy programs and guided Wider Opportunities for Women in its outreach for women to enter into the construction trade and other jobs not usually filled by women.
Her efforts contributed to at least four federal laws, including the Nontraditional Employment for Women Act of 1992. The law was designed to guarantee women access to training for such jobs.
"The goal is to make the entire system focus on training women for nontraditional jobs, not just on a project that might run for one year and then go away," she said in 1992.
As early as 1988, Marano decried the lack of affordable child care for working mothers. She chided politicians, educators and employers for "failing miserably at providing women a way out of poverty."
In 1990, after a study about the paucity of women in leading roles in television, she spoke about the consequences that the "distorted TV picture" has for "viewers, especially girls, who see fewer choices for themselves on screen."
While with the women's groups, she helped develop the Self-Sufficiency Standard, which is being used by some states to decide living wages for families based on the number and age of children and geographical location.
After leaving Washington in 1997, Marano started her own business, Marano and Associates, and worked on strategies for helping low-income people move out of poverty.
In 2001, she joined one of her clients, the National Economic Development and Law Center in Oakland, and became director of its National Network of Sector Partners project. The project sought to improve employment and economic development opportunities for low-income people, families and communities.
"For most of the years of her career, she realized that it was important to change policies that impacted people's lives," said her partner, Judy Patrick. "The focus was to create policies."
Marano was born in Philadelphia and attended Northwestern University for two years. She joined the Peace Corps for two years and served in Ecuador. She found direction there for her life work.
"She just had such a deep desire for economic justice, and she began to see that in Ecuador," Patrick said. "And when she returned, she ...began to see some of that in the workforce."
Marano was director of public affairs for the National Federation of Business and Professional Women in Washington from 1969 to 1975. She graduated from George Mason University in 1972.
She was the founder and first chairwoman of Washington-based National Displaced Homemakers Network and also was a founder of the Older Women's League, the National Coalition on Women, Work and Welfare Reform and the National Women's Vote Project. She was vice chairwoman of Equal Rights Advocates and the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. She served on commissions for three U.S. secretaries of labor and the Private Industry Council in Washington. Among the honors she received are the Foundation for Women's Gloria Award for Women of Vision and National Award for Women's Economic Justice.
In addition to her partner, of Oakland; survivors include her mother, Peggy Carty of North Myrtle Beach, S.C.; and a brother.
