Cindy Marano, 57; Champion of Equal Pay, Literacy for Women

Cindy Marano, a nationally known advocate for equal pay and economic self-sufficiency for women along with the literacy and training to achieve it, has died at age 57.

Marano, who lived in Oakland, died April 28 at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco of adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare type of cancer.

The women’s champion spent most of her career in Washington, D.C., where she served as president of Wider Opportunities for Women from 1976 to 1997.

She was also a director of that organization’s National Workforce Network.

From 1969 to 1975, she was director of public affairs for the National Federation of Business and Professional Women.

Marano operated Marano & Associates from 1997 to 2001, specializing in designing and supporting programs to reduce poverty. Most recently, she worked with the National Network of Sector Partners under the Oakland-based National Economic Development and Law Center.

During her tenure in the nation’s capital, Marano helped develop legislation, including the Nontraditional Employment for Women Act of 1992, and frequently testified before congressional committees concerning job training, vocational education and welfare-to-work programs.

Asked on CNN in 1992 to discuss the reasons women often receive unequal pay for equal work, one of her major focuses, Marano said:

“Well, there are really two reasons. One of the reasons is that women tend to be segregated into what we call more traditional women’s work, those jobs at the bottom of the pay scale that tend to pay substantially less than the jobs that are traditionally male jobs. The second reason is that we, as a society, really undervalue what is women’s work and, therefore, we really need to work toward what I would call ‘pay equity.’ ”

Through her organizations, Marano conducted studies to support her advocacy, including one on the wages women need to keep their families out of poverty.

California, with its high cost of living, she told The Times in 1997, presented special problems. In most California counties, she said, “a full-time minimum-wage job doesn’t come close to making them self-sufficient.”

Born in Philadelphia, Marano attended Northwestern University for two years before joining the Peace Corps and serving in Ecuador.

She then settled in Washington to work first with the National Federation of Business and Professional Women and to complete a bachelor’s degree in English at George Mason University.

Marano was founding chairwoman of the national Displaced Homemakers Network (now Women Work! the National Network for Displaced Homemakers) and 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 served on the national advisory commissions for three U.S. secretaries of Labor. Among her awards were the Gloria Steinem Women of Vision Award and the Ms. Foundation for Women national award for Women’s Economic Justice.

Marano is survived by her longtime partner, Judy Patrick, of Oakland; her mother, Peggy Carty, of North Myrtle Beach, S.C.; and a brother, Paul Carty, of Dubuque, Iowa.

A memorial service is planned for Friday in Oakland. Donations in her honor may be sent to the Cindy Marano Memorial Fund, Women’s Foundation of California, 340 Pine St., Suite 302, San Francisco, CA 94104.