Created: 03/16/2012 12:30:30 AM PDT
As part of the State Senate's celebration of Women's History Month, Senator Lois Wolk, D-Davis, announced Friday that she will honor Alicia Mosqueda of Yolo County and Sandy Person of Solano County as the 5th Senate District's 2012 Women of the Year.
"These are strong, smart women who have profoundly affected this community," said Wolk. "I am proud to honor their service to their community and to the state."
Wolk is honoring Mosqueda for her work to promote equality in the workplace. In 1976, Mosqueda and a group of nearly 100 women cannery workers filed a class action law suit against California's canneries, citing employment discrimination against women and seasonal workers.
The court ultimately found in favor of Mosqueda and her fellow claimants, ordering that canneries set up an affirmative action program to better ensure fair hiring practices -- and directing canneries to rewrite rules regarding seniority in order to be fairer to seasonally employed workers. The ruling helped mold the state's civil rights laws.
Additionally, Mosqueda continued to work at the cannery for a total of more than 30 years as a can labeler, machine operator, automatic machine stacker, packing machine worker, and as a pallet stacker -- breaking from traditional gender roles in the workplace.
Person of Vacaville is being recognized for her years of community service, and for her work to promote economic development in the region. Person has worked in the fields of economic development and real estate for over 25 years, and is the President of the Solano Economic Development Corporation--a public-private collaborative marketing partnership that works to attract expanding businesses to Solano County.
Person is a community volunteer and has also provided years of service and leadership with the Solano County Chambers of Commerce and numerous other local organizations such as NorthBay Healthcare Advantage, the Solano College Theatre Association, and the Travis Regional Armed Forces Committee and Travis Community Consortium, groups that provide outreach and support for the Travis Air Force Base community.
