On Wednesday, September 8 the Michigan Women's Commission held a public hearing on the status of women in Michigan at the GVSU Eberhard Center. For several hours citizens came forward to offer testimony on issues that impact women ranging from poverty to abuse and affordable housing to employment equity issues.

Women with the Prostitution Roundtable spoke about recent efforts to address the reasons why women and girls end up in prostitutionand creating more alternatives for getting out. Another NOKOMIS Foundation initiative that was addressed is the gender inequity in jails and prisons. One speaker mentioned that there is a fully funded sobriety unit at the Kent County Jail for men, but not for women. This was just one example of the ongoing discrimination against women throughout the state.

The Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy also spoke to the issue of gender representation in the media. Local news coverage engages in what GRIID calls gender profiling - limiting women's voice to stereotypical roles such as parent, consumer and victim. The Michigan Women's Commission was encouraged to take up media advocacy and Michigan TV licensing renewal as important projects for the commission to consider. Despite this being a statewide government hearing, no commercial media was there to report on this event.