For all the
positive things we see happening in New
York State
for women economically, and there has been a lot of progress, we are still a long
way from where we need to be.
On the plus
side, for example, on Halloween this year, a new law takes effect in New York City
prohibiting employers from inquiring about a candidate’s salary
history during the hiring process. The law is designed to delink lifelong pay inequalities
for women by uncoupling them from their salary histories. From October 31 on,
any such inquires are unlawful and discriminatory.
PowHerNY
and our many allies worked hard during the 2017 legislative session to get a
similar salary history bill passed in New York State
legislature. Hopefully we’ve laid the ground work for passage in 2018.
On January
1, New York
will institute most one of the most
progressive paid family leave policies in the nation. Phased in over several years,
the new law will apply to newborns, adopted or foster children, as well as
ill family members, including children, in-laws and domestic partners. Those
families with a member called to active military service also qualify. And
since the payment of benefits comes out of payroll deductions, employers do not
bear the burden to cover costs.
But – and
there is always a but - New York City
sits atop a list of 10 worst megacities for women in terms of economic
opportunity, according to a new survey ranking the world’s metropolises for
their sexism. The Thomson Reuters Foundation looked at 19 of the world’s
biggest megacities and ranked them based on how safe they are for women, as
well as the level of access to healthcare, education and economic
opportunities.
Thomson Reuters Foundation spoke to experts on women’s
issues in each of the cities and rated the cities based on their scores in four categories:
·
Sexual
violence (“Women can live in this city without facing the risk of sexual
violence including rape or sexual attacks or harassment.”)
·
Access
to healthcare (“Women have good access to healthcare including control over
reproductive health and maternal mortality.”)
·
Cultural
practices (“Women are well protected from potentially harmful cultural
practices including female genital mutilation, child, early or forced marriage,
female infanticide.”)
·
Economic
opportunities (“Women have access to economic resources such as education,
ownership of land or other forms of property, and financial services such as
bank accounts.“)
This past
weekend the Women’s Convention was held in Detroit,
a convening of nearly 4,000 people, mostly women, as a follow up to the wildly
successful Women’s March held in Washington,
DC and many other locations following the Trump Inauguration in
January. The issues under discussion in Detroit included the same
ones women rallied over last January:
Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act,
threats to the environment, mass incarceration, reproductive rights, workplace
rules, the accessibility of child care, treatment of immigrants, protections
for transgender people, and sexual harassment and assault.
The answer
to the question, Why these issues are still unmet?, even in relatively
progressive places like New York City and New York State, is simple: It is the lack of
women at the table in the state legislature and the halls of Congress.
Women make
up just over half the population and are the majority of voters, yet women –
especially young women with the most to gain or lose - are not exercising their
full electoral power, either at the polls as voters or as candidates.
Election
Day 2017 is just around the corner, yet we know these off, off year elections
attract the fewest voters, on average. However, it is through local elections that
voters have the greatest power to effect change. We’ve seen over and over again
that when progress is stalled in Washington
and the state capital, it is through leadership at the municipal level that real
change can begin. Paid Family Leave was a New York City innovation before it passed in Albany.
Across the
country, the majority of Americans are dissatisfied with the political state of the nation:
Seven in 10 Americans say the nation’s political divisions
are at least as big as during the Vietnam War, according to a new poll, which
also finds nearly 6 in 10 saying Donald Trump’s presidency is making the U.S. political
system more dysfunctional.
But dissatisfaction extends well beyond the executive
branch: Even more Americans, 8 in 10, say Congress is dysfunctional, and there
is limited trust in other institutions, including the media.
While the poll finds similar levels of distrust in the
federal government as before Trump took office, it also finds that pride in U.S. democracy
is eroding. The share of Americans who are not proud of the way the country’s
democracy is working has doubled since three years ago — from 18 percent to 36
percent in the new survey conducted among a nationwide sample of more than
1,600 adults by The Post and U-Md.’s Center for
American Politics and Citizenship.
Majorities of both Democrats and Republicans say America’s
politics have reached a dangerous low point, though more Democrats (81 percent)
than Republicans (56 percent) hold that view.
This has
been deliberately cultivated by cynical politicians and organizations who want
to foster helplessness, fear and apathy in our citizens. Because apathetic,
depressed citizens won’t do the one thing that can change the direction of the
country: Run for office and vote for candidates who offer a new vision for the
country.
There is a
power vacuum in this country. Robert Reich, who served in the administrations
of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under
President Bill Clinton from 1993-97, has pointed out that the old Democratic
and Republican parties are exploding.
"When you take a closer look, America actually has 6 political
parties right now. Whoever can put together elements of a governing coalition
among these groups will win future elections." Watch his video essay on this
question.
But in
order to take advantage of these dynamic shifts in political power, we have to
be willing to step up to claim the opportunity. The good news: there is
evidence this is starting to happen.
More than 15,000 women across the country have contacted Emily’s List in 2017 to express
interest in running for office—a new record for the organization. They’ve
watched as senators Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren are interrupted and
silenced by their male colleagues, and lamented that at an all-male cohort of
senators retreated behind closed doors to draft a Senate health-care bill that
would have imperiled millions of women’s health, from maternity care to access
to birth control.
According to a She
Should Run spokesperson, in a normal month the organization sees “at best,
and with significant effort, anywhere between a few dozen to a few hundred
women” sign up. But in the three months since the election, co-founder and CEO
Erin Loos Cutraro said 8,100 women have indicated their interest in running foroffice by registering for She Should Run’s online incubator program, which
teaches them how.
Female donors are skyrocketing and more women are considering runs. The number of female donors to federal candidates and
committees has skyrocketed by roughly 284 percent so far in the 2017-18
election cycle compared with this time in the 2015-16 cycle, according to
research from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. The number of
women donating to a federal campaign has increased by a staggering 670 percent
when compared with the early months of the 2011-12 cycle.
Having a
critical mass of women decision-makers, rather than a token presence, will allow new
ideas and new voices to be heard with new perspectives and solutions to old
problems. This idea is taking hold. In Detroit
at the Women’s Convention:
In small rooms, speakers led detailed training sessions for
candidates at all levels: how to get the vote out, how to give a campaign
speech, how to register voters, how to run for office.
“The goal here is for people to go back to their local
communities and prepare for 2018 and to build power, register voters, engage
more people, organize on a very hyper level,” said Linda Sarsour, one of the
organizers of the Women’s March and of this convention, which leaders here view
as the first of its kind since women met in Houston
in 1977. “We’re excited to see what happens in 2018.”
Women – and
society – have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Remember:
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