Dear Women's Caucus Members, Legislative Colleagues, and Partners,
Beacon Hill has been busy this fall, and we are glad to bring you exciting updates about the work of the Women's Caucus.
As you may know, at the beginning of each session we undergo a thorough process to choose strategic and legislative priorities that will guide our work throughout the session--you can learn more about both below.
During the month of October, we helped to secure significant progress on two of our five legislative priorities--legislation to ensure wage equity passed the House and Senate, and menstrual equity legislation passed the Senate. We are incredibly grateful to the legislative sponsors of these bills, the strong advocates, and House and Senate leadership for prioritizing our agenda this early in the session. We look forward to continuing conversations about these bills and our other priorities as we continue through the session.
We hope that you find this newsletter informative. We appreciate your partnership and, as always, encourage you to connect with us. To do so, please contact our Executive Director, Nora Bent.
Sincerely,
Senator Joan Lovely & Representative Hannah Kane
MCWL Co-Chairs
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We are proud to share that we are now offering free menstrual products in the Women's Caucus office for those who need them.
In addition to our prioritization of the I AM menstrual equity bill (see below for exciting updates!), it is also our goal to support our colleagues. Please stop by room 460 in the State House as needed, and please share this announcement (Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram).
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Strategic Priorities
- Elevating Women’s Economic Opportunity & Eliminating Barriers
- Addressing Racial and Gender Disparities in Health Care
- Empowering Women in Government
- PASSED THE HOUSE & SENATE: An Act relative to salary range transparency
- This bill passed the House of Representatives on October 4 and passed the Senate on October 19. The bill is now before a Conference Committee.
- PASSED THE SENATE: An Act to increase access to disposable menstrual products
- This bill passed the Senate on October 26.
- See below for more details.
- An Act relative to a livable wage for human service workers
- An Act relative to postpartum depression screening
- An Act supporting parents running for public office
- H.669, Rep. Meschino and Rep. Connolly & S.422, Sen. Jehlen
Endorsed Legislation
- You can see the full list of our endorsed legislation here.
- One of our endorsed bills was recently reported out of Committee
- An Act Designating September as PCOS awareness month, filed by Rep. Montaño and Sen. Miranda, was reported favorably out of the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight on October 30. The Senate version of the bill was sent to the Rules Committee, and the House version of the bill was sent to the Steering, Policy, and Scheduling Committee.
- One of our endorsed bills was recently heard in Committee
- An Act to further family-centered child support, filed by Reps. Barber and Armini and Sen. Creem, was heard before the Joint Committee on Children, Families, and Persons with Disabilities on October 23.
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We are thrilled that one of our legislative priorities, which ensures access to menstrual products, unanimously passed the Senate in late October!
We have prioritized this bill, filed by Sen. Jehlen in the Senate and Rep. Barber and Rep. Livingstone in the House, for 2 consecutive sessions. This bill takes a critical step toward ending period poverty by ensuring free menstrual products in all public schools, prisons, and homeless shelters in Massachusetts.
We are grateful to Senate President Spilka, Senate Ways & Means Chair Rodrigues, and the Joint Committee on Public Health for advancing this bill, and to MassNOW for leading the Menstrual Equity Coalition! Thank you to Women's Caucus Senate Chair Sen. Lovely for sharing our support for this bill on the Senate floor.
We look forward to future conversations as this bill continues to move through the legislative process.
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Please let us know if you have events that you would like to be highlighted in the next newsletter or shared on social media.
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The Women's Caucus recently hosted a Women's Health Symposium with MassBio. Led by Rep. Fiola and Women's Caucus Chairs Sen. Lovely and Rep. Kane, this event highlighted the importance of women's health through an informative panel discussion moderated by Rep. Fluker Oakley.
Thank you to MassBio's CEO & President Kendalle Burlin O'Connell and panel members Jamie Belsito, Founder and Executive Director of the Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance, Dr. Nasrien Ibrahim, Founder and Executive Director of The Equity in Heart Transplant Project, and Kathryn Schubert, President and CEO of the Society for Women's Health Research.
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Please let us know if you have articles or social media that you would like to be shared in the next newsletter or on social media.
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Earlier this month, we were pleased to hold a legislative briefing to discuss diversity in the construction workforce. We co-hosted this event with the MA Black & Latino Caucus and the House Asian Caucus. This briefing covered the state's workforce goals for women and people of color in all state-funded and state-assisted construction. These goals are important to highlight to increase the diversity of the construction workforce. This is an industry that provides high wages and benefits, low barriers to entry, and can play a critical role in increasing the wealth of people of color and women.
The briefing also highlighted that state agencies are required to report their projects' performance in relation to these diversity goals to the state. This is not done frequently--we discussed why this data is important to understand where opportunity is being created and where it is lacking. The briefing organizers shared best practices to increase diversity in construction projects.
You can learn more from the Policy Group on Tradeswomen's Issues by contacting them here. They are also available to hear your suggestions for increasing the state's compliance with existing policies and laws requiring construction workforce diversity. Thank you to them for partnering with us on this briefing!
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Please let us know if you have accomplishments that you would like to be highlighted in the next newsletter or shared on social media.
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