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Dear Women's Caucus Members, Legislative Colleagues, and Partners,

We are a month and a half into the legislative session, and the Women's Caucus is hard at working welcoming our new members and determining our priorities for this session. We hope that you will take a moment to read about these and the additional updates below.

You can learn more about our Strategic Priorities below, which were developed with significant input from our 63 members. We are currently in our legislative priority-setting process and look forward to reviewing our members' ideas for bipartisan and bicameral legislative priorities. While we continue that extensive process, please take a moment to learn more about some of our past legislative accomplishments

We appreciate your partnership, and as always encourage you to connect with us. 
All are welcome to contact our Executive Director, Nora Bent. We look forward to working with you all to uplift and support the Commonwealth's women and girls.

Sincerely,

Senator Joan Lovely & Representative Hannah Kane
MCWL Co-Chairs

We are thrilled to announce that for the 2023-2024 legislative session, the Women's Caucus has a near-record high of 63 members! Comprising over 31% of the state legislature, the bicameral and bipartisan Women's Caucus stands strong.

You can see our members here, and we encourage you to share this powerful number through our Twitter and Facebook posts.

The MCWL Strategic Priorities were recently determined through an inclusive and extensive process with our membership. These topics will be our overarching focus for the 2023-2024 legislative session. We will support these through legislative advocacy and a variety of other tools. Thank you to our members for sharing thoughtful feedback and ideas to help us create these broad strategic priorities. We encourage you to share these priorities widely using the above graphic (Twitter/Facebook),  and please stay tuned as we develop our legislative priorities.
 

Elevating Women’s Economic Opportunity & Eliminating Barriers: Women should be able to secure economic stability and paths for future job growth without being hindered by challenges entering or staying in the workforce. We know that the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacted women’s economic well-being, and the ability to grow our economy is dependent on women being able to be full participants in the workforce, if and how they desire. As such, it is critical that we continue to prioritize women’s economic opportunity and recovery. The Caucus seeks to support policies to create additional opportunities for women, support women in nontraditional employment sectors, and encourage entrepreneurship. We will also work to dismantle the barriers that hold women’s economic power back, such as pay inequities, childcare access, and more. 
 

Addressing Racial and Gender Disparities in Health Care: Women, particularly women of color, face unique health challenges that can go unnoticed, are misunderstood, and are not taken seriously. Access to affordable and accessible health care, preventative health services, mental health care, and other critical supports must be understood through an intersectional lens, while we acknowledge the historically discriminatory practices that have gotten us to this inequitable point. The Caucus seeks to better understand these disparities, raise awareness and advocate for more accessible, equitable, and just health care.  
 

Empowering Women in Government: Despite historic gains, women are still a minority in elected office nationally, in Massachusetts, and on the local level. As a collective of women elected officials, the Caucus seeks to support and encourage elected women, female-identifying staff, those looking to get involved in their communities, and young people as they begin engaging civically. In addition to fostering opportunities for women to engage in government, we seek to identify and dismantle hurdles that prevent women from engaging in the political process. 

 
Please let us know if you have events that you would like to be highlighted in the next newsletter or shared on social media.
Thank you to our colleagues and the American Heart Association for joining our annual Go Red for Women event earlier this month. Thank you to survivor Caitlin Kane for sharing her story, and to all who helped raise awareness about heart disease and stroke.

Did you know...
  • More than 44% of women aged 20 and older are living with some form of cardiovascular disease
  • Heart Disease is the #1 killer of new moms
  • As of 2020, only 38% of cardiovascular clinical research trial participants were women
We encourage you to learn the life-saving skill of Hands-Only CPR and share this information with your constituents. Feel free to share this graphic (Twitter/Facebook) that explains the steps, along with this link for more information.
  • We shared information, upcoming events, and history in honor of Black History Month (Twitter/Facebook).
     
  • "U.S. Labor Secretary says he wants more women to be CEOs and board members so the gender pay gap can immediately close." Read more here. 
     
  • The U.S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau published a brief on childcare prices in localities nationwide. Read more here. 
     
  • "It's hard to be a new mom. For some, a lonely struggle can spiral into mental illness." Read more here, and please share these resources from the MA PPD Fund.
     
  • "Massachusetts facing massive amount of uncollected DNA...". Rep. Higgins was interviewed about her work on "lawfully owed DNA."
     
  • We commemorated National Girls and Women in Sports Day (Twitter/Facebook) and International Day of Women and Girls in Science (Twitter/Facebook).
     
  • We celebrated our members and the importance of sisterhood on Galentine's Day! (Twitter/Facebook).
     
  • Please welcome and learn more about our fantastic Women's Caucus interns--thank you all for your incredible work! 
 
Please let us know if you have articles or social media that you would like to be highlighted in the next newsletter or shared on social media.
  • Rep. Joan Meschino was named the Massachusetts Marine Trades Association 2022 Legislator of the Year.
     
  • Rep. Christine Barber will be awarded the Legislator of the Year Award by the Massachusetts Development Disabilities Council and the Arc of Massachusetts. 
     
Please let us know if you have accomplishments that you would like to be highlighted in the next newsletter or shared on social media. 
Please send relevant articles, upcoming events, social media you would like shared, accomplishments, or other updates that you think MCWL members and our partners would find helpful. All updates should be sent to Nora.Bent@MALegislature.gov
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