Dear Women's Caucus Members, Legislative Colleagues, and Partners,
Happy Women's History Month! We are thrilled to bring you our March newsletter, which includes information on how we are celebrating Women's History Month, exciting news about our priorities, and more.
We hope that you will take a moment to read more below about our strategic priorities and legislative priorities, both of which were determined after extensive processes involving our 63 members. We are excited to share the news of these priorities with you and are especially honored to be able to do so during Women's History Month. To learn more about these priorities, we encourage you to attend our legislative briefing on Tuesday, March 28 at 1:00 pm in room 428 at the State House.
We appreciate your partnership, and as always encourage you to connect with us. All are welcome to contact our Executive Director, Nora Bent. Let's get to work!
Sincerely,
Senator Joan Lovely & Representative Hannah Kane
MCWL Co-Chairs
|
|
The MCWL Strategic Priorities were determined through an inclusive 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. We encourage you to share these priorities widely using the above graphic (Twitter/Facebook).
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.
|
|
|
Using the above Strategic Priorities as a guide, we then engaged our members to determine a set of Legislative Priorities. Women's Caucus members could submit bills for us to consider, and a Subcommittee consisting of Sen. Lovely, Rep. Kane, Rep. Giannino, Rep. Howard, Rep. Kilcoyne, and the Caucus ED Nora Bent reviewed the submissions and narrowed a list for further review. Once our Board of Directors approved that narrowed list, the full Caucus had an additional opportunity to express their preferences on the bills they would most like to see the Caucus prioritize and affirm a list of the bills that we recommended endorsing.
The following 5 bills will be our legislative priorities this session:
- An Act relative to a livable wage for human service workers
- An Act relative to salary range transparency
- H.1849, Rep. Fluker Oakley and Rep. Culter & S.1191, Sen. Jehlen
- An Act to increase access to disposable menstrual products in prisons, homeless shelters, and public schools
- H.534, Rep. Barber and Rep. Livingstone & S.1381, Sen. Jehlen
- 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
We also endorsed 20 bills, which you can learn more about here.
We are excited to actively engage with the bill sponsors and coalitions of our legislative priorities, support our endorsed bills, and work to advance our strategic priorities in a variety of ways. Please share the above graphics on our Twitter and Facebook pages, and learn more here.
|
|
|
- On Tuesday, March 28 at 1:00 pm in room 428 at the State House, please join the Women's Caucus as we share our strategic and legislative priorities in a legislative briefing. Light refreshments will be served, and all are welcome.
- Wednesday, April 5 is Start by Believing Day, which will kick off our Sexual Violence Task Force's work to commemorate Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Legislators and staff will receive information via email regarding this day and other ways to participate in Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
- On Friday, April 7, Tufts University will be hosting the 6th Annual Black Maternal Health Conference, focusing on "centering the role of nurses and midwives in addressing maternal health inequities." See details and registration information here.
- On Wednesday, April 19, the MA Commission on the Status of Women will be hosting its Girls Empowerment Leadership Initiative (GELI). You can see more details and registration info here--we encourage all to share this widely with your constituents, as this program is open to girls ages 14-22.
Please let us know if you have events that you would like to be highlighted in the next newsletter or shared on social media.
|
|
|
March is Women's History Month! On our Twitter and Facebook pages, we have been highlighting our past, our present, and our future.
The Women's Caucus currently has 63 members comprising over 31% of the legislature, and we are making progress toward true equity. However, we cannot lose sight of the reality that in MA's history, just over 200 women have served in the legislature compared to over 20,000 men. Here are two other opportunities to learn more in honor of Women's History Month:
- The MA State Library put together an exhibit (pictured above) highlighting some of the women who have served or are currently serving in the MA legislature. Check it out next time you are at the State House!
- The Massachusetts Office of Housing and Economic Development has an existing digital booklet entitled, "Historic Women Trailblazers of Massachusetts". Check it out!
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
Please let us know if you have accomplishments that you would like to be highlighted in the next newsletter or shared on social media.
|
|
|
|
|
|