Dear Women's Caucus Members, Legislative Colleagues, and Partners,
We hope that you all are enjoying the warmer weather as we cruise into the summer months. As we are halfway through the busy month of June, we hope that you will take a moment to read the updates below about the work of the Women's Caucus.
As you know, the Women's Caucus recently finalized our strategic and legislative priorities after a thorough and inclusive process involving input from our members. Since those priorities were determined several months ago, we have been busy working with our legislative and coalition partners to advance our priority bills, raise awareness, and submit testimony as bills are heard before Committees.
We've been doing work that includes advocating for our priorities during the budget debates, holding multiple events, and more to support our mission in ways that stretch beyond legislative advocacy--those updates are below as well.
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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Strategic Priorities
- Elevating Women’s Economic Opportunity & Eliminating Barriers
- Addressing Racial and Gender Disparities in Health Care
- Empowering Women in Government
Legislative Priorities
- An Act relative to a livable wage for human service workers
- An Act relative to salary range transparency
- An Act to increase access to disposable menstrual products in prisons, homeless shelters, and public schools
- An Act relative to postpartum depression screening
- H.2163, Rep. Fiola & S.1375, Sen. Friedman
- This bill was heard before the Joint Committee on Public Health on June 6. Caucus ED Nora Bent testified in support of this bill, and you can see the Caucus' written testimony here.
- An Act supporting parents running for public office
- H.669, Rep. Meschino and Rep. Connolly & S.422, Sen. Jehlen
- This bill was heard before the Joint Committee on Election Laws on May 17. Caucus ED Nora Bent testified alongside coalition partners in support of this bill, and you can see the Caucus' written testimony here.
- Check out this editorial by the Globe's Yvonne Abraham in support of this legislation, and this article that details why this is such an important and simple policy.
Endorsed Legislation
- You can see the full list of our endorsed legislation here.
- Three of our endorsed bills have recently been heard before Committees:
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Annually, our Board of Directors meets with members of leadership across both legislative chambers and the Executive Branch. We here honored to recently meet with Speaker Mariano to discuss the Women's Caucus priorities for this session, and how we can continue to collaborate.
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Our State Budget Task Force, led by Sen. Friedman and Rep. Ciccolo, supported amendments that relate to our Caucus priorities during the FY24 budget debate. In May, we supported the above amendments to the Senate budget.
We thank both the House and Senate for such strong FY24 budget proposals and debates and look forward to further advocacy through the Conference Committee.
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- Suffrage100MA is hosting a gala on Wednesday, June 14 at 6 pm. Learn more here.
- The Women's Caucus is hosting a briefing for our legislative colleagues with our partners at Big Sister Boston on Tuesday, June 20 at 11 am at the State House (House Member's Lounge).
- The U.S. Department of Labor's Women's Bureau is hosting an event in Springfield to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the FMLA & MA's paid leave protections on Tuesday, June 20 at 3 pm. Learn more and register here.
- Our partners at the MA Commission on the Status of Women are hosting two upcoming events.
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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We were pleased to host Secretary Yvonne Hao, who leads the state's Executive Office of Economic Development. Each quarter, we host a meeting for the full Caucus where we invite a guest speaker to discuss their work as it relates to one of our priorities.
At this meeting, we had an informative conversation with Secretary Hao about our strategic priority focused on "elevating women's economic opportunity and eliminating barriers." We are grateful to Secretary Hao and her team for joining us, and look forward to continued collaboration!
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- Happy Pride from the Women's Caucus! We were thrilled to attend the pride flag raising and celebration at the State House earlier this month, and thank the LGBTQ+ Caucus for organizing it!
- The U.S. Department of Labor's Women's Bureau released an interesting report entitled, "Lifetime Employment-Related Costs to Women of Providing Family Care"
- Sen. Miranda penned a commentary, along with Allison Bryant and Bisola Ojikutu about the Black maternal health crisis.
- Rep. Barber wrote an op-ed about her work with the Women's Caucus. "By working with other women leaders in the House and Senate, the Women’s Caucus provides a place in the State House where we support each other and find new ways to work together to solve problems."
- Did you know that on our website, we include brief bios about all of our members? Check it out to learn more about this talented and diverse team of leaders.
- "Trying to close the gender pay gap--60 years after the Equal Pay Act."
- June 12 was Women Veterans Recognition Day and also marked the 75th Anniversary of the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, a law allowing women to serve as permanent members of the Army, Navy, Marines, and the recently formed Air Force.
- On June 1, we recognized the UN's Global Day of Parents.
- Caucus members Rep. Kane and Rep. Meschino spoke about their own work and the work of the Caucus at the recent MA Women's Political Caucus Women's Leadership Breakfast.
- Meet our summer interns! Thanks to Aviva and Olivia for joining us.
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.
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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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