Tag: The 19th

Students and Advocates ‘Frustrated’ With Biden Administration’s Slow Response to Finalize Title IX Changes

Democrats in Congress, students and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups are growing frustrated with the Biden administration’s slow pace to finalize proposed updates to Title IX, the federal civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in schools. More than 60 House Democrats sent a recent letter to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, calling on the agency to act. 

“So for the last three years, and now fourth school year, student survivors have fewer rights. Now it’s getting close to 2024 and we don’t know when a final rule will come out. So students are frustrated, and we’re frustrated as advocates.” 

Childcare Programs: Closures, Resignations and Tuition Hikes After Federal Funding Expires

It’s been two months since the federal government’s $24 billion in childcare stabilization grants expired, sending the sector over what many have come to refer to as the “childcare cliff.”

The Biden administration has asked Congress to approve $16 billion in supplemental funding to support the early care and education sector. Short of that—which would be something of a miracle in the current political environment in Washington—providers and families are left to fend for themselves.

Solutions to the Pay Gap for Native American Women Could Be Found in Their Tribes

November 30 marks Native American Women’s Equal Pay Day, spotlighting that those working full- or part-time are still earning only 55 cents for every $1 paid to non-Latino white men. Only Latinas have a wider gap. But 55 cents is, in many ways, an incomplete figure. 

There is much that is unknown about the nuances of the pay gap for Native American women. For years, the United States has failed to invest in data collection on Indigenous communities, making it difficult to reliably track wage gaps among the 574 federally recognized tribes.

Domestic Violence Calls About ‘Reproductive Coercion’ Doubled After the Overturn of Roe

Reports of abuse involving reproductive coercion—actions that prevent someone from making crucial decisions about their body and reproductive health—nearly doubled in the yearlong period after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Reproductive coercion can take the form of any situation in which one partner is exerting power over another in a way that impacts their reproductive health: forcing someone to engage in sexual activity, refusing to use contraception, restricting a partner from seeing a healthcare provider, telling a partner they are not allowed to receive abortion care.

Laphonza Butler Tapped to Fill Dianne Feinstein’s Senate Seat

, and

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday named Laphonza Butler, the first Black woman to lead EMILY’s List, to fill the Senate vacancy created by the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Butler was named two years ago to lead EMILY’s List, which works to elect Democratic women who support abortion access, and has led the organization through the end of federal abortion rights. Butler will also be the first openly LGBTQ+ senator from California.

“An advocate for women and girls, a second-generation fighter for working people, and a trusted adviser to Vice President Harris, Laphonza Butler represents the best of California, and she’ll represent us proudly in the United States Senate,” Newsom said in a statement.

‘Fireman’ v. ‘Firefighter’: These Lawmakers Want Less Gendered Language in the Law

Some lawmakers want to change the masculine default in government documents. Reps. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) are introducing legislation that would replace masculine generics with gender-neutral language in the U.S. legal code.

The Equality in Our Laws Act would direct the Office of Law Revision Counsel (OLRC) to to make non-substantive, gender-neutral revisions to many portions of the legal code.

Why the Wage Gap Differs Among Asian American Women

and

Sparse economic data on Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women has painted an inaccurate reality of economic well-being and hampered communities’ efforts to address disparities. It’s an issue that Wednesday’s AAPI Women’s Equal Pay Day—April 5, 2023—attempts to spotlight. 

On average, AAPI women earn 80 cents for every $1 earned by white men when looking at both full- and part-time workers, more than any other racial group of women. But that figure obscures the harsher realities faced by Southeast Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women, who see some of the largest wage gaps in the country. The 80 cent average captures an enormous range: Taiwanese women earn more than white men, about $1.08 for every white man’s $1, while Nepalese women earn 48 cents on the dollar.