GoWomen: Women’s Bill of Rights

Titling the Kansas bills as “Women’s Bill of Rights” is an affront to the “Bill of Rights” created by the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1968 that called for “a new movement toward true equality for all women in America, and toward a fully equal partnership of the sexes…”. The name is of course purposefully misleading and is a clear attempt to obfuscate the true intent – discrimination and a rolling back of rights and protections for marginalized genders. However, the bill’s title got me to thinking. Below are three things I would include in a Women’s Bill of Rights for 2023.

1. Equal Pay for Equal Work

March 14 is this year’s Equal Pay Day because it marks the day that a woman must work through in 2023 to receive the same pay as a man doing similar work earned in 2022. Simply put, the average woman must work 14.5 months to make what the average man earns in a year. However, there are some key exceptions, as it takes even more time for women of color to reach pay equity with white male peers.

Sixty years after John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act to end gender pay discrimination, women still make only 84 cents on the dollar compared to men and 77 cents compared to white men. As bad as this is, it’s even worse for most women of color. Recent study by McKinsey found that working to improve gender equity could add as much as $13 trillion to global GDP in the next seven years. Furthermore, closer to home researchers found that “in 2018 alone, racial gaps in wages and employment for working-age people cost the Chicagoland economy about $136 billion in lost economic activity.” Addressing this racial inequity in income would double the average annual income of BIPOC workers.

2. Affordable and comprehensive healthcare

Health care is costly and inequitably available. At CFW, we assert healthcare as a human right! We also specifically like to see policies that address the root causes of the unacceptably wide racial disparities in health outcomes—outcomes ranging from infant and maternal death to overall life expectancy.

All people deserve a full array of physical and mental health services at each stage of life, and the array must include full reproductive justice. People of all gender identities should be informed of and have access to safe, effective, and affordable contraception; as well as access to gender-affirming health care services and pregnant people should have the ability to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth with the best chance of having a healthy infant.

It is also important to note that food security, affordable housing and childcare, freedom from violence, high-quality education, and a healthy environment are foundational to good health, and these must also be addressed if we are to end racial and economic disparities in health outcomes and achieve good health care for all.

3. Expand Access to Affordable, Quality Childcare

Most Illinois families struggle to afford childcare. In Illinois, the rising cost of early childhood development services means that hundreds of thousands of working parents across the state are left without affordable care options for their children. Illinois ranks eighth in the nation for the highest cost of infant care relative to median family income. Illinois also has the distinction of being included in the list of states where childcare is least affordable for single parents.

And while quality childcare remains out of reach for many families who need it due to cost, one in five early childhood educators in Illinois live in poverty  – two facts that are difficult to reconcile.

These three are top of a long list, but collectively, they could have an immediate and significant impact on moving the needle of equity for women. For our part, CFW continues to work on these and many other areas to ensure women and their families thrive. I’d like to know what you would include in your Women’s Bill of Rights.