| Challenge to Secure America’s Economic Future |
| Challenge to Secure America’s Economic Future |
Action in 20 States Aims to Win Economic Security for Women and Families
Women policymakers, community leaders and business people in 20 states across the country announced on January 14 their specific plans to carry forward a policy agenda that provides wide-ranging economic security for women and families. The Challenge to Secure America’s Economic Future, coordinated by CPA, was issued by state legislators in public events in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.
“To sustain our economy, support our families and strengthen our communities we must recognize and invest in the economic power and priorities of women,” said CPA President and CEO Linda Tarr-Whelan.
While women exercise unprecedented power – women make 80 percent of all consumer purchasing decisions and women-owned businesses are among the fastest growing sectors of the economy – there remain significant obstacles to ensuring that women are full economic players. A lack of adequate child care or insufficient access to business networks and capital can keep women from launching a new business. Equal opportunities for women of all colors to education and business contracts face new threats from anti-affirmative action measures sweeping the country. And women on the average still make only 74 cents for every dollar earned by a man.
On the day of the Challenge, state legislators pledged their support to close this gap.
“The Challenge signals a new national and state-based movement where women leaders are calling for a new economic agenda that reflects their values and priorities,” said Anne Mosle, Vice President for Women’s Programs at CPA.
“Clearly, policies that support women also support families and affect the economic vitality of our state,” said Missouri State Rep. Vicky Riback Wilson. “Women are in the work force and their economic success affects their families. That means they need access to safe and reliable day care.”
Massachussetts policy makers are proposing options for paid family and medical leave. In Georgia, key women legislators are working to secure funding for a women’s business center and push forward a program guaranteeing a living wage.
For more information on the Challenge to Secure America’s Economic Future, visit CPA’s website at www.cfpa.org/womensvoices/index.html or contact Nora O’Connell at CPA.
The Challenge in the News…
Media coverage of Challenge events was widespread in print, on television, radio and the Internet. Newspapers from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to the Chicago Tribune to the Spokane Spokesman-Review featured the leadership of women legislators working for families and communities.
“While lawmakers in Washington remain fixated on impeachment proceedings and sex scandals, legislators in at least 20 states, including Missouri, are working to improve the lives of working women and their families,” leads Kansas City Star columnist Jilian Mincer.
A headline in the Christian Science Monitor’s article on the Challenge asks, “Does family care rank behind defense?” State legislators in 20 states across the country have given a clear answer.
State Highlights of Events Across the U.S.
In Massachussetts, the Massachusetts
Statewide Legislative Network issued the
Challenge, cosponsored a forum with key women legislators
at the capitol and will focus on two bills
proposing options for paid family and medical leave.
In Idaho, a new Women’s
Health Coalition will push insurance companies to cover birth control pills.
In Washington, a
bipartisan group of legislators and a coalition of community
activists will work to push through legislation for
affordable housing, better pay for child care workers, expansion
of unpaid family leave and better higher education and
training opportunities for women.
In Missouri, state Rep. Vicky
Riback Wilson will file a bill giving state income tax credits to working families.
Another proposal will require health insurance companies to cover routine pelvic
exams and pap smears. State Rep. Pat Dougherty will propose a bill preventing
health insurers from sharing information with potential employers on history of
domestic violence against job applicants.
In West
Virginia, a coalition of women leaders from across
the state challenged legislators to address the issues of equal
pay, economic opportunity, health care and child care as part of
the West Virginia Women’s Day at the Legislature event.
In Georgia, state Sen. Connie Stokes (FF ’95), Sen. Donzella James (FF ’96), Rep.
Nan Grogan Orrock and other legislators announced
a comprehensive program for a living wage, funding for
a women’s business center, education opportunites
and health care.
In Texas, state Representatives Vilma
Luna (FF ’97) and Dora Olivo (FF ’97), along with Diane Stewart of the Center for Public
Policy Priorities, outlined a legislative agenda
that encompasses education and job training,
access to capital for women entrepreneurs and
access to quality child care and after-school care
— touching all four issue areas of CPA’s Economic Agenda for America.
Among the goals and initiatives highlighted by Texas legislators are:
- a community investment program that
will create a $6 million public fund to support community financial institutions and
multi-bank community development corporations
- a child care tax credit that will give tax
credit to employers that provide child care
subsidies for employees.
- expansion of state-sponsored health
insurance to include all employees working in the
public school system; currently, only larger
school districts offer state-sponsored health
insurance.
- a bill for a broad-based alimony system that
is not founded on a community property system.
- a proposal providing $200 million from
combined state and federal sources to eliminate the waiting list for child care.
