My Women’s Policy Plan

By Buffy Wicks

On January 20, 2017, I stood on the Mall in Washington DC, with my 8-week old daughter in my arms, in a sea of pink hats, contemplating how I could be a part of the emerging resistance movement. I had worked for President Obama for six years: developed his grassroots organizing strategy and was part of the White House team that helped pass the Affordable Care Act. My daughter, Josephine, was due Election Day. I thought she’d be born the day we elected our first woman president. It was all so serendipitous. Except it wasn’t to be. And there I stood, taking in the scale and magnitude of thousands of powerful voices resisting Trump. I knew I would do some soul searching and that I would find my role in fighting our way out of this divisive and ugly politics.

Later that spring, I joined tens of thousands of other women across the country who stepped into the arena and decided to run for office for the first time. I’ve never been a candidate before, but felt the need, with my daughter by my side, to get out from behind the scenes. With that, I filed for office to be the next California Assembly member for District 15 in the East Bay.

It’s great that we have more women running for office. And given the recent progress from the #MeToo effort, I think it’s time we have more women in positions of power. Research shows that when women reach the threshold of more than 30% of the leadership of an organization, the culture of the organization shifts. The California state legislature is behind the national average at 22% and given the recent departures by four male state legislators due to sexual assault allegations, I think it’s high-time we push past that 30% number.

But what’s also critically important is that our elected officials – both women and men – support policies that push for essential rights and protections for millions of women. This is the kind of structural change we need to level the playing field for women.

Here’s are some things we can do right now here in California create a more equitable place for women:

Enact a Better Paid Leave Policy

America has the worst family paid leave policies of any industrialized nation in the world, with only 12% of workers having access to any kind of paid leave policy. The stats are worse for service industry workers, who are disproportionately women of color – only 6% have any kind of paid leave policies. California should lead the way on requiring 12-weeks 100% fully paid leave for the birth of a child or the need to care for a family member. This will give women the time they need to bond with their children, figure out their new normal, and get back up on their feet and return to work, should they chose.

Support early childhood education and more affordable child care options

In addition to creating better off-ramps for new parents – i.e. better paid leave policies – we need to create better on-ramps for parents returning to the workforce, such as more affordable and better child care options. The average cost of child care in the Bay Area is $2000 per month for one child. It’s cheaper to send your child to college than to afford child care. In addition to the cost issues, we also need to be creating supportive learning environments, whether they be at child care centers, family child care centers, or in-home. Children begin to learn on day one. We should think of early childhood care as education and as an entitlement, like elementary school, social security, unemployment benefits or Medicare. To this end, we should subsidize quality child care on a sliding scale and fund universal pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds. We should professionalize the care industry by unionizing the workforce, providing professional development and apprenticeship programs and paying our early caregivers the same as elementary school teachers. The more affordable and quality early education our children get, the better a society we are.

Protect women speaking out on sexual harassment and assault

We must do everything we can to root out inappropriate behavior by people in positions of power and protect the sexual assault survivors who are speaking out on these injustices. And it’s important that we pay extra attention to low-income workers who are some of our most vulnerable sexual assault victims. Some concrete policy solutions to address include: one, getting rid of secret settlement agreements and non-disclosure agreements that enable perpetrators to hide their crimes and continue abusing power; two, we should extend the statute of limitations on reporting workplace harassment, which is currently 1-year; three, end forced arbitration on harassment to allow for people to have their day in court should they choose that path; fourth, we need better data collections across the board, which looks at racial breakdown to have a better understanding of sexual assault implications for victims of color; fifth, we should explore requiring employers to disclose settlement agreements that are determined to have merritt, specifically to prospective employers; lastly, we need to provide counseling and supportive services for victims.

Empower women in lower-wage jobs

Two-thirds of minimum wage workers are women and disproportionately women of color. Many of these women work in the service industry for large corporations like Walmart and Target. One of this biggest challenges for these types of jobs, in addition to the low pay, is the fact that these types of employers consistency change work schedules with little notice. This makes it very difficult for workers to plan for childcare or educational opportunity. California should follow Emeryville’s lead and pass a Fair Work Week Law and require employers to provide advance notice and predictability of scheduling or face fines. In addition, we should expand the Earned Income Tax Credit to put in the pockets of those struggling the most.

Promote Women’s Health Access

Under no circumstance, can we relent on protecting a woman’s right to choose and we must stay vigilant in this fight. But women’s health expands beyond that. More research shows the health disparities for women of color. Women of color get less prenatal care, for instance, and they are twice as likely as white women to say they are in poor health. Even in progressive East Bay, Planned Parenthood was forced to close clinics that served as a vital resource for women in our community due to resource constraints. We need to ensure women are getting the resources they need to live healthy lives. Health care is a human right.

I believe we are a critical moment in our history. Our political discourse feels broken in many ways and the hateful rhetoric coming out of our national politics is heartbreaking. But I am hopeful that we can find our way out of the wilderness. I am hopeful that California can lead the way, with women being at the forefront of this change.