Issues that are of importance to women voters today

1. Economic Empowerment

The issue of economic empowerment is a broad topic that requires keen attention to solve. However, the government has proposed several acts to combat the challenges faced by women. These include The Paycheck Fairness Act, The Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act, and more. By enabling these acts to be enacted, the future for economic empowerment of women can be brighter.Creating and managing a good work environment for women is also a major concern. Out of 2,000 women surveyed by the Center for Talent Innovation, 43% said they intended to leave their corporate jobs within the next two years; 53% of those women cited a hostile work environment as the reason for leaving. In fact, women who are the “only” or the “one of the only” female in their business are twice as likely to be sexually harassed compared to women in gender-balanced business. With the widespread use of the internet and the rise of social media, cyber harassment is also on the rise and women are more and more the targets of online sexual harassment. As technology is now more easily accessible, so is online sexual harassment. It is very difficult to fight against cyber harassment because the perpetrators can hide their real identities. This creates a difficult environment for women, which can deter them from working or going online.While women have seen economic progress over the years, the absence of paid family and medical leave and balancing work and life remains a huge challenge for working women. This applies to businesses with less than 50 employees as employers are not required to grant medical leave. Ensuring workers can earn paid sick days is also a major issue for women. Women with full-time, year-round jobs are nearly a third more likely than men to lack paid sick days. Last but not least, affordable childcare is necessary for a family – children need a safe environment to grow and learn. However, finding quality childcare that is affordable is a big problem for working families. The high cost of childcare often forces families to make tough economic choices – in fact, a study shows that nearly half of parents have cut back work hours or left a job to care for a child. It is particularly frustrating for women as they make up the majority of the minimum-wage work force, where flexible work hours are not always available. In addition, putting children in childcare also leads to problems at work. Without the knowledge that the child is in good hands, many parents feel stress at work, leading to more sick days or concentration issues.Women also make less money than men who work similar jobs. This is referred to as the gender pay gap. As of April 2018, full-time working women in the United States only earned 82% of what full-time working men make. The gender pay gap is much worse for women of color. African American women are paid 61% and Latina women are paid 53% less than white men. This means that in order to make the same amount of money that a man makes in one year, a woman would have to work for the entire year as well as the first three months of the next year. There is no single cause for the gender pay gap. Rather, it is a complex issue that can be attributed to many different factors. One of these factors is occupational segregation – the idea that men and women tend to work in different types of jobs.Economic opportunities for women remain scarce. In the business world, it is difficult for women to get corporate leadership positions. In fact, only 6.6% of all Fortune 500 companies are run by women. One of the reasons that few women reach these high-level positions is the “glass ceiling.” The glass ceiling is an invisible barrier that prevents women and minorities from moving up in the world because of discriminatory practices. There are many laws in place that are meant to keep discrimination out of the workplace. For example, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it illegal for employers to discriminate against employees on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, or religion. However, the glass ceiling remains a serious problem.

1.1 Gender Pay Gap

The gender pay gap is a critical issue affecting many women today. The “pay gap” is the difference in earnings between women and men. On average, women working full-time in the United States are paid just 80 percent of what men are paid. This gap is even greater for most women of colour: African American women who work full time, year round are paid only 61 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men, and Latinas are paid only 53 cents. The pay gap is real and it hurts women and their families. This is a concern for many women voters, as indicated by the AAUW, who state that 78 percent of women surveyed said that the gender pay gap is an important issue – even more women than those who rated affordable healthcare, violence against women, and the need to ensure that social security is there for women and men in their older years. It is also a key issue for younger women who, according to the American Association of University Women, may be uncertain as to the severity of the gender pay gap, but definitely believe in its existence, with 46 percent of recent female undergraduates expressing the view that it is an important issue. Focusing just on the “average” pay gap sometimes masks the extent of occupational segregation in pay; particularly that women are often in lower paid jobs and men in higher remunerated work. Women’s jobs have been systematically and historically undervalued. In the US, the National Committee on Pay Equity states that “occupations with 25 percent or more women workers, such as secretaries and teachers, generally pay less than occupations with similar skill requirements that have 70 percent or more men, such as janitors or truck drivers.” There is a recognition that women need not only better paid work, but the ability to reach higher paid jobs; and this is a part of the reason why there is perhaps, a direct influence to be found between the gender pay gaps and the lack of family friendly policies in many workplaces. Well over half of the participants in a survey undertaken by the Respecting Maternity Campaign have said that they chose to leave a job because flexible working arrangements and family friendly hours were not made available by the employer. This already points to one reason why the gender pay gap in earnings between women and men widens as women get older. And while it is recognised that part time work – which is often the choice of women to work around caring responsibilities – does indeed attract lower pay than full time work, it is also accepted that part time work should not mean people earn less per hour. Once again, the insidious nature of the gender pay gap is revealed in the fact that the European Commission have discovered that just under a third of women work part time, against only 8 percent of men – a figure which has not changed in 10 years. All of these factors are very commonly referred to by social action groups, who consider that “pay should reflect the job; not the gender” and women should have a ‘decent living wage’. Members of the public are often encouraged to support political rallies and camps for change in this area, such as ‘Moms Rising’, which draws attention to the way in which mothers are affected by the gender pay gap.

1.2 Maternity Leave Policies

Expectant mothers who have spent a sufficient amount of time in a company that has at least 50 employees are entitled to at least 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a child. Additionally, the company must provide the same or a comparable job when the individual returns from leave. This law is called the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). However, the FMLA only applies to a limited portion of American women. Studies have shown that only a little over half of American women qualify for leave under the FMLA. For example, about 41% of working women do not qualify for FMLA leave because they have not worked in the same place for at least a year. As a result, many women are forced to return to work shortly after giving birth because they cannot afford to take an unpaid leave. Some women are let go while they are on leave, others return to find that they have been demoted or that their work environment has become hostile, and still others never return to the workforce. The lack of a paid maternity leave law at the federal level perpetuates these health and economic risks for women and families. Paid maternity leave legislation is an important part of the ongoing effort to improve access to maternity care and promote maternal and child health. As of now, the United States is one of only a few countries that does not have a federal law providing for paid maternity leave. The only other countries are Papua New Guinea, Suriname, and a few island nations in the Pacific Ocean. Moreover, studies have found that more generous paid leave policies can lead to positive health and economic outcomes for women and children. For example, a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund found that nearly a third of infants in the United States will not receive crucial postnatal care check-ups within six weeks of birth. This is particularly concerning because postnatal care can help prevent serious long-term health conditions for the child. Paid maternity leave can help encourage mothers to seek proper postnatal care for their children. Economists from the National Bureau of Economic Research have also found that paid maternity leave policies can lead to long-term benefits for children. For instance, paid maternity leave led to 10% reductions in infant mortality in countries that implemented paid leave policies. This kind of improvement in infant health may have lasting effects for a new generation of children. The World Health Organization also recommends that mothers should have at least 16 weeks of paid leave in order to properly heal from childbirth and to initiate breastfeeding. Given that paid leave policies have already been shown to produce tangible benefits in other countries, the United States should use the empirical evidence to inform the development of federal maternity leave laws.

1.3 Affordable Childcare

Affordable childcare is a crucial issue for women voters because the high cost of childcare is a significant burden on many women and their families. This is a significant factor. First, in today’s society, many families rely on two incomes. This means that women are increasingly likely to be in the workforce and contributing to the economy. However, without affordable childcare, working is not a viable option for many women. As many as one in four women who are not working say that the reason for this is that they are caring for family members. This can be compared to less than one in twenty men who are not working. This demonstrates the impact of providing care on women’s ability to work. Further, the cost of childcare can be very high. While prices vary across the country and according to the age of the child, the cost of a nursery place is on average about $1,196 every month. However, in many areas of the country, childcare can cost much more. For example, in Inner London, the cost for a nursery place for a child under the age of two is about $1,733. Many families, particularly those with more than one child young enough to require care, simply cannot manage to meet these costs. This can act as a significant barrier to women seeking to work. Without accessible childcare, women are more likely to have to reduce their hours, work part-time and/or have to work in low paid or insecure jobs with more ‘family friendly’ hours. This also has a knock-on impact on the types of jobs that women are able to apply for, as they may be less able to seek promotions or take up new employment that requires greater flexibility. The current system does provide support for pay for childcare. However, this can be confusing and difficult to access, and the costs have been rising over the past years. It is important to note that this is not a small inconvenience; the cost of childcare can have a long-term impact on women’s earnings. For example, research shows that women with children under six years old earn 4% less than women without children. This is known as the ‘child penalty’ and demonstrates that the impact of motherhood on women’s working lives is not just felt in terms of lost working hours – it can also affect women’s earning potential.

1.4 Equal Opportunities in the Workplace

Currently, women make up nearly half of the American labor force, yet women only hold 30.6% of executive and senior managerial positions. Furthermore, the likelihood of a woman working in a male-dominated job is the same now as it was 20 years ago. To combat this issue, multiple planned policy agendas aim on lifting the glass ceiling for women in the workforce. Firstly, it is proposed that women should have the legal right to know how much their male colleagues are being paid, particularly those in the same job. This has been considered as a key first step in closing the gender pay gap in male and female waged earners. Secondly, it has been suggested that companies with 250 or more employees should be required to publish details of pay for male and female employees, enabling higher pay and bonus disparities to be reported on. It is argued that transparency has helped to drive the requirement to business and has supported changes in culture. Finally, the gender pay gap should be included in requirements for gender pay gap reporting for companies where an organization’s workforce is below the 250 employee threshold. This has been put forth as a means to increase the pressure of reform onto businesses rather than just the law alone. It was clear that in the U.K., where similar policies have now become statutory, both success and downfall factors were evident; identifying a need to diversify analysis of such policy. After reviewing the current research findings, it has led me to discover a few critiques on the proposed plans discussed above. It has been argued that imposing obligations is only the raising of awareness and social expectation of what should be the norm. However, this view neglects the reality that change will not occur without awareness or expectation and it is this that is being delivered through such policy. Furthermore, it has been suggested from more hypothetical approaches that males may feel under increased scrutiny in an attempt to resolve a rise in female wages, in particular if there are financial penalties and repercussions for male thriving companies – sectors that have been culturally typified by male employment. I believe that it is clear evidence that these policies have the potential to promote and accelerate the movement towards gender equality in the workplace and thus federal level implementation would only serve to amplify the effect through nationwide companies. However, future research is needed beyond critiques and analysis to understand the main drivers to a better gender diverse working environment other than just policy.

2. Reproductive Rights

2.1 Access to Birth Control

2.2 Abortion Rights

2.3 Comprehensive Sex Education

2.4 Maternal Health Care

3. Gender-Based Violence

3.1 Domestic Violence Prevention

3.2 Sexual Assault Awareness

3.3 Harassment in the Workplace

3.4 Human Trafficking

4. Healthcare

4.1 Affordable and Accessible Healthcare

4.2 Reproductive Health Services

4.3 Mental Health Support

4.4 Insurance Coverage for Women’s Health

5. Education

5.1 Equal Educational Opportunities

5.2 STEM Education and Careers for Women

5.3 Sexual Harassment Policies in Schools

5.4 Scholarships and Grants for Women

6. Political Representation

6.1 Increasing Women’s Representation in Government

6.2 Gender Parity in Political Leadership

6.3 Encouraging Women to Run for Office

6.4 Eliminating Gender Bias in Political Campaigns