A Platform for Progress: Building a Better Future for Women and Their Families: Introduction

Throughout history, the actions of Congress, the President and the courts have had a tremendous impact on the progress of women and girls at school, in the workplace, and in almost every other aspect of their lives. Laws, regulations and court decisions prohibiting discrimination and otherwise protecting and advancing women's rights and opportunities have resulted in significant improvements in the lives of women and their families. These improvements have benefited not only individual women and their families but also the nation as a whole.

While it is clear that progress has been made, Congress, the President and the courts can also erect obstacles, raise barriers, and undermine rights. Women today are facing enormous challenges – struggling to achieve economic security and health care that meets their needs, and facing difficulties securing access to equal educational and employment opportunities. Instead of providing needed supports, in recent years one or more of the three branches of government have weakened critical government programs, gutted core protections, and blocked initiatives to meet both continuing and new challenges and needs.

In the coming years, actions by a new Administration, as well as Congress and the courts, will be critically important to the lives of women and their families. The National Women's Law Center's broad Platform for Progress outlines steps that should be taken by the federal government to address the unmet needs of women and their families in schools, in the workplace, and in securing basic economic security and access to quality, affordable and comprehensive health care.

Why are reforms needed?

• One in four girls drops out of high school, resulting in an average annual income that falls $9,100 below even the low wages earned by male high school dropouts.
• Women working full-time today earn, on average, only 77 cents for every dollar paid to men and face wage gaps and glass ceilings across a wide spectrum of occupations.
• More than 14 million women – one in eight – live in poverty and single women, women of color and elderly women are especially vulnerable.
• More than 17 million women have no health insurance.
• Federal child care assistance is provided to only one in seven eligible children.
• Nearly half of all pregnancies are unintended.

The National Women's Law Center's Platform for Progress is designed to address these and other critical problems through concrete proposals that the federal government can adopt and implement to meet its responsibility to help women and their families reach their potential and lead economically secure lives. Some of these proposals can be adopted and implemented quickly, and some will take more time. All demand immediate attention.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NATIONAL WOMEN'S LAW CENTER'S PLATFORM FOR PROGRESS

Supporting Women in the Workplace

• Close the wage gap and ensure women are paid fairly by passing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the Paycheck Fairness Act, and the Fair Pay Act
• Improve benefits for workers by raising the minimum wage, protecting overtime pay, expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act, providing paid leave days, and establishing parity for part-time workers
• Improve anti-discrimination laws so that women who are subject to discrimination in the workplace can receive fair compensation for their losses
• Break through the glass ceiling by expanding opportunities for women in non-traditional fields and at the highest levels of their professions
• Pass an inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act
• End discrimination in the military by establishing gender-neutral, performance-based standards for all military positions, ensuring a fair process for women to challenge discriminatory actions, and repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Building Economic Security

• Ensure access to high-quality child care by requiring that care meet basic health and safety standards, funding statewide quality rating systems to promote higher quality care, increasing the reimbursement rate for child care assistance, supporting initiatives targeted to expanding access to high-quality infant and toddler care, doubling the number of children receiving child care assistance, increasing the Dependent Care Tax Credit, and increasing funding for Head Start and Early Education
• Help women move out of poverty by increasing the benefits of the Earned Income Tax Credit, expanding the Child Tax Credit, improving child support enforcement, eliminating arbitrary barriers in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Supplemental Security Income programs, and expanding access to unemployment insurance
• Protect and strengthen Social Security, the foundation of women's retirement income, by rejecting proposals to divert Social Security revenues into private accounts, raising additional revenues, and improving benefits for low-income individuals
• Increase women's retirement security by expanding access to employer-based retirement plans, establishing spousal pension rights in defined-contribution plans, prohibiting gender discrimination in the pricing of annuities, and making the Saver's Credit refundable
• Reform the tax system to promote fairness and ensure adequate revenues for needed investments by ending tax breaks skewed to the wealthiest Americans and special interests, ending the preferential treatment for income from investments over income from work, collecting taxes owed by businesses and investors, and ending unwarranted corporate subsidies

Improving Women's Health

• Reduce the number of uninsured women by creating a health care system that leaves no one out, provides comprehensive benefits, is simple to use and understand, and is sufficiently and fairly financed
• Increase funding for research and programs that help to prevent and treat health risks for women and their families
• Protect a woman's right to decide to have an abortion
• Expand access to affordable birth control, including emergency contraception
• Invest in comprehensive sex education and end federal funding for abstinence-only programs

Improving Women's Education

• Increase efforts to recruit girls to, and retain them in, fields of study in which they are under-represented and restore legal protections against unequal sex-segregated education
• Ensure that students have the same legal protections against sexual harassment as employees of schools
• Level the playing field for girls' athletics participation by requiring better monitoring and restore requirements for schools to ensure equal opportunities for female students
• Strengthen enforcement of anti-discrimination laws by government agencies
• Reduce the school dropout rate for girls by requiring schools to monitor dropout rates and provide dropout prevention programs targeted toward the needs of girls, including pregnant and parenting students
• Ensure adequate funding for education at all levels by fully funding schools in low-income districts and expanding financial aid programs for post-secondary education

Guaranteeing Equal Rights

• Promote a fair and independent judiciary with judicial nominees who have a demonstrated commitment to fundamental rights
• Consult broadly during the judicial nomination process and ensure Congress fully exercises its role to advise and consent
• Enact a comprehensive federal ban on sex discrimination and adopt the international Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women
• Fully fund domestic violence programs and ensure victims have needed supports
• Strengthen protections against human trafficking
• Ensure fair treatment for immigrants

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