Further Than We Were—Not Nearly Close Enough: Women’s Equality Day 2017

By Ann Bookman, Director, Center for Women in Policy and Public Policy

As we commemorate Women’s Equality Day this year, the shadow of what occurred in Charlottesville on August 12^th looms darkly and must – MUST – shape our approach to gender equality and women’s rights in 2017 and beyond. On the one hand, we celebrate our sisters and allies who fought so fiercely for the ratification of the 19^th Amendment. On the other hand, we are reminded this year more than ever that no major civil rights law is ever truly won. It must be constantly fought for, its implementation rigorously enforced, and the spirit of inclusive democracy protected with our lives.

This year, as we each challenge ourselves to oppose all forms of bigotry and oppression, is it important to remember that when the 19^th Amendment was finally won many barriers and hardships for women of color persisted. Despite the strong presence of Black activists in the women’s suffrage movement, the Black female vote was consistently blocked, first by those states which voted against ratification – even into the late 20^th century – then by those states which enacted stringent voting rights laws.  The violence and brutality directed towards communities of color – and particularly African Americans in the Jim Crow era – prevented many women of color from accessing their inalienable right to vote.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed The Voting Rights Act in 1965 to prohibit voting discrimination based on race, but its presence was provoked by the brutality of Selma and threatened in dozens of Supreme Court cases, the most recent of which occurred in 2013. And so we must never forget the particular barriers faced by women of color as we celebrate Women’s Equality Day. We are proud of what we gained, but still far from realizing the promises of our Constitution. We are further than we were, but not nearly close enough to our goal of liberty and equality for all.

What is won in the name of “women’s rights” is often a white-women-only victory, and that is why we must engage in an intersectional analysis of how far we have come and how far we need to go. The Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at UMass Boston’s McCormack Graduate School uses an intersectional feminist lens to frame the four key areas of the center’s work: training women in graduate educational programs to be leaders in the public and nonprofit sectors; conducting policy-relevant research on political representation and economic justice issues; advancing public policies that ensure economic security for all women and their families across the New England region; and finally, building a diverse, intergenerational pipeline for women’s leadership through mentoring activities and public forums.

Training Women for Leadership

With Lieutenant Governor Polito, Attorney General Healey, Treasurer Goldberg, and Auditor Bump leading key branches of state government, one might feel optimistic about women’s representation in elective office in Massachusetts. But the composition of the state legislature presents another reality.  Just one in four legislators are women, a statistic that has remained largely unchanged since 2000. Even if every woman who ran in the 2016 General Election won, our legislature would only be 33% female. Perhaps the most egregious statistic is that women of color occupy a mere 2% of seats in the state legislature.  Since the founding of the Commonwealth, as our publication Profiles in Leadership documents, fewer than 100 women of color had ever been elected to office as of 2015. This goes beyond underrepresentation: let us call it what it is – continued evidence of racism. And we are not only concerned about increasing the numbers of women of color to ensure proportional representation, but also because only then will women with diverse perspectives have a seat at the policy making table.  Attaining a critical mass of women – and other marginalized groups – not only shifts the policy discourse, but also increases the chance of a legislative agenda that prioritizes the needs of diverse women and their families actually becoming law. On Women’s Equality Day in 2017, let us renew our commitment to electing and appointing more women and more women of color to our government at all levels, and supporting their public leadership in our workplaces, our unions, and our communities.

Redesigning the Policy Agenda 

At the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy we have launched the New England Women’s Policy Initiative (NEWPI) and work toward coordinated regional policy campaigns, sharing best practices, and working across the public, private and nonprofit sectors to achieve greater economic security for all.  NEWPI’s Call to Action includes five key policy areas: wage and income security; access to education and training programs for living wage jobs; paid family and medical leave; expansion of affordable high quality child care and elder care programs; and increased compensation, professional opportunities, and respect for all paid caregivers.

Achieving pay equity is a key focus for NEWPI and all those engaged in the growing national movement to close the persistent wage gap. Massachusetts ranks 14^th in the nation in terms of pay parity, with the average woman in the Commonwealth making 83 cents for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic males. The ratio is, not surprisingly, much worse for women of color. Looking at state figures, Black women make 61 cents, Native American women make 63 cents, and Latina women make 50 cents for every dollar a white, non-Hispanic man earns. While these numbers prove that race and gender-based discrimination in pay continues, there is fortunately some indication of progress. Last summer, Massachusetts became the first state to ban employers from asking women their salary history during an interview process. When past salary figures impact new ones, cycles of gender and race-based wage discrimination have ample room to thrive – and they have. Some women could be shortchanged $2 million over the course of their careers because of these cycles. On Women’s Equality Day in 2017, let us strengthen our commitment to fighting for public policies that will erase employment discrimination and support the ability of diverse women and their families to both survive and thrive.

This Women’s Equality Day, let us embrace all that we have accomplished and celebrate the strides our Commonwealth has taken. But let us never forget Charlottesville and always remember that the struggle for gender equality must always be linked to the struggle for racial justice, here in Massachusetts and across the country.  We need to recommit ourselves to fighting hatred and bigotry wherever and whenever it appears. Let Charlottesville not become a stain upon our nation, but a turning point for building a movement where voting rights are ensured for everyone. Let us make the voting booth a safe and protected space, free from discrimination, and a place where our dream of a peaceful and inclusive democracy is realized.

Ann Bookman is a nationally known researcher and policy expert on women’s issues, work-family integration, women’s leadership and community engagement.  She is Director of the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at University of Massachusetts Boston, housed at the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies.

Bookman has over three decades of experience working in academia and in government.  She has directed several university-based research centers, including the MIT Workplace Center at the Sloan School of Management, where she oversaw research on redesigning the workplace to ensure gender equity and family support.  She was a Presidential Appointee in the first term of the Clinton administration and served as Policy and Research Director of the Women’s Bureau at the U.S. Department of Labor.  Bookman was also Executive Director of a bipartisan Commission that studied the impact of the FMLA on workers and employers.  She was principal author of the commission’s report to Congress, "A Workable Balance.”

Bookman earned her PhD from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College. Her first co-edited book, Women and the Politics of Empowerment (1988), was pioneering for highlighting the political leadership of poor and working class women from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Her latest book, Starting In Our Own Backyards: How working families can build community and survive the new economy (2004), has been cited as “paradigm-shifting” for bringing community organizations and community engagement into the debate on the changing role of women in the workplace and the family.