
Maggie Jo
Buchanan
Senior Director, Women's Initiative
Today at 2:30 PM EDT: Beyond Acronyms in K-12 Education
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The Women’s Initiative develops robust, progressive policies and solutions to ensure all women can participate in the economy and live healthy, productive lives.
Abortion rights are under attack. Our proactive agenda provides a road map for state and federal lawmakers to develop and enact policies that ensure equitable, safe access to abortion. In coalition, we will push back against restrictions that impede access to this critical health care service.
People are more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes in the United States than in any other high-income country. Working closely with partners, we develop policy interventions to curb the maternal health crisis, eliminate racial disparities, and advance investments in maternal health care.
To address pay disparities, especially for women of color, our comprehensive work advocates for measures such as the Paycheck Fairness Act (PFA). The PFA would strengthen equal pay protections, prohibit employer retaliation, and limit employers’ reliance on salary history to make hiring decisions.
Women are crucial to a thriving economy and families’ economic stability and must be at the heart of any economic recovery. We research solutions that maximize women’s economic participation and respond to competing demands of work and family, such as a national paid family and medical leave program.
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The Women’s Initiative works to secure women’s health and bodily autonomy, economic stability, equality, and access to equitable opportunities and uphold other reproductive, civil, and human rights. We firmly believe that the diverse experiences of women across race, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, faith backgrounds, and other factors—and the challenges they face—must be at the center of the national policy debate.
In order to improve maternal health care access and outcomes for millions of pregnant and postpartum people in the United States, the federal government must ensure that health insurance plans available through the ACA marketplace offer robust maternity care provider networks.
Bold policy reforms are needed to help complete the recovery in women’s employment from the coronavirus pandemic and strengthen their long-term economic security.
American Indian and Alaska Native women in the United States make just 60 cents for every dollar earned by their white male counterparts, and this wage gap forces too many of them and their families into poverty.
In 2021, the United States has seen the highest number of abortion restrictions made law in a single year, and the legal context in which this newly enacted legislation will operate is particularly tenuous.
Policy solutions to improve maternal health are urgently needed so that pregnant and postpartum people are prepared for a new climate future.
The United States’ maternal health crisis demands federal and state action to improve coverage, the delivery of care, and pregnancy outcomes. The cost of inaction will almost certainly be dire.
The Biden administration should restart the collection of employer pay data, convene a new interagency equal pay task force, undertake an initiative to promote greater pay transparency, and designate more funding for enforcement of equal pay protections in order to regain lost ground and make progress for working women.
A comprehensive effort to secure equal pay must include limiting employers’ reliance on salary history in hiring and compensation decisions, as this practice can result in wage disparities and pay discrimination for women and workers of color.
Policymakers must go beyond baseline legal protections to treat abortion as the essential health care service it is, ensuring meaningful access to abortion for all and removing barriers put in place to circumvent Roe v. Wade.
Policymakers must closely examine economic data on the experiences of AAPI women, before and during the coronavirus pandemic, in order to surface key barriers and shed light on effective policy solutions.