The Women’s Initiative develops robust, progressive policies and solutions to ensure all women can participate in the economy and live healthy, productive lives.
A woman introduces her newborn baby to her grandmother, November 2020, in Los Angeles. (Getty/Brandon Bell)
What We're Doing
Advancing a proactive abortion agenda
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.
Addressing the maternal health crisis
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.
Closing the gender wage gap
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.
Building a stronger economy by prioritizing women
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.
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.
When Women Lose All the Jobs: Essential Actions for a Gender-Equitable Recovery
Women, particularly women of color, have borne the brunt of job losses and caregiving challenges during the coronavirus pandemic and need structural policy change to ensure their full recovery and economic security.
How COVID-19 Sent Women’s Workforce Progress Backward
The collapse of the child care sector and drastic reductions in school supervision hours as a result of COVID-19 could drive millions of mothers out of the paid workforce. Inaction could cost billions, undermine family economic security, and set gender equity back a generation.
The Shambolic Response to the Public Health and Economic Crisis Has Women on the Brink as the Job Recovery Stalls
Women took the biggest economic hit from the coronavirus-induced recession, and a slowing recovery is increasingly leaving women behind, threatening to set working women back a generation.
Women Have Paid the Price for Trump’s Regulatory Agenda
The Trump administration has issued dozens of regulations that have threatened women’s progress and cost them billions—revealing a fundamental disregard for women.
Policymakers must consider lessons learned from the emergency paid leave laws passed in response to the coronavirus pandemic in order to design national, permanent paid leave policies that ensure racial, gender, and economic equity and meet the needs of families.
Existing support systems for domestic violence survivors are proving inadequate during the pandemic and point to the need for a stronger nationwide infrastructure connecting survivors to vital supports and services.
Centering Equity in the Future-of-Work Conversation Is Critical for Women’s Progress
Employers and policymakers must take concrete steps to avoid replicating and perpetuating longstanding racial, gender, and ethnic biases in workplaces of the future to create equitable environments where women have the best chance of success.
