Executive Action Proposals for Women

Submitted to President-elect Obama by the National Organization for Women and the Feminist Majority

WOMEN AND THE ADMINISTRATION

Establish a cabinet-level White House Office on Women, where the secretary coordinates an interagency task force on women with leaders from every Cabinet department.

Strengthen and request adequate funding for women's bureaus/offices in every department that will address equality, opportunity and inclusion of women, from personnel to policy.

EMPLOYMENT AND JOBS

Direct the Labor Department to make a pay equity analysis of all federal jobs, department by department, to identify areas where women or people of color are paid less for jobs that require similar education, training, skill and experience.

Retract regulations that have limited access to overtime pay for many workers.

Rescind recent Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) regulations that make it more difficult for workers to take FMLA leave.

Direct the EEOC to address systemic patterns of pay discrimination in occupational categories occupied primarily by women or people of color.

Require that job creation under any economic stimulus plan must include creation of jobs that will rebuild our human infrastructure (early childhood development, community Urgent Care facilities, services for people with disabilities, etc.) which has been crumbling as well as our physical infrastructure (roads, bridges, school buildings).

Set numerical goals for hiring women to work on federally-funded transportation and infrastructure projects (e.g. construction, engineering), offering bid incentives to those who commit to these goals, and include specific set-asides in the economic bailout for participation of women-owned and minority-owned businesses.

Rescind the Small Business Administration women's program procurement rule that requires a specific finding of discrimination before it can exercise flexibility to meet the 5% rule.

Enlarge the definition of unemployed (or regularly reported as an additional category) to include all those who are unemployed but have given up looking for a job, not just those who are still searching.

Require that Department of Labor wage statistics (from which we calculate the gender wage gap) be report by age and sex, so that we can identify when the gender gap begins (whether at age 16 or later) and track when/whether it is narrowing. This used to be reported only starting at age 25.

Reinstate and enhance collection of data on women workers (including from private employers) and strengthen the Office of Federal Contract Compliance (OFCCP)

Amend Executive Order 11246 (which currently prohibits certain federal contractors from discriminating in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin) to add sexual orientation, disability and parenthood.

Amend the Executive order issued by President Bush on December 12, 2002, regarding faith based institutions (including its amendment of EO 11246) to prohibit discrimination in hiring, promotion, and other terms and conditions of employment with regard to the individuals who are carrying out programs using federal funds.

UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE

Ensure that women's full reproductive health care needs are included in any proposed plan. For many women, reproductive care is their primary care, and their OB/GYN is their primary care doctor. This historic discrimination against women's needs must not be carried into a new system.

Prohibit discrimination against women in the provision of individual health insurance, since many private insurers do not cover contraception (even when other prescriptions are covered) or elective abortion, and some require additional payments or riders for coverage of maternity care.

Revoke so-called HHS "conscience" regulations that put the personal opinions of employees above the right of individuals to receive full, accurate and timely medical information and treatment options.

Take the politics out of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and re-open the approvals on potentially dangerous medical devices (such as silicone gel breast implants) that were approved over the objection of FDA professional staff.

LOW-INCOME WOMEN

Make the Family Violence Option a requirement for state Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds (domestic violence screening and assistance programs for welfare recipients)

Eliminate the option for states to impose a "family cap," thus denying federal welfare benefits to infants born into a family receiving public assistance.

Restore reduced birth control pricing for campus health centers and facilities serving low-income women.

In any stimulus plan, include a provision to stop the clock on expiration of TANF benefits until the economy recovers.

EQUAL EDUCATION

Rescind the 2005 "Additional Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletic Policy: Three-Part Test –- Part Three" that allowed schools to demonstrate female students' interest (or lack of interest) in sports by simply sending an email survey only to female students. Make it clear that the governing standards are those detailed in the 1996 Policy Clarification.

Rescind the 2006 Department of Education regulations allowing schools to establish single-sex schools and classes which have few protections against sex discrimination and sex stereotyping and which are in violation of the spirit and intent of Title IX.

Require equal pay and promotions for women on college and university faculties, public school teachers and researchers at educational institutions receiving federal financial assistance.

Expand efforts to assist girls and women in entering and thriving in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math), as well as to expand their presence in graduate schools, on faculties, and in labs and research institutions that receive federal support.

INTERNATIONAL

End the Global Gag Rule that prohibits lifesaving U.S. family planning funding to non-governmental organizations who use local funds to counsel, provide, or refer for abortions.

Release United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) funds and restore the provision of condoms in foreign aid shipments.

Instruct the State Department to send the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) convention to the senate for ratification without any weakening RDUs (reservations, declarations and understandings).

Provide asylum and refugee status to girls and women in forced marriages.

End U.S. entry visa discrimination against young, single women coming to the U.S. for conferences or educational reasons.

AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF

Remove the combat exclusion for women, permitting commanders to assign qualified troops where they are most needed without regard to gender, and permitting female servicemembers who are in fact serving in combat (although it is not called "combat" because of the exclusion) to receive the pay and benefits related to combat service.

End the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and allow Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) servicemembers to serve their country openly and without discrimination.

Direct zero tolerance for sexual assault or harassment, and set goals and timetables (with consequences) for dramatic reduction in sexual assaults of servicemembers, especially in combat zones.

Restore the right of military women to exercise their constitutional right to safe abortion while serving our country overseas, and ensure that emergency contraception and abortion are available on base.

Make safe abortion and emergency contraception available at all U.S. health facilities in countries where those services are not available to U.S. citizens.

Amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice to prohibit discrimination against female and LGBT servicemembers.

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

We adopt the executive order/action recommendations contained in the Transition Blueprint on Reproductive Rights prepared by the coalition.