The National Women's Law Center's Platform for Progress

Remember when it was said that we could celebrate our victory for about five minutes then we had to hit the ground running and go back to work? Here is just one example of what that meant. Click the title link for the full pdf.


National Women's Law Center"s Platform for Progress

Highlights of the program:

"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 nontraditional 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 definedcontribution
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 sexsegregated
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"