Equality and justice. Of all the obligations that any elected official has, dedication to these guiding principles is most important. As we all know, the push for equality among the genders is a struggle that has stretched for decades and centuries. During the 20th Century, we saw the failure of the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1980s, even as protections for civil rights and voting rights were enshrined in the law nearly twenty years earlier. Equality and justice had been secured for all of us when classified by race or ethnicity, but those laws were silent on gender. As citizens, we all have an obligation to continue to strive for girls and women to have the same opportunities that boys and men have long enjoyed.
I am proud to say that the District of Columbia has consistently sought to protect and enhance opportunities for women of all ages and backgrounds. In my role as a legislator, I have always tried to recognize the work of organizations and individuals that push for women’s empowerment and continue to work with my colleagues to enact common-sense policies that help women.
Last week, I had the distinct honor of presenting a resolution to Washington Area Women’s Foundation, recognizing 13 years of prodigious work helping women help themselves. Since its inception, the Foundation has provided financial assistance to local organizations that emphasized gender equality, pushed for greater health and financial literacy amongst women of lower socioeconomic status, and highlighted some of the policy choices that predominantly affect women. Their advocacy helps ensure that public officials stay focused on the issues that impact a majority of our city’s residents.
One such issue is health care. We all know that in the United States, affordable health coverage can be difficult to obtain, even for a working person. In the District, health care was an especially challenging area for women, because the law previously allowed for insurance companies to treat gender as a pre-existing condition. Women of all ages were paying higher premiums than their male counterparts, and, to make matters worse, women who were victims of domestic violence were forced to pay even more, effectively victimizing them twice. I am proud to say that in 2010 I authored bills that banned insurance companies from engaging in either practice, and both bills are now law.
Another issue that is central for the push to empowerment is educational opportunity. Without education, it is almost impossible to engage in effective activism. In the same week that I presented the resolution to Washington Area Women’s Foundation, I also had the joy of recognizing a young Ward 4 resident named Yasmine Arrington. Yasmine is a decorated girl scout, a published poet, a graduating senior at the prestigious Banneker Academic High School, and the founder of a scholarship fund called ScholarCHIPS that provides money for high education to students whose parents are incarcerated. Yasmine should be an inspiration to us all, and is certainly a role model for young girls all across our city. Her story is yet another reminder of the importance of education to the success of future generations, and of how we must strive to ensure that monetary considerations do not deter our best and brightest, regardless of gender, from pursuing higher education.
Government has a significant role to play in creating positive outcomes for women. However, the stories of Washington Area Women’s Foundation and Yasmine Arrington make clear that all of us, both public officials and private citizens, must come together for change, because no movement for social justice can ever succeed without collective will. I look forward to a day when equal rights for all have been fully recognized, and we can marvel at the progress we have made. In the meantime, I stand ready to do my part, and hope that you will lend a helping hand. This cause is too important for anyone, gender notwithstanding, to sit on the sidelines.
Muriel Bowser is the Ward 4 representative of the Council of the District of Columbia.
Photo: Councilmember Muriel Bowser presents the resolution in D.C. Council chambers. She’s joined by the other two women on the Council, Ward 7’s Yvette Alexander and Ward 3’s Mary Cheh. They’re also joined by members of The Women’s Foundation staff (from the left): Jennifer Lockwood-Shabat, Nicky Goren and Donna Wiedeman. Photo credit: Michael Colella Photography.