The State Of Women 2017
The panelists were a veritable who's who in the fight for women's rights on the state, federal and international level.
Last week I had the pleasure of attending Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute’s 3rd Annual Women’s Transformative Leadership Forum. The panel discussion called “Is it a (Wo)man’s World?: Exploring ‘The State of Women’ in 2017” provided a fascinating discussion that tracked both recent successes women have enjoyed and upcoming challenges, supercharged by the political uncertainty surrounding the recent election of Donald Trump.
Charlotte Rushton, the Managing Director of US Large Law Firms at Thomson Reuters, moderated a panel featuring a veritable who’s who in the fight for women’s rights on the state, federal and international level: Lenora Lapidus — Director of the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union; Sonia Ossorio — President of the National Organization for Women of New York; Catherine Russell — Former Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, U.S. Department of State.
The discussion started on a positive note, with the panelists asked to detail some of the recent successes women have experienced. Russell, as a former State Department official, focused her comments on the international sphere, discussing the work the State Department has done to integrate gender into their overall mission. At the start of Obama’s term in office that hadn’t always been the focus, but having Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State and her work there helped advance that goal. Russell discussed the importance of research in making the case for women’s rights, in particular research supporting the increased economic benefit a country experiences when women are in the workforce. Also of note in international relations, when women are involved in negotiating peace agreements, the research says they last longer and stop the cycle of conflict largely because all voices are heard.
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Ossorio discussed advances on the New York State and local level. The National Organization for Women succeeded in getting legislation passed that requires employers to provide sick days and paid family leave for workers. They are also active in working on laws banning teenagers and children (aged 16 and younger) from getting married.
Lapidus focused on the domestic federal level, in particular President Obama’s first bill, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. As Congress became less hospitable to that issue, the strategy to provide economic justice for women changed from seeking legislation to focusing on Executive Orders Obama could enact alone. On that front they were successful during the Obama administration, securing EOs that required federal contractors to provide pay transparency, paid sick leave, and paid family leave, but those advances are under fire with the new administration.
That new political reality hung over the panel discussion. Lapidus recognizes there are obstacles and threats we haven’t seen in the recent past as there is a higher barrier to progress. But the recent political activism has been a thrilling experience. She’s focused on local huddle groups that map out specific agendas and training women to run for office and take part in the process.
Ossorio described the increase in political engagement that began in the post inauguration Women’s March (and continues in today’s Day Without Women) as the “silver lining.” The engagement of a wide swath of people who weren’t previous involved is encouraging to see, as is the fact that, as people understand what is at stake, this enthusiasm hasn’t dropped off. NOW has seen membership double, and they are conducting weekly lobbying training to demystify the process. This also helps to combat the isolation often experienced by activists and builds a “stronger together” environment.
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Russell was very unsettled by the election of Donald Trump. With her work’s focus on the international sphere, she wondered if she’d missed something in our country that allowed that to happen. She believes the slashing of foreign aid budget under discussion will have a dramatic and terrible impact on the world that is hard to see our way past. She also noted the global gag rule (which bans organizations from discussing abortion as an alternative or forgo U.S. money) that President Trump signed is much broader than the one that existed under President George W. Bush. (The pot of money that is tied to the gag rule is much larger now.) And that may have a horrifying result on global health.
The conclusion for all of the panelists was that continued support for organizations working on these issues is important. There are also small things women can do everyday — having difficult conversations on the issues, making phone calls to elected officials — to make a difference. The work for a better world takes time, and these panelists are in it for the long haul.
Kathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).
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