Welcome to the Democratic Women's Working Group
DEMOCRATIC WOMEN'S WORKING GROUP | ||||
The Democratic Women's Working Group is dedicated to leading the fight in Congress for policies that ensure equality and opportunity for all women. We work on a broad range of issues that affect women and their families including securing good jobs, ensuring equal pay for equal work, and improving access to affordable quality healthcare and education.
The Democratic women in Congress are committed to moving our country forward in a new direction. We are proud to serve under the leadership of our friend and colleague, the first woman Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Together, the Democratic-led Congress will work to ensure that all women have equal opportunity to succeed, a safe and prosperous America, a secure retirement, good-paying jobs, access to affordable, quality health care and an excellent education for our children.
Thanks for visiting!
Congresswoman Lois Capps, Chair, Democratic Women’s Working Group
Women in Congress: A History>>
LATEST NEWS
Marcia Fudge Swearing-in - November 19, 2008
Marcia Fudge was sworn in by Speaker Pelosi on the House floor. Congresswoman Fudge fills the 11th district seat of Ohio vacated by the passing of Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones.
New Reports: An Overview of the Congress’s Record on Key Women’s Issues &
Women and The Bush Economy - September 22, 2008
Many American women have suffered under the Bush economy – particularly the millions of women struggling to raise their children in female-headed households. Since President Bush has come into office, the female unemployment rate is up, the number of uninsured women is up, the median household income of female-headed families is down, and the number of female-headed families living in poverty is up. As family expenses continue to rise, many women and their families are struggling to make ends meet.
Read the Reports>>
Pelosi Delivers Remarks at U.S. Capitol Memorial Service to Honor Chairwoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones - September 10, 2008
Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered the following remarks at a memorial service in the Capitol today honoring the late Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones.
“My, my, my, wouldn’t Stephanie have liked to see this turnout for her birthday party?
“When we were in Ohio, I was pleased to take two planeloads of Members of Congress to Cleveland for her memorial service. In that auditorium was a former President of the United States, a former First Lady who is a Senator and was a candidate for President, a nominee of the Democratic Party for President of the United States, her colleagues, her friends, and her family – all gathered together to celebrate the life and leadership of Stephanie Tubbs Jones.
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House and Senate Democratic Women Rally for Fair Pay - July 17, 2008
House and Senate Democratic women, with guest Lilly Ledbetter, called upon Congress to pass legislation ensuring equal pay for equal work. The legislators highlighted the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act.
Lilly Ledbetter was the plaintiff in a workplace discrimination lawsuit decided by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. Ledbetter sued Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company after learning that she was the lowest-paid supervisor out of a group of 16 supervisors at the facility, despite having more experience than several of her male counterparts. After the Supreme Court ruled against Ledbetter, House Democrats introduced fair pay legislation, which was blocked by Republicans in the Senate.
Bush Administration Tries to Redefine Contraception as Abortion - July 16, 2008
The New York Times reported that the Bush Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services is drafting a rule that would place new restrictions on domestic family planning programs. While current law allows health care providers and professionals to refuse to provide abortions based on their religious beliefs, this provision would threaten the funding of organizations and health facilities if they do not hire people who would refuse to provide birth control and defines abortion so broadly that it would include many types of birth control, including oral contraception.
Speaker Pelosi released the following statement on the Administration’s draft proposal:
If the Administration goes through with this draft proposal, it will launch a dangerous assault on women’s health.
The majority of Americans oppose this out of touch position that redefines contraception as abortion and represents a sustained pattern of the Bush Administration to reject medical and sound science in favor of a misguided ideology that has no place in our government.
I urge the President to reject this policy and join with Democrats to focus on preventing unintended pregnancies and reducing the need for abortion through increasing access to family planning services and access to affordable birth control.
From Congresswoman Lois Capps, Chair of the Democratic Women’s Working Group:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today Congresswoman Lois Capps called on the Bush Administration to stop its misguided effort to restrict access to basic family planning services. According to press reports, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is drafting new rules that would severely restrict women’s health care options while undermining the ability of health care providers to secure funding and provide essential services. It would require all recipients of federal health care funding to sign a written certification that they will not “discriminate” against health care entities who refuse to provide patients with abortions or even birth control.
“Once again, the Bush Administration is carelessly playing partisan politics with women’s health care,” said Capps, a nurse and Vice-Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health. “Time and again this Administration has jeopardized women’s access to essential family planning services for purely ideological reasons. Sound science and responsible public health practices should never be trumped by political ideology. This proposal is unnecessary and would be harmful to women’s health.”
Federal law already protects individuals who prefer to not participate in abortion services and many states have refusal clauses for either individuals or institutions that object to providing or participating in abortions. The Bush Administration proposal goes far beyond those measures and attempts to define abortion services so broadly that it would include many types of birth control, including oral contraception and emergency contraception. Capps and several of her House colleagues will be sending a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services objecting to the draft rule and urging the Administration to reconsider its position.
Capps has worked in the past to stop other efforts by the Bush Administration to restrict access to family planning services and contraception. She was part of the successful efforts to allow over-the-counter sales of Plan B emergency contraception and also to prevent attempts to restrict funding from certain health providers who provide comprehensive family planning services.
House Passes Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act - June 19, 2008
The House passed the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act, H.R. 5781, which will help families by providing four weeks of paid parental leave to federal and congressional employees. In addition to the four weeks, employees will also be allowed to use any accrued annual or sick leave for parental leave. This family friendly measure will also have a positive impact on the ability of the federal government to attract and retain a highly qualified workforce.
Learn more about the bill>>
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, the bill's primary sponsor, spoke in favor:
45th Anniversary of the Equal Pay Act - June 10, 2008
President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act on June 10, 1963. The enactment of the Equal Pay Act was a key achievement of the Democratic Party. President Kennedy called the Equal Pay Act the first step in addressing “the unconscionable practice of paying female employees less wages than male employees for the same job.”
The Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 1338), introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro and currently with 228 cosponsors, would strengthen the Equal Pay Act to provide more effective remedies to women who are not being paid equal wages for doing equal work.
Equal pay is not a women’s issue – it’s a family issue; because women are often providing an important share of their family’s income. If women are not being paid fairly, their entire family suffers.
Learn more about the Paycheck Fairness Act>>
Speaker Pelosi on the Anniversary of the Equal Pay Act>>
Reducing Maternal Mortality at Home and Abroad - May 14, 2008
Throughout the world, a woman dies every sixty seconds in childbirth. And the United States ranks 41st in the world, lower than all other inudstrialized nations, when it comes to maternal mortality. Democratic Women's Working Group Chair Rep. Lois Capps, and Reps. Gwen Moore, Betty McCollum, and Donna Christensen spoke in support of a resolution making a renewed commitment to reducing maternal mortality at home and abroad, and recognizing maternal health as a human right. The resolution passed on May 22.
Rep. Lois Capps: "Let us use this opportunity, while Mother's Day is fresh in our minds, to renew our commitment to improving maternal health, both at home and abroad." Watch>> | Rep. Gwen Moore: "A mother and her baby have a greater chance of survival in Kuwait or Croatia than they do in the United States." Watch>> |
Rep. Donna Christensen: "The maternal mortality rate amongst black women in the United States is three to four times higher than that of white women." Watch>> | Rep. Betty McCollum: "Basic access to maternal health care is a human right that must no longer be ignored." Watch> |
Related News:
Capps, White Ribbon Alliance Call for Investments to Save Women’s Lives Lost in Pregnancy and Childbirth - April 16, 2008>>
Capps, 53 Other Members Urge Secretary Paulson to Strengthen Investment in Global Maternal Health - April 14, 2008>>
Moore Urges Greater Investment in Global Maternal Health - April 11, 2008>>
Oversight Hearing on Abstinence-Only Programs - April 23, 2008
The Oversight Committee held a hearing, “Domestic Abstinence-Only Programs: Assessing the Evidence” Federally-funded abstinence-only programs require the exclusive teaching of abstinence until marriage and prohibit teaching about condoms or other contraceptives — other than to discuss failure rates. These programs have received over $1.3 billion in federal funding over the past decade.
Rep. Lois Capps, formerly a registered nurse and health advocate for the Santa Barbara School District, testified:
Rep. Capps: "A 2004 evaluation of abstinence-only until marriage programs that found that there were no changes noted for participants’ actual or intended behavior, such as whether they planned to wait until marriage to have sex. The evaluation also revealed negative changes in attitudes - after participating in abstinence-only until marriage programs, students were less likely to respond that the teachers and staff cared about them, and significantly fewer students felt they have a right to refuse to have sex with someone. Researchers therefore concluded that rather than focusing on abstinence-only until marriage, data suggests that including information on contraceptive use may be more effective at decreasing teen pregnancy.”
Women Deserve Equal Pay For Equal Work - April 22, 2008
April 22nd is Equal Pay Day, the day which marks how far into the year a woman must work, on average, to earn as much as a man earned the previous year. President John Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act in 1963, yet the wage gap between men and women is narrowing by less than half a percent per year. In 2006, women earned only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. African American women earn just 63 cents on the dollar, and Hispanic American women fare worse, at 52 cents. In addition, Senator Kennedy released a report last week showing the current economic downturn is hitting women especially hard. In the last year, the unemployment rate among adult women workers increased 20% compared with a 17% increase among adult men and the real median wage for adult women workers dropped 3% while wages for adult male workers dropped by.5%.
The 110th Congress is working to close the pay gap between women and men. Currently, two of the key initiatives in this area are the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act restores basic protection against pay discrimination, by rectifying the May 2007 Ledbetter v Goodyear Supreme Court decision that overturned precedent and made it much more difficult for workers to pursue pay discrimination claims. The bill simply restores the longstanding interpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and other discrimination statutes, thereby protecting women and other workers. The House passed this bill on July 31, 2007 and this week, the Senate will take up the House-passed version of the bill. The Paycheck Fairness Act strengthens the Equal Pay Act of 1963 by providing more effective remedies to women who are not being paid equal wages for doing equal work.
Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-CA), Chair of the Democratic Women’s Working Group, on Equal Pay Day:
Madam Speaker, I rise to call attention to Equal Pay Day.
This is the day when the average wages of a female worker catch up to the average wages of a male worker during the previous year. That’s right, the Equal Pay Act was signed into law by President Kennedy in 1963, yet here we are in 2008 and women still earn only 77 cents to every dollar a man earns.
When women earn less, their entire family suffers. When we allow women to be paid unequal wages for equal work, we as a society are tolerating discrimination. That is why we must take action to close the wage gap, and treat all workers equally.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court’s decision last year in Ledbetter v. Goodyear further compounded the difficulties that already face working women and their families due to pay inequity. In a deeply flawed decision, the Supreme Court ruled that a worker must file a charge of pay discrimination within 180 days of an employer’s initial decision to pay someone less for discriminatory reasons. This clearly went against the intent of the Civil Rights Act and I was proud that the House acted quickly to correct this misguided decision by passing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which provides more effective remedies to women who are not being paid equal wages for doing equal work.
This week, the Senate will consider this important legislation — how fitting that it occurs during the same week as Equal Pay Day.
I urge my colleagues in the Senate to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act immediately and urge the President to quickly sign it into law for the benefit of millions of hard working women and their families.
Democratic Women's Working Group Members speak in support of a resolution recognizing March as Women's History Month - April 1, 2008
Rep. Lynn Woolsey:
Rep. Niki Tsongas:
Rep. Lois Capps: Wearing Our Hearts On Our Sleeves - February 14, 2008
"Happy Valentines Day! As we go about our busy day enjoying tasty treats with friends and loved ones, admiring beautiful bouquets sent by admirers, or preparing gifts or special meals to celebrate Cupid’s special day, I hope you’ll all take a moment to remember that February is American Heart Month and today is “Go Red” day on Capitol Hill."
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