MSMU RSWG 2023 final - Flipbook - Page 33
A CLOSER LOOK
Identifying Policy Solutions
for Gender Inequities in California
For more than 50 years, the California
Commission on the Status of Women and
Girls has identified and worked to eliminate
inequities in state laws, practices, and conditions
that affect California’s women and girls.
In 2022, the Commission released the
California Blueprint for Women’s Pandemic
Economic Recovery examining pre-pandemic
economic conditions for women, women’s
labor-market outcomes during the height
of the pandemic, financial indicators from
the government’s pandemic response, and
overall safety net usage by women.
The Blueprint confirms that California women
went into the pandemic worse off due to
existing systemic inequities in the workforce,
with employment rates 20% lower than men,
a persistent pay gap, and an “occupational
segregation” of women — particularly women
of color, who hold nearly half of all low-paying
jobs, which leaves them with reduced lifetime
earnings and perpetuates generational poverty.
Occupational segregation also means that it
was specifically women who were our essential
workers that kept hospitals open, children
educated, and food on our tables. Frontline and
service sectors were the most impacted, with
nearly 80% of jobs lost concentrated in femaledominated, low-wage occupations. As industries
reopened their doors and jobs became available,
childcare accessibility and affordability vanished.
Working with advocates, the state legislature,
state agencies, and businesses, the Commission
is championing a long-term policy agenda
based on these data that increases economic
security for all Californians, prioritizes the wellbeing of women and girls, and strengthens
a globally competitive state economy.
In 2022, two critical pieces of legislation
addressing economic gender disparities were
authored by commissioners and co-sponsored by
the Commission and signed into law by Governor
Newsom. Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer
Kahan (D–Orinda), also a CCSWG commissioner,
authored AB 1287, which eliminates the
“pink tax” on goods marketed to women,
prohibiting price differentials for substantially
similar goods. This will also help combat the
increased impact of inflation on women.
Another CCSWG commissioner, State Sen.
Monique Limón (D–Santa Barbara), authored
SB 1162, which increases pay transparency by
requiring employers to disclose a position’s
pay range in job listings and to employees
who request it. The bill also expands pay data
reporting to include contractors. Both actions
increase transparency
and empower all workers
to demand equal pay.
CALIFORNIA
CANNOT
The Blueprint data affirm
AFFORD TO COUNT
that it is critical that gender
WOMEN WORKERS AS
parity be considered as a
substantive element of the
LESS IMPORTANT TO THE
health of the state’s overall
workforce and capacity
ECONOMY THAN THEIR
for economic growth, and
MALE COUNTERPARTS.
must also be considered
as an essential element in
state resource stewardship. Women are slightly
more than half the population of California and
serve as key drivers of industry and essential
workforce participants. California cannot afford
to count women workers as less important to
the economy than their male counterparts.
California must not wait until the next crisis before
leveraging the lessons from this one to build
more equitable support systems and strengthen
our economy — and our largely female essential
labor force — to better weather future storms.
HOLLY MARTINEZ is executive director of
the California Commission on the Status of
Women and Girls.
33
