Yesterday’s pouring rain didn’t dampen the spirits of City Council Members Laurie Cumbo (Fort Green, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, Crown Heights) and Helen Rosenthal (Manhattan’s Upper West Side) as they announced the new Women’s Caucus’ Equality Legislative package before over 50 enthusiastic women, advocates and legislator colleagues on the steps of City Hall.
The package includes introductions and resolutions that will give women broader rights and equal protections under New York state law.
“Today is so personal for me because this is such a phenomenal time in our her-story,” said Cumbo, who co-chairs the Council’s Women’s Caucus with Rosenthal and is the chair of the Women’s Issues Committee. “We have to tear this nation upside down. We got to set it right. And we have to utilize this as our battle cry to make sure that women and girls all across this country know that they can be whatever they want to be”.
The package was initially started back in June of this year and is the first of its kind to be introduced by the Women’s Caucus to bring equality to all New Yorkers. The various pieces of legislation will facilitate the creation of new services and resources, recognize the contributions of women, increase access to higher education and hygiene products, protect survivors of domestic abuse, curb sexual violence against all individuals and end gender-based pay discrimination.
“We encourage our communities to remove the barriers from us and create opportunities for us to live self-determined lives. Right now we are holding our city accountable by encouraging people on the Women’s Caucus as well as members of the Council to push for progressive policy that liberates us and supports us,” said Amanda Matos from the Girls For Gender Equity and NYC’s Young Women’s Initiative. “We as young women of color and young women at-large are here to be invested in, to be valued in, and to be believed in.”
Many of the speakers cited the recent election of President-Elect Donald Trump as a driving force for the introduction of the legislative package. The future President of the United States made headlines while campaigning for discriminating against women and advocating sexual violence against them in a controversial hot-mic incident while being interviewed by entertainment reporter Billy Bush.
“Right now under the administration of President-Elect Donald Trump, we have seen all across this nation challenges that women face while attempting to become leaders. We have seen the level of disrespect. We have seen women who want to have families and want to have babies and our President-Elect saying that “pregnancy in the workplace is a problem.” We have seen our President-Elect say that because of his wealth and influence he can grab a woman by her “pussy” and that “she likes it” and that “she wants it”. This is the type of language that will be spoken in the White House and this is the challenge,” said Cumbo.
Thus far, three pieces of legislation from the package have already been passed into law including the production of a comprehensive plan to address the needs of unpaid caregivers (Local Law 97), providing feminine hygiene products at no cost to students while on Department of Education premises (Local Law 84) and reporting procedures and policies for the Rikers Island nursery program (Local Law 120), introduced by Council Members Margaret Chin, Julissa Ferreras-Copeland and Vanessa Gibson, respectively.
The remaining pieces of legislation in package were introduced at the stated meeting yesterday or are scheduled to be introduced within the coming months.
Some other advocates and legislators present at the rally included Council Members Deborah Rose, Elizabeth Crowley, Inez Dickens, Jumaane Williams, Margaret Chin, Robert Cornegy Jr., Rosie Mendez, Vanessa Gibson, as well as the NYC Commissioner on Gender Equality Azadeh Khalili,
Among the advocacy organizations at the press conference included The North Brooklyn Coalition Against Family Violence, Planned Parenthood of New York City, Live On New York and the National Organization for Women-NYC.
