Advocasy Initiatives

Eliminate policies and practices that criminalize people of color

YWCA is committed to ensuring that everyone is afforded equal opportunity and equal protection under the law. Too often, however, stereotypes, biases, and racial power dynamics are embedded in our laws and public policies impacting a broad range of issues across education, justice, civic engagement, health, and other sectors. YWCA’s intersectional mission to eliminate racism and empower women demands that we advocate against the oppression and inequities that many groups and individuals endure.

YWCA urges bold action by elected officials to advance racial justice to:

• Pass legislation that addresses racism as a public health crisis and marshal resources across sectors to promote health and well-being in communities of color
• Defend and protect equal access to the ballot box
• Enact laws that safeguard people of color from police violence and increase police accountability
• Create safe, equitable educational environments that support learning for all students, especially those most impacted by school discipline and sexual harassment policies and practices
• Increase access to comprehensive youth mental health services that is culturally response, trauma-informed, and recognizes the unique experiences and impacts of youth of color

Strengthen maternal health services and safe, legal abortion care

For more than fifty years, YWCA USA has supported the reproductive freedom of all people to make fundamental decisions about whether and when to have children. In issuing its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and with it more than 50 years of legal precedent, disproportionately impacting the lives of young women and people of color who are already marginalized in our healthcare system. While racial disparities in health care increase pregnancy concerns for Black women, they also face a maternal health crisis that leaves them at four times greater risk of dying due to a pregnancy-related death, deepening the impacts of the decision in Dobbs. Bodily autonomy and the right to have an abortion are fundamental rights of all persons.

YWCA urges immediate action by elected officials to:

• Codify equal access to safe, legal abortion care for all
• Strengthen maternal health and improve health outcomes for survivors of domestic and sexual violence as well as women of color

Expand opportunities for women’s success

Women are the primary source of financial support for many families and bear significant care-taking responsibilities at home. At YWCA, we believe no one should have to choose between their livelihoods and their health, their family, or their safety. Yet as a result of their dual roles as caregivers and primary breadwinners, many women in the workforce, particularly women of color, are often forced to choose between their family’s economic security and their health when they or their loved ones need care. Moreover, women continue to face the economic barriers of pay inequity, sexual harassment, and discrimination.

YWCA urges immediate action to:

• Work toward equal pay for equal work and pass legislation prohibiting the use of salary history in job interviews and negotiations
• Enact nondiscrimination laws, such as the Equality Act
• Prohibit sexual harassment on the basis of gender and gender identity in the workplace
• Codify paid family and medical leave, paid sick, and safe leave that are inclusive of all families, with strong accountability and job protection requirements

Take Action

It’s Time for Equal Pay for Equal Work!

Urge Your Member of Congress to cosponsor and pass the Paycheck Fairness Act