Dear John,

We invite you to sign-on to this letter for any organizations that you represent that support educational equity. The letter requests that the Biden-Harris Administration quickly establish an Office for Gender Equity in the United States Department of Education. The National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education recently sent the transition teams a long priority request letter and this was their first priority!

Please use this sign-on form to indicate your organization’s support for this Office. We have extended the sign-on date to Thursday Jan. 7, 2021 since so many have been on vacation during the holidays.
 
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Thanks for your support and Happy New Year. Stay well and safe!

Sue Klein, Education Equity Director

Organization sign on letter to establish an Office for Gender Equity in US ED right away

December 2020

Linda Darling-Hammond, Director of the Biden-Harris Education Transition Team and the Transition Team 

Dear Dr. Darling-Hammond and the Department of Education Transition Team, 

The undersigned organizations, all of whom support greatly increased attention to educational equity, recommend that the Biden-Harris Department of Education (ED) prioritize establishing an Office for Gender Equity reporting to the Secretary of Education as soon as possible. This Office is the first priority in a longer letter sent to the transition teams by the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education.
 
An Office for Gender Equity is needed to undo the many harms that the Trump Administration has caused especially by its 2020 changes to the Title IX Regulations and withdrawal of important Guidance documents. The Office for Gender Equity is immediately needed to obtain public input on revising the Title IX regulations relating to sexual harassment and assault and other rescinded guidance on transgender individuals and Title IX Coordinators. It is also crucial that the new Biden-Harris Department of Education show proactive gender equity leadership to help establish an effective national infrastructure of Title IX Coordinators and other gender equity experts to implement full eradication of long-standing sex discrimination with attention to compounded discrimination based on race, disability, English Language Learners, immigration, pregnancy/parenting, and LGBTQ status in education. An Office for Gender Equity is also needed to coordinate policy and make high quality gender equity resources including research, policies, training, and student materials available to the public by re-establishing a Gender Equity Web-based Resource Center to serve all levels from pre-k to higher and adult education.

We recommend that the Department create the Office for Gender Equity administratively, with its Director reporting to the Secretary of Education. This office is also proposed in the Gender Equity Education Act (GEEA), and a Special Assistant for Gender Equity was authorized in the Department of Education Organization Act. A proactive ED Office for Gender Equity would also complement the parallel offices charged with leadership and coordination on gender issues in federal health agencies, Department of Labor, and the U.S. Department of State.

The gender equity community has been a long-time supporter of the GEEA and its predecessor, the Women’s Educational Equity Act (WEEA), which was the only federal legislation specifically focused on implementing Title IX. The current version of GEEA--the Patsy T. Mink and Louise K. Slaughter Gender Equity Education Act of 2019-20 
(S. 1964, HR 3513) sponsored by Senator Mazie Hirono and Representative Doris Matsui outlines the many responsibilities of the Office, such as policy making, training, dissemination, and federal coordination within ED as well as with other government offices.  It also emphasizes the need for intersectional approaches to gender and other civil rights protections.  

Hopefully, when the 117th Congress passes GEEA, the existing Office for Gender Equity would assume responsibility for implementing the GEEA grants program to expand the necessary gender equity infrastructure, including well-trained Title IX Coordinators and gender equity experts. As appropriate, the Office for Gender Equity would also be home for other legislative gender equity programs, dealing with sexual harassment and assault, STEM, athletics and of course it would coordinate closely with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and White House equity initiatives.

Establishing an Office for Gender Equity at the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration is an important and unmistakable signal of support for gender equity leadership. It gives the Biden-Harris Administration a head start on strengthening the Department’s capacity to address gender equity and will be an important asset in securing passage and needed implementation funding for GEEA and other civil rights legislation.

We urge the Transition Team to recommend the establishment of an Office for Gender Equity in the Biden-Harris Department of Education as soon as possible. Thank you for your consideration.

Cordially, 

Feminist Majority Foundation-Eleanor Smeal, President and 
Sue Klein, Ed.D, Education Equity Director.

Organizations that signed as of 12-30-20:38
Alcyone LLC
Allies Reaching for Equity
American Association of University Women (AAUW)
Augustus F. Hawkins Foundation
Autistic Self Advocacy Network
BHS Stop Harassing
Champion Women
Clearinghouse on Women’s Issues
Democratic Womens Club of The Villages, FL
Disability Rights New York
Feminist Majority Foundation
Guam Department of Education
Institute for Women’s Policy Research
Japanese American Citizens League
Langelan & Associates
Legal Momentum, the Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund
Maryland Commission for Women
Maryland Women’s Heritage Center
Michigan NOW Fund’s Heritage Center
Montgomery County MD Chapter, National Organization for Women
Ms. Magazine
Multicultural Dimensions
National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE)
National Equal Rights Amendment Alliance, Inc.
National Center for Transgender Equality
National Council of Negro Women, Inc.
National Organization for Women
National Partnership for Women and Families
National Women’s Law Center
National Women’s Political Caucus
Oregon Safe Schools and Communities Coalition
Saving Democracy Team of the Villages, FL
Sport Equity
Stop Sexual Assault in Schools
The Unity Council
Virginia NOW, Inc.
Women Enabled International
Women Leading in Education Across Continents

Well Known Individuals who signed:
Lawrence Bloom, former Chicago City Council Member
Letty Cottin Pogrebin, co-founder of Ms. Magazine, writer and activist