Friend,

To honor Women’s History Month, the U.S. House of Representatives is voting on two important bills this week: the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and a resolution to enable ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.

We’re closer than ever to winning on these critical issues, with a record number of women in Congress, our first woman vice president, and a president who originally sponsored VAWA in the Senate when it was first passed in 1994.

And a year into the COVID pandemic, which has exacerbated gender inequities, we’re seeing the urgent need for action. For example, the rise in domestic violence during the past year has been called a “shadow pandemic,” with women and children forced to quarantine at home with abusers.

(Content warning for survivors for the next two paragraphs.)

In the U.S., more than one in three women have experienced sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner. The numbers are much higher for Indigenous women, 80% of whom have experienced violence—mostly at the hands of a non-Native perpetrator. And for too long, a legal loophole blocked tribal governments from prosecuting non-Natives who committed domestic violence against Native Americans on tribal lands.

Back in 2013, the reauthorized and expanded Violence Against Women Act addressed that loophole, and advocates planned to expand the bill further in 2019, when it again needed reauthorization. But despite passing the House, Republican obstruction in the Senate blocked the bill’s passing.

With Democratic control, the latest reauthorization of VAWA may actually become law. The newest bill would close further loopholes to finally end impunity for non-Native sexual assault perpetrators, stop abusers and stalkers from buying guns, and expand funding for survivors’ services, including health care, housing, and financial assistance—especially needed during the pandemic.

Women—particularly women in marginalized communities—have borne the brunt of the pandemic’s economic effects. During the pandemic, twice as many women have lost their jobs than men have. One important factor is that women, even fully employed women, often do the bulk of housework and caregiving—and with children at home due to the pandemic, the child-rearing is falling on women’s shoulders.

Women of color are more likely to be in jobs that require in-person work, and less likely to be able to afford childcare, so they’re facing the brunt of job losses. Already before the pandemic, women were paid less than men, with an even wider pay gap for Black, Latina, and Indigenous women. During prior recessions, women who’ve dropped out of the workforce have struggled to find jobs when they return to work, so the fallout for women—especially women of color—will last for years.

This week’s vote on the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), however, could help women facing pay and other discrimination. It would give women more power to bring legal challenges in discrimination cases, backed up by our founding document, the Constitution. Our Constitution lays out our values and our rights, but it doesn’t mention women at all and only mentions “sex” once. It’s long past time to enshrine sex-based equality in our Constitution; women have been fighting for this constitutional amendment for 100 years.

And now that 38 states have ratified it, it has met our constitutional requirements to become our 28th Amendment. However, Mitch McConnell and the Trump administration claimed that the latest ratifications came too late to count, based on an arbitrary deadline previously set by Congress. So the House will vote on a bill to remove that arbitrary timeline for ratification, bringing us one step closer to finally making the ERA law.

I’m looking forward to voting for these bills, and honoring Women’s History Month by continuing to increase the number of women (particularly women of color and working class women) serving in public office.

Women deserve to have our voices heard. We deserve seats at the table. I won’t back down in the fight for justice for ALL of us.

Can you chip in now to help me celebrate Women’s History Month and continue the fight for gender justice?

Thank you,

Rashida