Dear John,

Until 1995, there wasn’t a single woman on the Senate committee that’s responsible for writing our tax code. That means that until 1995, our tax code was written predominantly by men — mostly straight, white, affluent men.

It’s no wonder there are all kinds of biases and outdated assumptions built into our tax code.

We believe the tax code can be a force for good. And we believe that — no matter how much you may despise filing your taxes — the tax code can and must be part of our work toward advancing gender justice. Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll show you how we’re planning to do that — and ask for your help in making tax justice an integral part of the gender justice movement. Here’s step one:

Here are just a few of the biases built into the tax code that show why tax justice is gender justice:

• The tax code assumes and rewards married women who stay at home. The tax code gives preferential treatment for high-income married couples where one person earns the bulk of the income because it was written, presumably, with the assumption that a woman would stay home to take care of the couple’s children. This leaves out families where both spouses are working — like many low-income families, LGBTQ couples, and families of color.
• The tax code favors injuries that predominantly affect men, but not women. If you’re injured on the job and get worker’s compensation, you can deduct that from your income, making your taxes lower. These kinds of injuries may be more prevalent among men. But if you’re discriminated against because of, say, your gender, race, disability or sexual orientation and are awarded money from a lawsuit or settlement? You guessed it: Your awards can’t be deducted from your taxes.
• The tax code rewards people who are already financially secure. If you’re able to buy a home, there’s a reward built-in so you can deduct the interest from your mortgage from your income, lowering your taxes. But there’s nothing in the tax code to help people save for buying a house in the first place and only one in four eligible families gets any kind of rental assistance. Why are we only rewarding people who can already afford to purchase a home? This harms women and people of color, who are less likely to have the generational wealth that would enable them to take advantage of these benefits.

Simply put, John: Our tax code reflects and enshrines who and what we value — and unsurprisingly, women and their families and particularly women of color and low-income women — often get the short end of the stick. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The tax code was written to benefit wealthy, white, high-income straight families. But it can be rewritten. And it can be written to not just neutralize the damage done, but to proactively further gender and racial justice.

That’s why today we’re launching a new campaign on gender and the tax code, or as we like to call it: Tax the Patriarchy.

Sincerely,