Ready for What’s Next: Women Employed’s Statement on the 2024 Election Results
The election results have left many feeling anxious, worried about the future and about the rights we’ve fought so hard to win. There is no doubt that a second Trump administration will be a setback — that many of the advances we’ve made will be at risk, and that further progress will be challenging.
But one truth is certain — Women Employed (WE) will not back down. WE have been here before. WE are battle tested, and WE have proven time and again over our five decades of history that even in the toughest of times, we know how to protect, defend, and advance the rights of working women and families. Since WE’s founding in 1973, we have been involved in nearly every major advancement for working women, and much of that progress was won despite staunch opposition.
And while we have the experience and the strategic chops, we know the next four years won’t be easy. It will require diligence and grit, flexibility and collaboration, and a focus on defending our rights from attacks from the incoming administration, from members of Congress, and from the courts.
We will not allow this administration to take away our voice, our agency, or our rights. We already have plans in place to ensure we do not go back. As we head into this new administration, Women Employed commits to:
Prioritizing and defending affirmative action and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI):
The damage done by the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision to strike down affirmative action in college admissions has had a chilling effect not just in higher education, but in multiple areas including the workplace and philanthropy. We saw this play out when an anti-diversity organization behind the Supreme Court case and other similar litigation took the Fearless Fund to court, forcing them to end a grant program specifically for Black women business owners. And a Trump administration will embolden those who seek to destroy DEI and affirmative action.
- Women Employed will fight to limit the expansion and subsequent damage of the Supreme Court ruling, working to ensure institutions of higher education understand the limited scope of that decision and what efforts they can still make to ensure their campuses are inclusive, equitable, and diverse.
- Through WE Consulting, Women Employed’s consultancy, we will work with employers to help build inclusive work cultures and ensure that every member of their staff feels a sense of belonging.
- Through our Women’s Entrepreneurship Hub, WE will continue to connect Black, Latina/x, and low-income business owners with grants and loans to help fund their businesses.
- WE will be vigilant, looking for new or continued threats to affirmative action and DEI and taking action wherever possible to temper their effects.
Ensuring education and pathways to better careers remain a fundamental right:
Higher education shouldn’t be reserved for the elite. Every person who wants an education should have the ability to get one. But in recent years, our right to quality and affordable education has been under attack — especially for those who are low-income, and for Students of Color. Under a Trump administration, those attacks will intensify. A degree or certificate can be the key to achieving career aspirations and economic security. We must defend the right to an education in a bold, unapologetically race-conscious way. We need to ensure our most economically vulnerable can earn degrees without incurring crippling debt, and we must unblock pathways to better careers for those stuck in low-paid, low-opportunity jobs.
- WE will work with partners and advocates across the country to protect and defend the Department of Education, which President-Elect Trump’s team has signaled could be at risk.
- WE will continue our advocacy to reduce or eliminate student debt, which makes far too many financially vulnerable, and we’ll work to ensure those with student debt know about the resources already available to them.
- WE will also advocate for debt-free financial aid models, fighting to protect Pell Grants if necessary, and lifting up Illinois’ MAP Grant as an example of strong policy.
- WE will defend the rights of institutions to serve and support Students of Color and undocumented students, and will work to protect them from penalty.
- WE will push for and build equitable workforce development and Career Pathways programs so that more adult and non-traditional students can get the degrees and certificates they need to succeed. By doing so, we can also reduce occupational segregation and increase racial equity in the workforce.
Protecting and advocating for policies that allow working women and families to thrive:
Under a Trump administration, the advances we have won to build the economic security of working-class families will be in jeopardy. We will leverage our 50+ years of experience and expertise to defend those rights, and advance them where possible.
- Women Employed will work with national partners and federal legislators to defend hard-won protections against gender, racial, and age discrimination in the workplace; sexual harassment; pay discrimination; and other practices that make women and families economically vulnerable.
- WE will join our partners to defend reproductive rights — which are key to economic freedom for so many women — from further erosion.
- WE will vehemently oppose cabinet members, Supreme Court candidates, and other appointees who will put our rights in peril.
- WE will push the EEOC to enforce mandatory EEO-1 rules, which require all large private sector employers as well as many federal contractors to submit demographic data, including data by job category, gender, and race. We’ll also argue for them to analyze and release reports on that data, providing a window on the state of pay equity.
Ensuring Illinois remains a safe haven and beacon of hope:
In the face of continued challenges, and with a Supreme Court that has demonstrated they are willing to ignore decades of precedent and put our hard-won rights in peril, it will be vitally important to solidify policies and programs in Illinois that allow working women and families to thrive. We must shore up our rights here in Illinois, so that we can be a beacon and a model for other states, a proving ground for future federal progress, and perhaps most importantly, a safe haven if federal protections are rolled back.
- WE will work in Illinois to advance a Paid Family and Medical Leave program, which would allow working people to manage longer-term care needs, including welcoming a new child and providing care for their own or a family member’s longer-term illness or injury.
- WE will join our partners to advocate for SB 3965, the Adequate and Equitable Funding Formula for Public Universities Act, to ensure that every public university in Illinois has the resources they need to serve their unique student populations.
- WE will speak up for a law that eliminates the subminimum wage for tipped workers in Illinois, as we have already done in Chicago, so that all working people can enjoy a full and fair wage, with tips on top.
- WE will work tirelessly to ensure people across Illinois understand their rights to fair pay, paid time off, pregnancy fairness, protection from sexual harassment and other forms of discrimination, and more.
- WE will mobilize for more resources in Illinois and Chicago to enforce workplace rights, so that government agencies can afford to be more proactive in protecting our rights.
Our agenda is both urgent and necessary. And we’re going to need your advocacy and your support.
Here are some concrete actions you can take right now that will make a real difference:
- Make a donation to Women Employed. We cannot do this work without financial support. The stakes are high, and the moment is now. We thank you for your generosity.
- Take action on issues that matter. We’ve got a few you can take right now.
- Sign up for our Action Network. We’ll email you with more timely actions you can take that will make an impact.
- Join our Advocacy Council, a group of volunteers who organize and advocate to advance WE’s mission to improve the economic status of women and remove barriers to economic equity.
- Learn about your workplace rights. And share them with your friends, families, and networks!
