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WREN’s Gender Justice* Policy Agenda

Dec 11, 2020

WREN’s policy agenda framework is rooted in the principles of fairness, equity, and inclusiveness, so that all women, girls, and gender expansive** people —of every race, ethnicity, national origin, immigration status, family status, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression – can prosper and thrive. It reflects the importance of policy that serves across their lifespan and regardless of income, identity, or background.

To that end, we will work to center the needs of those who have experienced historical trauma and are most impacted by the issues including: Women and gender expansive people who are Black, Brown, members of Indigenous Nations, immigrants, LGBTQ+, disabled, experiencing houselessness, incarcerated, and living with low incomes in our policy recommendations.

The following framework is organized according to WREN’s issue areas of Leadership and Engagement, Health and Education, Economic Opportunity, and Freedom from Violence.

 

Leadership and Civic Engagement

WREN is committed to strengthening our democracy and building political power for gender justice.

Health and Education

WREN is committed to ensuring comprehensive access to health coverage and equitable care, including abortion services, birth control, healthcare for pregnant people, and gender-affirming care. Everyone, no matter their immigration status, deserves access to health care, when and where they need it, without financial difficulty, discrimination, barriers, or stigma.

WREN is committed to transforming schools into places where every woman, girl, and gender expansive student feels safe, valued, and included.

Economic Opportunity

WREN is committed to pursuing economic dignity and justice by providing all women and families with the resources and support necessary to meet basic needs including, but not limited to, sufficient income, an affordable and accessible home, and adequate nutrition.

Our budgets must center the needs of those most impacted by our unjust economic systems. This means investing in fair and affordable housing; increasing the adequacy of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); reforming unemployment insurance and establishing a jobseeker’s allowance so that families who lose a job or hours can meet their basic needs as they search for new work; expanding refundable tax credits (such as the Earned Income and Child Tax Credit); and expanding Supplemental Security Income and Social Security to ensure workers who face disability have income security and seniors can retire in dignity.

Building wealth requires all women to be able to preserve the resources that they have while increasing access to wealth-building assets, services, programs, and financial institutions. We must invest in women-owned businesses

 

WREN is committed to ensuring that all women and gender expansive people can work with equity, safety, and dignity.

WREN is committed to building a robust care work infrastructure that treats paid and unpaid care as a public good, including paid leave for all, child care for all, services and supports for people with disabilities, and aging adults.

Freedom from Violence

WREN is committed to advancing non-carceral, trauma-informed violence interventions and prevention to ensure the safety, agency, and self-determination of women, girls, and gender expansive people.

*Gender justice definition: Gender justice is a movement to transform gender-based interpersonal, structural, and systemic inequities. It is broader than just the presence of women and girls. Gender justice requires an analysis and a strategy for addressing sexism in institutional/organizational policies and practices. Gender justice empowers, organizes, and mobilizes those most impacted by gender injustice. Gender justice is rooted in the leadership, power, and voices of women of color, low-income communities, youth, elders, trans, intersex, gender nonconforming, and queer communities within the larger social justice movements. (Hintz, G. (2015). Expand the Base: A Grantmaker’s Guide to Gender Justice and Civic Engagement.
** A note about language: Throughout this document, we use “women” in an inclusive way, acknowledging that transgender men and gender nonconforming people are also impacted by “women’s issues.” For the purposes of this policy agenda, “gender expansive” is an umbrella term used for individuals that broaden their own culture’s commonly held definitions of gender, including expectations for its expression, identities, roles, and/or other perceived gender norms. Gender-expansive individuals include those with transgender and non-binary identities, as well as those whose gender in some way is seen to be stretching society’s notions of gender. For both women and gender marginalized people, the root of discrimination and marginalization are the same – misogyny and white supremacy.

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