Women

California is the proud home of women who have blazed new trails in business, entrepreneurship, culture, and politics. We proudly and vigorously support a woman’s right to choose how to use her mind, her body and her time. California Democrats respect women as full partners in family and society.

California Democrats will:

1. Support the Violence Against Women Act, Title IX, the UN Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; 
2. Support the rights of all individuals to live, study, and work in a safe and professional environment free from all forms of discrimination and harassment, including sexual harassment and sexual violence;
3. Demand sexual harassment and violence policies at the state and national level that provide: education about gender equity, starting with early childhood education; help for survivors; training and laws holding perpetrators personally accountable; an end to non-disclosure agreements that force survivors to bear the shame of silence; independent investigations; whistleblower protections; public and constituent access of any allegations or findings on said allegations of public officials and their staff; no tolerance of sexual harassment/sexual assault as a condition of employment or career advancement in any form of employment;
4. Support ensuring quality sexual education; unrestricted access to health care, contraception, and abortion; workplace rights such as, but not limited to, flex time and family and maternal leave;  comprehensive medical and health care coverage for every stage of a woman’s life; and the recognition that freedom and protection from violence or abuse, domestic and otherwise, is a fundamental human right;
5. Support women’s autonomous decision over reproductive rights by calling for reparations for all women who were sterilized without consent in California jails, prisons, and state institutions;
6. Commit to addressing the systematic racism toward women from historically marginalized communities by addressing such issues as, but not limited to, the Black maternal health crisis, murdered and missing indigenous women, historic and current trafficking of women and girls, and women who were sterilized in the prison system without consent;
7. Support increasing availability of comprehensive educational and training programs for formerly incarcerated women to enhance parenting and job skills; and acknowledge that sex workers face systemic violence that should be addressed through reform of the law enforcement and judicial system; and,
8. Recognize that California’s American Indian and Alaskan Native women continue to suffer through institutional racism and stereotypes where violence is inadequately addressed because of jurisdictional issues, lack of data, poor law enforcement response and training, and a dearth of other necessary services’; and
9. Actively identify, recruit, and support candidates from underserved communities to run for office, recruiting young women to develop a pipeline for new leadership and responding to the unequal representation of Democratic women serving in elected office, particularly women from ethnic minority, LGBTQ, and disabilities communities.
10. Support efforts to address the epidemic of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW)