WHY WOMEN FOR JULIA?
Julia Salazar’s campaign in State Senate District 18 is a grassroots effort led by women and made possible by people of all genders. As a volunteer-driven campaign for a socialist candidate who has refused to accept corporate donations, we are relying on the power of our solidarity and hard work to spread the word about Salazar. She has committed to advocating for North Brooklyn’s communities against entrenched political and financial institutions and we believe that sending her to Albany will be a feminist act.
The talking points below illustrate how deeply Julia’s campaign platform is connected to gender justice. True and comprehensive gender justice is more than just the issues commonly identified as “belonging to” women, such as reproductive rights or closing the wage gap. It is about the right of women to exist as full citizens in our political economy.
Women for Julia is for female-identified people and those who identify as allies in the fight for gender justice.
Sign up to volunteer and vote Julia Salazar on September 13!
Materials developed by Maia Rosenberg and Amy Wilson, DSA North Brooklyn.
HOUSING JUSTICE IS GENDER JUSTICE
- New York’s homelessness crisis — a direct result of the shortage of affordable housing — disproportionately affects women of color. Ninety-one percent of families with children in shelters are headed by a woman. Source: Coalition for the Homeless
- Women, particularly women of color, are more likely to face housing insecurity and eviction, partially due to gender and race-based disparities in job security and income. Source: Colorlines
- The majority of households living in public and Section 8 housing are headed by women. These women and their families are vulnerable to discrimination from landlords and will bear the brunt of proposed cuts to HUD funding. Source: National Low-Income Housing Coalition
- Julia Salazar’s commitment to fighting upzoning, ending vacancy decontrol, expanding rent stabilization, and securing state funding for truly affordable housing will allow the women of North Brooklyn to worry less about finding and maintaining a home and focus more on living healthy and productive lives as citizens of New York.
Research assistance provided by Colin Vanderburg, DSA Brooklyn Housing Working Group.
LABOR JUSTICE IS GENDER JUSTICE
- It’s not news that a woman’s median income is significantly less than a man’s, and women of color get an even shorter end of the stick. This gap must be rectified in order to achieve economic equality and security for all genders. Unionization is the most clear path to gender wage equity for a number of reasons. It has been shown that women represented by unions earn 23% more than their non-union counterparts. Contracts negotiated by unions make provisions that allow members to more easily balance work and family life, and unions are able to set standards of pay. Read more: Unions Help Narrow Gender Wage Gap/Common Dreams
- When it comes to workplace protections, contract workers are at an extreme disadvantage. Often, these disadvantages affect women disproportionately. Contract workers are unable to sue for sexual harassment or workplace discrimination for example. Further, they don’t have access to benefits such as paid family leave, or healthcare, which can be a real issue for working mothers. This is why it is vital we push for a decrease in contract work as part of the greater battle for gender justice. Read more: Unequal Rights: Contract Workers Have Few Workplace Protections/NPR
- Though it may be the case that the minimum wage is slowly rising in some states, most minimum wage workers are not earning enough to support themselves, let alone a family. A recent study showed that workers earning minimum wage cannot afford a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the U.S. For tipped workers, the reality is even worse. Federal tipped minimum wage is a pitiful $2.13 an hour. This means those who are forced to survive on tips are more vulnerable to harassment and other degrading behavior from customers whose extra dollars they count on. Since most service industry workers are women, they are disproportionately affected by such standards. This is why campaigns like Fight for 15 and One Fair Wage are crucial to the economic enfranchisement of women in particular. Read More: Why Women Fight for $15 Minimum Wage/Women’s Media Center
- With Julia Salazar’s commitments to further unionization of the workforce by supporting the right to collectively bargain of all workers, fighting anti-worker and union busting corporations, and taking legislative action with the aim of easing the ability to collectively bargain, the working women of North Brooklyn know they have an advocate for their rights as a part of the labor force in Albany.
HEALTHCARE JUSTICE IS GENDER JUSTICE
- Because our society still largely places the burden of child and elder care on women, they are more likely to seek flexible work such as part-time or freelance that usually doesn’t come with healthcare benefits. Now they are left with the option of no insurance, or figuring out how to pay for it with a smaller salary. Additionally, companies with majority female staff tend to offer substandard insurance plans. Read More: The Feminist Case for Single Payer/Jacobin
- In various healthcare settings, transgender people report high rates of discrimination and abuse. There are unique mental and physical health needs for those in the transgender community but often they come up against prejudices within healthcare that set barriers for getting these needs met. Read More: The State of Transgender Health Care: Policy, Law, and Medical Frameworks/Daphna Stroumsa
- Access to essential parts of reproductive care is often limited — either by the price tag or archaic and backwards laws around women’s health. A comprehensive women’s healthcare plan would be certain to encompass affordable reproductive healthcare and access to abortion. Read More: Why Single Payer is a Feminist Issue/Socialist Worker
- Julia Salazar’s commitments to passing the New York health act, supporting access to abortion on demand, and working toward universal long-term care will directly impact the quality of healthcare for the women of New York and lead us in the direction of healthcare equality.
IMMIGRATION JUSTICE IS GENDER JUSTICE
- The fact is, many of the migrants come to the U.S. escaping domestic violence and abuse. Sadly, upon crossing the border, too many are faced with sexual assault by U.S. border agents. According to the group Freedom for Immigrants, immigrants filed an average of over one complaint every day of sexual abuse or violence at DHS facilities, and only 3% of these claims were ever investigated. Read More: ‘A Border Patrol Agent Sexually Abused Me’/The Nation Magazine
- Transgender individuals and especially transgender women are more at risk for assault in immigration detention centers. Members of the LGBT community are fleeing in large numbers from several Central American countries due to extreme persecution and ‘epidemic levels of violence’ according to Amnesty International. The Prairieland Detention Center opened a new wing specifically for transgender detainees at the start of the Trump administration, but it still has yet to be used for this purpose. Read More: That ICE prison for transgender immigrants? It Never Opened/VICE News
- The Trump government is showing that they are anti-women and gender justice by their behavior toward immigrants seeking asylum from domestic and gang violence. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recently declared that immigrants fleeing such violence will no longer qualify for asylum. The ruling will very likely have implications for the entire U.S. asylum system. Sessions said in a statement in June: “Asylum was never meant to alleviate all problems — even all serious problems — that people face every day all over the world”. Read More: Attorney General Denies Asylum To Victims Of Domestic Abuse, Gang Violence/NPR News
- Julia Salazar’s commitments to making New York a sanctuary state, ensuring right to counsel in court cases regardless of immigration status, enforcing undocumented workers’ existing labor rights, and passing the DREAM Act will support the immigrant communities of North Brooklyn in building full, healthy, and safe lives in the United States.
Research assistance provided by Alan Yaspan, DSA Brooklyn Immigration Working Group.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM IS GENDER JUSTICE
- The so-called “war on drugs” and harsh sentencing policies have contributed to the exponential growth of the number of women in the American justice system. Women who enter the criminal justice system are very likely to have experienced sexual or physical abuse, addiction and mental health struggles, intimate partner violence, and/or homelessness. Source: New York Women’s Foundation/John Jay College of Criminal Justice
- One-quarter of women in the NY criminal justice system are primary caretakers of children. Parental incarceration is an adverse childhood experience that increases the likelihood of long-term negative outcomes for children and their emotional, mental, psychological, spiritual, and social health. Formerly incarcerated women working to regain custody of their children face substantial challenges from family and criminal courts. Source: New York Women’s Foundation/John Jay College of Criminal Justice
- Women are the fastest-growing population in the criminal justice system. Most are jailed for low-level, non-violent offenses such as fraud, solicitation, or marijuana possession. Trans women of color are at exceptional risk both from discriminatory policing and from violence by other inmates or guards once incarcerated. Source: Vera Institute of Justice
- Mass incarceration is a burgeoning women’s health crisis. One in four women has an incarcerated loved one. This will represent a serious obstacle to her financial health and economic agency as well as potentially causing significant psychological distress and trauma. Women disproportionately bear the financial and emotional effects of mass incarceration, which has a ripple effect on the overall health of families and communities. Source: Essie Foundation report, “Because She’s Powerful”
- Julia Salazar’s commitments to ending cash bail, decriminalizing marijuana, decriminalizing sex work, and investing in youth programs and community-led conflict resolution trainings will have a direct effect in mitigating these gendered impacts of racist mass incarceration.
Research assistance provided by Melanie Steinhardt, College and Community Fellowship.
CLIMATE JUSTICE IS GENDER JUSTICE
- Gendered poverty means that climate disasters disproportionately affect women and girls. Seventy percent of those living in poverty in the United States are women and children. This population is more likely to be impacted by climate disasters such as hurricanes and less likely to have access to post-disaster resources. Source: 350.org
- Oil and gas development destroy communities. When pipelines and fracking wells go in, rates of violence against women go up. This disproportionately affects women of color, especially Indigenous women. Source: US Department of Justice
- Recent climate justice movements, including the No Dakota Access Pipeline actions at Standing Rock, were developed and led by women. Women are leaders in this movement and can be significant change-makers when they have access to responsibility and decision making. Source: United Nations
- Julia Salazar’s commitments to supporting legislation to make corporate polluters pay, funding community-controlled environmental projects, and involving communities of color and women-led organizations in policy making will help make New York State a leader in climate justice and allow citizens to do their part to build a more sustainable future together.
Research assistance provided by Jared Greenberg and Aaron Eisenberg, NYC-DSA Climate Justice Working Group.
Learn more about Julia Salazar’s platform and sign up to volunteer at salazarforsenate.com/volunteer.
