Women Lift All of Us

Women’s presence in legislatures and other state-level elected offices is closely associated with better policy, not just for women, but for everyone.

We’ve talked before about why women raise all of us up when they are elected to office, and why the State Legislature is a crucial path forward for progressive policy. The California Legislature has been a progressive leader in the nation, passing model legislation on climate change, income inequality, fair wages, and more. Women’s presence in legislatures and other state-level elected offices is closely associated with better policy, not just for women, but for everyone. Research shows that when elected, women are more likely to engage in policy issues including wage inequality, healthcare access, educational priorities, and family leave. These kitchen table issues are important to every American.

Below are just a handful of important progressive policies authored by women legislators that have significantly improved our quality of life in California:

AB 5: “Gig Worker Bill”

Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez authored this landmark bill that was passed in 2019 to strengthen worker rights around employee classification in California. Regardless of the bill’s path forward in the aftermath of 2020’s Proposition 22, it blazed a first-in-the-nation trail that advocates for Labor rights and social justice will follow for decades to come.

Aimed at reducing the growing income inequality across the state, this legislation protects independent contractors from being exploited by businesses. It instituted the ABC test to determine whether a worker is considered an employee or independent contractor in California. Under the ABC test, a worker is considered an employee unless they meet all three conditions:

• The person is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact.
• The person performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business.
• The person is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as that involved in the work performed.

While the rideshare and app-based delivery industries were directly impacted, and fought back with an expensive campaign to pass Proposition 22 exempting app-based drivers from being classified as employees, many workers have benefited from being reclassified as employees, giving them access to overtime compensation, unemployment benefits and paid sick time.

Elizabeth Warren has repeatedly bolstered her support of this legislation stating in an op-ed, “I believe in markets and in providing entrepreneurs the chance to succeed…But markets without rules and workplaces without labor protections are ripe for exploitation.”

SB 32 — AB 197: California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2016

Authored by former State Senator Fran Pavley, this legislation established a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in California to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.

Passed in 2016, SB 32 was double joined with AB 197, which focused on cutting emissions specifically from local oil refineries and manufacturers. As a result, these pieces of legislation kickstarted the clean energy sector in California and led to innovation to enable the industry to continue to meet stricter emissions regulations.

Former Senator Pavley championed several other gold-standard climate initiatives, including AB 1493, that led to the Obama administration’s implementation of national clean car standards modeled on the bill, widely known as the “Pavley law.”

SB 23: CalWORKS Eligibility

Then-State Senator Holly Mitchell passed SB 23 in 2014 to address an equity issue within CalWORKS eligibility by repealing the Maximum Family Grant (MFG) rule. This rule stated that parents who were already receiving assistance through the CalWORKS program were ineligible for receiving a grant for additional children born into their household.

The MFG rule was an invasive stipulation intended to limit the number of children women experiencing poverty would have and further perpetuated the cycle of poverty. SB 23 removed this rule, allowing parents to gain assistance through the CalWORKS program regardless of the number of children in their household. Mitchell fought legislative cycle after legislative cycle not only for repeal of the discriminatory MFG rule, but also, more challengingly, to ensure the funding was there to cover all children in need going forward.

AB 154: Early Access to Abortion

State Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins introduced AB 154, which increased access to abortion care for women by expanding the criteria for whom was able to perform those services in the state of California. The bill gave nurse practitioners and non-physicians the ability to perform the procedure within the scope of their licenses during the first trimester of pregnancy.

At the time, 52% of the counties in rural California lacked physicians who were able and willing to provide abortion care, emphasizing the critical need to bolster women’s access to a full range of care options. The bill was written into law in 2013, a time when no other state in the nation was actually expanding abortion access

AB 154 creates a model for other policymakers in states across the country who are in support of women’s access to care and reproductive rights.

AB 2292: Billion for Babies

A vocal advocate for affordable and accessible childcare for all Californians, Assemblymember (and Close the Gap California Recruit!) Cecilia Aguiar-Curry helped pass the funding proposed in her AB 2292 in 2018 to expand access to infant and toddler care in the state.

The funding proposed by Aguiar-Curry’s legislation became the top budget priority of the Legislative Women’s Caucus and when passed as part of the State Budget, was particularly impactful for children from working families by giving them access to an increased number of childcare programs that are licensed and equipped with childcare professionals. “Billion for Babies” increased funding for new childcare facilities, raised the reimbursement rates for toddler and infant care, and provided resources to recruit and train the next generation of childcare providers.

SB 826: Women on Corporate Boards

Then-State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson introduced and passed SB 826 to create more representative and diverse corporate boards in the state of California. The bill set hard deadlines to ensure that, by the end of 2019, every publicly held corporation had at least one woman on its board of directors, and between one and three, depending upon the size of their boards by the end of 2021.

Companies that fail to comply face six-figure fines. Since the passing of this legislation, the number of women on California Corporate boards has increased 66.5%. In 2018, 180 of the 650 public companies in California that are subject to SB 826 had zero women on their boards. That number has since shrunk to just 15, or 2.3% of company boards, as of late 2020. Jackson’s bill has been cited countless times ever since as one major contributor to concrete change in the composition of corporate boards nationwide.

SB 1053: Contraceptive Coverage

Another landmark bill by progressive champion and now-Supervisor Holly Mitchell, SB 1053, ensures that all who live in California and have insurance are able to get contraception without out of pocket costs, restrictions, or delays. Passed in 2014, this legislation drastically increased the availability of contraceptives to people across the state of California and expanded the eligibility of no-cost contraceptives to all FDA approved methods.

SB 1053 reinforced California’s commitment to supporting reproductive rights and set the standard for other states’ progressive policies to follow suit.

AB 15 — SB 380: End of Life Option Act

Then-Assemblymember Susan Eggman authored AB 15, which allows for terminally ill patients to request that their physician prescribe life-ending medication. At the time of its passage, California became the fifth state to legalize what is often referred to as physician-assisted suicide.

Former Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 15 into law, following what he called a long deliberation and consideration, in 2015.

In February 2021, now-Senator Eggman introduced SB 380 which expands upon the protections set forth in AB 15 and extends the lifetime of policy indefinitely, as well as expanding access to end of life care. It specifically requires healthcare providers to refer patients to physicians who are willing to provide counseling on an end of the life option if they are unwilling to do it themselves. While the bill has not yet passed, it has promise to continue defining the future of policy around this important and often fraught issue area.

AB 1108: “California Toxic Toy Bill”

As an Assemblymember, now-California State Treasurer Fiona Ma authored AB 1108, legislation to ban toxic chemicals in toys and childcare products, known as phthalates, which are used to soften plastic.

Phthalates have been linked to numerous long-term health risks and, prior to the passing of this legislation, were found in toys, teething rings, and many other plastic products intended for use by children.

AB 1108 also required manufacturers to use the least toxic alternative available when replacing phthalates in a product and prohibits manufacturers from swapping phthalates out with certain carcinogens and other toxicants.

In 2007, California became the first state in the nation to pass legislation banning phthalates from toys and childcare products. Ultimately, Ma’s bill became a model for a federal ban of the same kind, introduced by U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, that was signed into law in 2008.

Without women’s voices at the decision-making table, we can’t begin to adequately address the issues facing Californians today. Close the Gap California recruits women to run for the State Legislature who support reproductive justice, public school funding and combating poverty.

What legislation are you grateful to a woman legislator for authoring?

Close the Gap California is committed to building on progressive women’s historic momentum by recruiting them statewide and achieving equality in California by 2028. Join us!

About Close the Gap California

Close the Gap California (CTG) is a statewide campaign to close the gender gap in the California Legislature by 2028. By recruiting accomplished, progressive women in targeted districts and preparing them to launch competitive campaigns, CTG has been changing the face of the Legislature one cycle at a time since launching in 2013.

Twenty CTG Recruits (14 of them women of color) are serving in Sacramento today. CTG Recruits are committed to reproductive freedom, public school funding, and combating poverty.