STATEMENT: Women Employed Condemns Administration’s Attack on Decades of Civil Rights Workplace Protections
President Trump’s move to end the federal government’s role in fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion and proactively fighting discrimination in the workplace is infuriating, goes against our country’s values, and is detrimental to our ongoing success as a nation. We condemn these actions in the strongest terms possible.
One of the agencies the White House has explicitly attacked is the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). The OFCCP, part of the Department of Labor, is charged with ensuring that contractors and subcontractors who do business with the federal government are in compliance with their legal obligations to not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran, and that they take affirmative actions to prevent such discrimination. Executive Order 11246, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson authorizing the OFCCP, has had a huge impact in opening doors to opportunity for women, People of Color, and other underrepresented communities in the federal contract employee workforce, which accounts for nearly one-fifth of this country’s labor force. President Trump’s action removes critical tools that the OFCCP has utilized to ensure American taxpayer dollars do not fund discriminatory workplaces.
In addition to gutting the OFCCP’s enforcement authority, Trump also issued an executive order eliminating all diversity, equity, and inclusion staffing, directives, and offices from the federal government. But ensuring that the widest possible talent pool has a fair chance of accessing opportunity, respecting everyone’s voice, creating a workplace in which people from all backgrounds feel encouraged to contribute their perspectives―essentially what diversity, equity, and inclusion practices are designed to do―help organizations fulfill their legal obligations and have been proven time and time again to be smart business. Women Employed (WE) has a decades-long history advocating for inclusive and equitable workplaces and for affirmative action, and of holding the OFCCP to account for their important role in ensuring that all working people receive equal opportunities and are evaluated based upon their merit, and not on the basis of intentional — or unintentional — discrimination and bias. Without the programs that the White House is dismantling, women and People of Color simply would not have access to the same job opportunities that they do today.
We cannot let this attack on equitable employment standards stand. Civil rights law has not changed. Discrimination is still against the law. This action is an attempt by the administration to scare employers — whether they be corporations, foundations, or nonprofits — into rescinding their commitments to building diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforces, despite the fact that these commitments are proven to strengthen businesses. It’s an attempt to go back to a time when those in power — namely the wealthy and the privileged — had unfettered control over our economy. But employers must remember that they are still bound by the law. And the law says that you cannot discriminate based on who a person is, who they love, or how they worship.
Women Employed has over 50 years of history behind us, and we know how to stand up against those who would keep us out of the rooms where decisions are made. During those five decades, we helped to shape the OFCCP’s work, to advance affirmative action laws and policies, and to fight previous threats to those programs. We have leveraged the progress made possible by the OFCCP and by anti-discrimination law to fight for women who faced bias at work, winning landmark changes in the policies of major corporations, and a historic legal case in the 1980s that resulted in tens of millions of dollars in back wages paid to victims of gender-based discrimination.
We spoke up then, and we are speaking up now. We will not be silent. And, we do not stand alone. We are working in coalition, with local and national partners, to ensure we fully understand the impacts and the ramifications of the White House’s actions and rhetoric. One thing is clear: WE stands firmly on the side of equity and opportunity for all. Every single one of us should have a fair chance at accessing opportunity.
Through our new campaign, For the Common Good, Women Employed will break down the important issues emerging under this administration that affect working women and their families — including the roles and the work of key federal agencies, departments, and programs in the lives of Illinoisians — and actions YOU can take to make an impact.
