Last June, Governor Brown proposed eliminating the California Commission on the Status of Women saying, “Given our constrained state resources, this reduction reflects the need for government to focus on its core functions. While the statutory goals of the Commission are worthy, I continue to believe there are other formal and informal venues for policy development and advocacy that do not require General Fund expenditures.”
California NOW couldn't disagree more with Governor Brown's statement that women's equality and empowerment are not core functions of government.
And while we agree that there are formal and informal venues for policy development, it would have been nice if women had been brought to the table when his Strategic Growth Council, a cabinet-level committee tasked with coordinating the activities of state agencies, had met to create and publish their Strategic Plan for 2012-2014. Instead, women were not asked to join the conversation and, as a result, Health and Health Equity indicators defined in the strategic plan do not include women.
Now the Governor, through a budget trailer bill, has proposed the elimination of the Office of Women’s Health with the creation of the Office of Health Equity. The trailer bill language shows once again the removal of women from government efforts to close the gap in health status and access to care.
Click on this link to read the trailer bill. Towards the bottom of page 8 and continuing on to the top of page 9, the bill reads…
"The State Department of Public Health shall do the following: 1) Perform strategic planning to develop departmentwide plans for implementation of goals and objectives to close the gap in health status and access to care among the state's diverse racial and ethnic communities and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities."
Women are once again not included.
When California NOW raised concerns, we were told that the Legislature would decide whether they liked the language of his bill. We were also told that legislation was a process.
California NOW and women across the state have been activated to join the “process”.
The truth is, when government does not believe that women's equality and empowerment are core functions of government, a consistent pattern in the creation, implementation and maintenance of policies and programs emerges where women simply are not included.
A gender-blind government creates gender-blind policies that the current trailer bills represent which violate anti-discrimination laws by maintaining a preference for men - a sex/gender privilege that provides real and concrete benefits to men at the expense of all women.
That's why we'll be informing the Legislature that they must insert women into the “Health In All Policies Task Force” and all other aspects of government.
We will begin by voicing our concerns at the senate budget health subcommittee hearing on Thursday morning (April 12th at 9:30 AM) where this topic will be brought up.
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