Issue Position: Women

Issue Position

I know what its like to raise children as a single mother and struggle to provide for your family. I understand the fear and joy that come with seeing your children grow up and have families of their own. I also know the challenges and the rewards that come with being a working woman in the world today.

When I started working as a public servant I did so as a concerned resident and a single mother. I wasn't groomed to be a politician and I certainly wasn't looking to advance my own career and agenda. I wanted to help people; I wanted to give back.

Although we have come a long way in terms of equality for women, women still make a fraction of what men make while doing the same job. That is unfair and unacceptable. In Congress, I worked hard to ensure equal pay for women by supporting the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that was signed by President Obama and provided relief for women who were facing pay discrimination in the workplace. I also supported the Paycheck Fairness Act that put gender discrimination on par with other types of discrimination.

I have strongly opposed efforts to take away a woman's right to choose, including the Stupak amendment that forces women to add a separate supplement to their health insurance plans to covers abortion services. This amendment significantly limits a women's right to choose and effectively eliminates the right of low- and moderate-income women to choose.

In the State Senate, I became the first female ever in the state of Illinois to hold the role of Senate Majority Leader. I supported funding for domestic violence victims and founded an organization to assist those trying to establish their independence. I fought to ensure Illinois parents have access to a vaccination for a virus that causes cervical cancer in women. Access to the vaccination will keep many adult women from having to battle cervical cancer. Unfortunately, far too many lose that battle--a battle they never had to have in the first place had they had access to the vaccination.

I will continue to fight to ensure my children and grandchildren have more opportunities than I had, just like women that came before us made it possible for our generation of women to live their dreams.

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