Issue Position: Women & Families

Issue Position

Quick Hits

-Stephanie helped introduce the bipartisan Paycheck Fairness Act to help ensure equal pay for equal work.
-Stephanie passed legislation that increases funding for Women's Business Centers to help more women start and grow their own business.
-Stephanie supports paid family and medical leave and legislation to prohibit discrimination of LGBTQ Americans.
-Stephanie strongly supports women's reproductive rights and has consistently stood up to efforts to defund Planned Parenthood.

As a wife and mom, Stephanie believes in the importance of family and of creating a better future for our children and grandchildren. She knows that families are stronger when children go to good schools, parents have well-paying jobs, and seniors have quality health care. If we are truly going to restore this nation's middle class, then we must start by strengthening families.

It's time to put families first again, and that starts by ensuring both men and women earn equal pay for equal work. Women who work full time and year-round earn, on average, just 79 cents for every dollar men earn -- a yearly pay gap of about $10,762, according to the National Partnership for Women & Families. That means women and families in America, in total, are losing nearly $500 billion every year -- including the more than 15.2 million households headed by women. That's money that would increase income for working families and pump more money into our economy.

To combat this inequity, Stephanie helped introduce the bipartisan Paycheck Fairness Act in Congress, which would strengthen the Equal Pay Act and establish stronger workplace protections for women. Stephanie also helped introduce and pass in the House a bill to raise the minimum wage to a livable wage as women make up two-thirds of minimum wage workers.

Stephanie believes our nation must do more to support women and minority-owned businesses and help combat systemic barriers in our society that often prevent many of these businesses from succeeding. That's why Stephanie passed legislation that increases funding for Women's Business Centers, helping more women start and grow their own small businesses.

Stephanie is also working to pass paid family and medical leave because no American should be forced to choose between being there for a child or family member and quitting their job. Stephanie also supports measures that make childcare more affordable for more families, along with increased access to early childhood education like Head Start and pre-kindergarten.

At a time when women's health care is under attack in Washington, Stephanie is strongly defending the rights of women to make their own health care and family planning decisions free from government intrusion, and she has consistently stood up to attempts to defund Planned Parenthood.

Stephanie has also stood up for all families, fighting to strengthen LGBTQ rights by helping introduce and pass in the House the Equality Act. The Equality Act is a bipartisan proposal that would prohibit discrimination based on an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity in matters of employment, housing, access to public places, federal funding, credit, education and jury service. It would also prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex in federal funding and access to public places. The bill still awaits a vote in Mitch McConnell's Senate.

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