Activists share goals for new administration
NOW members hopeful Biden, Harris will address gender pay gap, protect abortion rights
“The Biden administration — the Biden-Harris administration — has got to change the national dialogue as well as reverse Trump’s racist, homophobic, nationalistic, misogynistic policies.” — Julie Storbeck, president of the Northwest Indiana chapter of National Organization for Women
Four years ago, women across the country boarded buses and planes to Washington, D.C., to protest President Donald Trump in the first days of his administration. Officials estimated that one million people attended the march, making it the largest one-day protest in U.S. history.
This year, things will look different as no national marches have been planned. On Wednesday, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn in as president and vice president, respectively. Northwest Indiana women are
ready to breathe easier but remain vigilant to continue to fight for women’s rights.
“(I’m) very excited, so relieved,” said Donna Beckman, the founding treasurer of the Northwest Indiana chapter of National Organization for Women. “Our approach to activism must continue with its push, it’s sense of power. We can’t get back into complacency.”
Overall, the Biden administration has to focus on instituting the Violence Against Women Act, address the gender pay gap, protect abortion rights and support women who have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, members of Northwest Indiana NOW said.
When considering what the Biden administration can accomplish for women’s rights, it can’t be looked at “in a vacuum” without considering what Trump, who will become a former president at 12:01 p.m. Wednesday, did in his four years in office, said Northwest Indiana NOW president Julie Storbeck.
“(Trump) has taken every single marginalized group and he has pushed them all further to the edges, some right over the edge, as he’s used his office to promote patriarchy and white nationalism. Where women … intersect with other marginalized groups women are further marginalized exponentially,” Storbeck said.
The Trump administration has “attacked every single pillar of NOW,” Storbeck said, which means the Biden administration will be expected by many to address reproductive justice, economic justice, gender violence, LGTBQ rights, racial justice and constitutional equality.
Many of those items can be accomplished by signing the Violence Against Women Act, enacting a new Civil Rights Act and passing the Equal Rights Amendment, which is a constitutional amendment that would grant equal legal rights for men and women, Storbeck said.
“The Biden administration — the Biden-Harris administration — has got to change the national dialogue as well as reverse Trump’s racist, homophobic, nationalistic, misogynistic policies,” Storbeck said.
The first thing the new administration should address, Beckman said, is supporting a federal law to ensure abortion is legal. This is particularly important, Beckman said, considering that under the Trump administration the Supreme Court has a conservative majority.
Addressing the gender pay gap is also important, Beckman said, to “ensure that women’s pay becomes equal for the kind of work that they do.”
The American Civil Liberties Union found that more than 2 million women have left the workforce since January 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with Black women and other women of color hit the hardest. The ACLU also projects that 40 million people face eviction once federal mandates end, with Black women facing eviction at twice the rate of white renters.
With that fact in mind, Beckman said she’d like the Biden administration to “roll out” programs to get women back to work. To help renters facing eviction, the Bidden administration could support microlending, which are issued by individuals rather than a bank loans with low interest rates, Beckman said.
“Those are quite helpful in highly financially stressful situations, and this certainly qualifies for that,” Beckman said. “The last four years got me a lot more contacts, gave me a better perspective of the tone and tenor of the community that I live in, and help me formulate some goals and action steps to further empower the community that I live in.”
Deb Chubb, of Michigan City, a board member of the state’s NOW chapter, said “the most urgent” step the Biden Administration should take “is to pass federal legislation that protects women’s rights to control their bodies, their health and their financial sustainability by controlling their reproductive lives.”
In the event that Roe v. Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court, which is likely with the conservative majority, the issue of abortions will be sent to the state level, Chubb said. In that case, Indiana will likely “outlaw abortions on, I’m sure, very strict guidelines,” she said.
In the coming months, the country is going “to be facing an avalanche of homelessness” in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chubb said. With a higher number of women facing the threat of eviction after federal moratoriums are lifted, the Biden administration will have to address the need there, she said.
Chubb also said she supports the Violence Against Women Act, which the Biden administration should sign. In Indiana, Chubb said she’d like the state to enforce consent laws, which would define consent and protect victims of sexual assault.
A new administration, especially with a woman serving as vice president, is “very exciting,” Chubb said, but Trump’s false election fraud claims and the recent riots at the U.S. Capitol have caused a “chaotic” transition.
“I’m still waiting to exhale. Hopefully, in a couple more days we can all exhale and get down to the business of fixing this country,” Chubb said.
While Beckman said she links the Trump administration with fascism, it did “a lot of good because we were pretty anesthetized as a country.”
“In this last four years, I’ve talked to more women in this region and had many, many, many more conversations about the true condition of our nation,” Beckman said.
Storbeck said she has confidence in the Biden administration, which has a diverse cabinet, will focus on women’s rights and gender equality.
“We know what their platform is, and they have made promises to women — and we will hold them to those promises,” Storbeck said.
“Anytime there’s anything in question, we will apply the pressure that needs to be applied to ensure what happens is what needs to happen.”