New Jersey Division advocates for and advances women’s issues
Today, the state’s Division on Women celebrates 45 years of service to New Jersey’s residents. On August 26th, 1974, then-Governor Brendan T. Byrne signed legislation that created this division, elevating women’s issues, women’s empowerment and women’s equality to a place where it would be state-recognized and state-supported. This was certainly progressive thinking and action for the time.
In 1974, the National Organization for Women was a fairly new and bold advocacy group that was challenging the patriarchy and protesting the status quo. Its core mission: to advance an Equal Rights Amendment that called for access to professions formerly reserved for men, equal pay for equal work, affordable child-care and body freedom. Sound familiar? These remain vital issues for women, their families and allies today, because even though Congress passed the ERA in 1972, it needed 38 states to ratify, or accept it, by 1982. Only 35 states ratified the ERA in the established timeframe.
In fact, to date, only 37 states have signed on (New Jersey was an early adopter in 1972), but that number includes five states that want to rescind their ratification: Nebraska, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Dakota and Idaho. This means that there likely will not be a constitutional amendment to protect women’s rights.
In part, that is why the Division on Women has spent the last 45 years advocating for and promoting the rights of women across the state, with programs and services that prevent violence against them, provide safety and healing for survivors of domestic and/or sexual violence, offer educational and training opportunities for individuals looking to achieve economic selfsufficiency and, deliver 24/7 referral and guidance on issues relevant to women and their families.
The outreach, support and referral statistics are telling. At any point in time, the Division serves, on average, over 500 survivors in its Sexual Assault, Abuse and Rape Care Programs, and about 275 new survivors each month.
In addition, for an estimated 600 displaced homemakers – individuals who, after serving as an unpaid homemaker for many years, must join or rejoin the paid workforce due to the separation, divorce, disability, or death of a spouse or significant other – the Division provides ongoing job counseling, computer literacy, certificate training and placement assistance.
The Division also offers an address confidentiality program for individuals who have had to relocate because of assault, abuse or stalking. This program limits access to personal information that would reveal the new location of a participant by providing eligible participants with a substitute address that has no connection to their actual location. The substitute mailing address can be used for government mailings, bills and deliveries.
The Division on Women is proud to continue the legacy that began more than four decades ago on Women’s Equality Day, a day commemorating the 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment granting women the power to vote. We also know – there is more work to be done.
As the Division on Women’s acting Director and as a woman and a mother, I am thankful for, and comforted in knowing, that the work we do, in collaboration with our partners and advocates, helps to strengthen women and their families, every day. We are honored to serve NJ’s residents in helping them to be safe, healthy and connected.