Note: The transcript of this interview provided below has been edited for style and concision. For this reason, it may deviate in part from the video.
Melissa Boteach is the Vice President for Income Security and Child Care/Early Learning at the National Women’s Law Center. She is also a representative of the We Demand More coalition calling on Congress to provide relief for women on the front lines of the COVID-19 response.
Harvard Political Review: Can you describe the work of the National Women’s Law Center and your relationship to the We Demand More coalition?
Melissa Boteach: The National Women’s Law Center fights for gender justice in policy, in the courts, in states, and in our culture. … We work with partners across the country, both at the grassroots level as well as nationally, to advance gender and racial justice. [We] focus on women who face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. … I oversee our work on cutting poverty [and] on investing in early learning and child care, both as a work support for women as well as for the child care workforce. The We Demand More coalition is a coalition of over 70 organizations across the country who have come around a set of five demands, and the NWLC is one of those organizations. One of the roles we’ve played is we’ve been working with our parents to draft a letter … [that] laid out what we needed … to really fight this pandemic and to center the people who are most affected and who are on the frontlines, who are disproportionately likely to be laid off, who are doing the lion’s share of the caregiving at home — and that’s women, and women of color in particular. And so we … came together around this letter … and from there, we wanted to put some muscle behind it and we wanted to say this isn’t just a set of demands on paper, it only has life if we insist upon its contents. … Under the amazing leadership of Planned Parenthood Action Fund and UltraViolet and MomsRising and a number of other programs we work with closely, this [letter] took on a new life.
HPR: Can you speak more to what the coalition’s demands are, as listed on your website?
MB: We have a range of policy demands, but they’re organized thematically under five buckets. So the first one is to prioritize our health and safety ahead of corporations. This includes demands such as [that] we end carve-outs of paid sick leave and paid family medical leave — there’s no reason why everyone shouldn’t have those protections. … It also includes things like ensuring that people on the frontlines actually have workplace protections and PPE — personal protective equipment — and that basic labor protections like the right to form and join and participate in a union, to file a claim for sexual harassment or discrimination … that those rights are protected even … and especially in the midst of a pandemic. We also … include things like making sure that people understand that reproductive healthcare, including contraception and abortion, is essential healthcare … not just preventing some of the shenanigans that are taking place in terms of governors and lawmakers trying to actively attack women’s reproductive healthcare, but affirmatively taking steps to further and expand access to it both in the United States and around the world.
The second provision is to get relief to women and their families now. You know, we’ve seen women are more likely to be laid off during this time — they are concentrated in sectors like retail, hospitality, restaurant work, et cetera — and we’re seeing unprecedented claims of unemployment, as well as hardship. And so we’re asking … for just basics like increasing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — that’s formerly known as food stamps — by 15%, making sure we’re expanding resources for rapid rehousing, making sure that we are actually setting up our unemployment insurance system to be successful, not just during the course of this pandemic, but for the economic pain and suffering that’s going to follow it. It includes making sure that women and their families are safe — we know there’s a spike in domestic violence. A lot of women are right now trapped at home with their abusers, and so we need to provide $100 million in emergency funding for sexual assault services programs. We need to make sure that states have the resources that they need to help keep survivors safe. And then we also need to be releasing individuals in jails and prisons and detention centers who pose no public safety risk, families held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, pregnant women, [and] elderly people. … There’s no reason to keep people subject [to] these close quarters where they are more likely to be affected by the pandemic.
[You can find a full list of the coalition’s five demands on its website.]
HPR: Data analysis shows large increases in domestic violence rates during the pandemic. How does the We Demand More coalition approach tackling this issue in tandem with the reopening of states or the phase-out of stay-at-home measures? What should governments do to create long-term infrastructure to mitigate against this surge in domestic violence?
MB: Economic security and domestic violence are linked insofar as if you are unable to leave your abuser, that is going to exacerbate the situation. … I would defer to our colleagues at YWCA and other places [including the] National Network to End Domestic Violence … on the specifics of the funding streams and what’s needed to end domestic violence long-term — but part of the reason we’re advocating for SNAP, for affordable housing, for unemployment protections, [and] for workplace protections is so that women can have the economic security and stability they need in order to be safe. … That is one way in which this is all interrelated.
HPR: Amidst the pandemic, many states have taken action to effectively ban or severely restrict access to abortion, including by declaring it a “non-essential” service. Meanwhile, abortion clinics in surrounding areas have seen an influx in patients and the demand for abortion by telemedicine abortions is surging. How is the We Demand More coalition addressing new challenges to women’s access to abortion and reproductive health services more broadly in the time of COVID-19? What do you think this pandemic-era struggle reveals about the state of abortion as a political and electoral issue in the United States, and do you think that it carries long-term implications?
MB: This is not new. … There have been attacks on women’s rights and health and bodily autonomy for a very long time, and we’ve seen a trend of, during times of crisis … many conservatives who are foes of abortion access [who will] say “Don’t waste the opportunity.” And so, I think that’s one of the reasons why you’re seeing increased attacks on women’s reproductive rights and health right now. And what we can do about it — I mean, we need to be actually investing in reproductive health and rights. We [at the NWLC] right now are also thinking about the Title IX rule that came out today, we’re thinking about the birth control case in front of the Supreme Court — all these issues are linked. And so the NWLC and our partners across the women’s movement are very focused also on reproductive justice, as it’s linked up to a whole range of other issues because abortion is healthcare and it shouldn’t be stigmatized; it shouldn’t be made to be some non-essential service. This is basic women’s healthcare. And right now, when it’s under attack, we are not only going to stand arm in arm with Planned Parenthood and all of our abortion providers, we are [also] going to insist on better access to reproductive healthcare.
HPR: The coalition’s fifth demand is that Congress “Protect our safety and our right to vote in 2020.” Why is protecting women’s right to vote such a central tenet of this platform, relative to other demands about meeting imminent needs like healthcare and economic relief? And is there anything in particular about women’s right to vote that is imminently threatened at this time, with women on the front lines of the COVID-19 response?
MB: I don’t think you can talk about economic and healthcare relief without talking about the right to vote because the leaders right now who are crafting these responses need to be accountable to the voters. … And if people are unable to safely vote and to safely express their dissatisfaction or satisfaction with the direction that our lawmakers are taking the country, then all of those things are at risk and up in the air. We saw what happened in Wisconsin — when there [were] new COVID-19 cases when people simply went out … to vote. … [Voting is] a public health issue in the literal sense of [how] we want people to be able to safely vote … but it’s also a public health issue in a much bigger sense because protecting our democracy, protecting our basic rights and institutions … is what will allow us to hold our leaders accountable to actually contain this virus and to get us back on [a] strong [path]. … There’s new data showing that women are more inclined to obey social distancing orders than men are, they are more inclined to have caregiving responsibilities that make it difficult to vote … [and] they’re much more likely to be wearing masks. … Really, [women are] bearing the burden of keeping all of us safe right now. That both means that it’s especially important that their voices be heard in November and also … that we are making it as easy as possible for people who might be experiencing barriers [to vote].
HPR: At the end of the coalition’s letter, you write “The only way forward to prosperity for our country is to center the needs of women, especially women of color. Women will lead the way forward to an economy that works for all of us, and not just the privileged few.” Looking beyond the pandemic, what is the coalition’s broader vision for an economy that centers women’s needs in this way? And how people’s experiences living in this kind of economic system differ from experience under the current system?
MB: I think that COVID-19 has exposed cracks in our system that we’ve been saying have been there for a long time. Our country doesn’t really have a system of supporting caregiving, which is the backbone of our economy. You can’t have people go to work if you don’t have childcare, if you don’t have long-term services and support, if you don’t have someone to care for the sick, the elderly, [or] young children. … You’re not going to have basic state and local government services — the majority of those workers are women and people of color. So many of the services that we rely on are done by women who are underpaid, overworked, and not valued.
Right now, women are on the frontlines of this crisis — we are literally saving the country. We’re 75% of healthcare workers, we’re two-thirds of the grocery clerks, we’re over 90% of the child care workers, which includes [working] for the frontline workers so that they can go in. And I think that in the aftermath of … this pandemic, it’s not okay to just go back to a system where women are making … 81 cents on the dollar of men. It’s not okay to go back to a system where black women, LatinX women, native women, [Asian-American and] Pacific Islander women are all making significantly less than white men, and there [are] racial or gender disparities. We’re not going to go back to a system where the women who care for our children and our parents are paid poverty wages even as parents and families can’t afford their care because of the public system. And we’re not going to go back to a place where so many Americans were uninsured that they were scared to get testing or to get treatment in the beginning phases of this.
This is the moment for us to insist on building a stronger and more secure foundation … [by asking,] “What do we need for there to be equality, dignity, [and] bodily autonomy for women and our families?” And a lot of the things we put in [our] demands letter are … COVID-19 specific, but those would … be built upon in the new world that comes after [the pandemic], in an ideal world. So, for example, we’re asking for at least $50 billion for child care because I don’t know how these governors think they’re going to reopen the economies if there’s no one watching children, but I mean that’s what you get when you have lawmakers who have no idea what’s like [to be a caregiver] in these positions of power. … We have an ongoing campaign with many of the partners who are also part of We Demand More to actually build that [ideal] system. That means talking to the providers, talking to the parents — putting their needs front and center — lifting up the black and brown women, and the immigrant women, who do this work, [and] having parents and mothers tell the stories about what it has meant for their job stability … [and] economic security … when they didn’t have affordable and high-quality child care. And this was a problem before COVID-19, but now the campaign has taken on increased urgency and currency because people have seen what it is like … when our child care system is broken.
HPR: What is this coalition going to look like going beyond the current pandemic?
MB: It will remain to be seen. … We’re in the stage right now of the public health crisis, [and] we’re near the stage of accountability. We’re not anywhere near done, but there’s a much bigger women’s movement and infrastructure that we’re tapping into that’s been doing this work for a really long time, and I think we’ll want to imagine together what the next stage looks like, in solidarity with one another, and to respect the existing infrastructure and build on it to get to where we need to go.
HPR: Finally, how can people at home who are interested in doing so support the We Demand More Coalition and elevate your demands?
MB: I’m so glad you asked. You should go to wedemandmore.org. You can sign up there … and sign our petition — we’re trying to get 100,000 signatories. There are also opportunities to get involved in terms of specific actions, whether that is educating the public … calling your members of Congress or writing them letters … mask-making … [or] telling your story so that we can illustrate for lawmakers what this looks like on the ground and how it’s affecting real people’s lives and the policy solutions that we need for things to be better. So there’s a whole range of ways that people can get involved and be part of the solution and part of the campaign.
HPR: Is there anything else that our readers should know?
MB: When women are centered, everybody does better. … When you help women and especially, multiply marginalized women, the ripple effects of that help everyone. And if we want to build the kind of society that we want, that’s the path forward.
Thumbnail Image Credit: Creative Commons / New America