Chicago Women Take Action Agenda

Chicago Women Take Action (CWTA) is a diverse group of women from the Chicago area working to better the lives of women, their families, and communities. The Women’s Agenda reflects our vision and values, focusing on ten major issue areas.  It addresses each issue area separately, while tying them together as parts of a system we know needs radical change–a system structured by economic class and relying on gender and racial inequity. We are committed to addressing the pervasive inequity that defines every aspect of women's lives, and therefore we directly speak to its impact within each issue in this agenda. 

The political forces at work today are heightening the need for action in all of the issues we address.  CWTA will respond with the urgency required. 

How we framed the agenda:

  • We highlight the issues in terms of women and their families.

  • All of the issues in the Agenda are critical–the order in which they are listed does not imply priorities or importance.  At any given time, one area may demand a special focus for action.

  • Each section of the agenda includes a brief issue description along with action steps for making progressive change.

Our intention is that the Agenda’s positions will guide the activities of CWTA and serve as the basis for coalition activities with other progressive organizations. In addition to laying out the argument for change, we think the agenda can help build unity and foster collective action. 

Working together we can create a better city, county, state, and nation.

1. SAFEGUARD DEMOCRACY

Democracy is under attack. The right to vote is being undermined by actions that: restrict who can vote, gerrymander districts to diminish the power of the vote, limit voting hours, reduce voting places, and create doubt about the election process itself.

The fight for democracy is urgent. The only way we can achieve what we want for ourselves and our families is to have a government that we elect through free and fair elections.

We support methods that expand all eligible voters’ ability and access to voting. including mail-in ballot, early voting, accessible and available voting locations and drop-boxes. We oppose all types of voter suppression and intimidation and understand that it is specifically and most often aimed at voters in communities of color.     

Potential Actions

  • Support approaches to facilitate voting e.g. mail-in ballots, early voting, expanded voting hours, convenient voting locations and drop boxes, and clear and accurate information about when and how to vote.

  • Inform and encourage women and their families to vote on issues that impact their lives.

  • In the long term, abolish the electoral college and the filibuster rule.

2. ENSURE AFFORDABLE AND COMPREHENSIVE HEALTHCARE FOR ALL 

Today health care is expensive and inequitably available. We work for a healthcare system that asserts healthcare as a human right, acknowledges the government’s role in achieving universal coverage and equitable care, and specifically addresses the root causes of the unacceptably wide racial disparities in health outcomes—outcomes ranging from infant and maternal death to overall life expectancy. 

Right now, reproductive health care–especially abortion, contraception, and fertility services–is under attack as a result of the Supreme Court Dobbs decision.  We must work urgently to ensure that people get the care they need and fight for legislation that codifies reproductive justice at the national level.

We strongly support public health as the anchor of the healthcare system, as it acts to protect us all by promoting equity, monitoring health outcomes, and enforcing health laws.

Potential Actions

  • Work for passage of the Women’s Health Protection Act or the equivalent.

  • Support national legislation that assures universal coverage--healthcare for all--and lowers costs.

  • Support legislation that assures access to comprehensive care, including reproductive, dental, mental health, vision, elder care services, and long term care in all communities, both urban and rural.

  • Promote health equity by supporting programs and services aimed at reducing health disparities.

  • Support increased funding for public health, research, and planning to address chronic, acute, and emerging infectious diseases.

3. BUILD HIGH QUALITY PUBLIC EDUCATION AT ALL LEVELS 

All students have a fundamental right to a high-quality education. Federal, state, and local funding formulas have created huge disparities in the quality of and access to all levels of education between public and private systems and among different communities.  Local funding systems, largely dependent on real estate taxes, are at the root of structural inequality. As a result, poorer communities, many of which have predominantly Black and Brown residents, or are in rural communities, have a lower quality education, student services, and outcomes. At the same there is a trend to disinvest in public education by reducing funding and using public funds to support students in private schools through vouchers, tax benefits, etc. 

It is imperative to fully commit to re-building public education and restructure the systems that produce and perpetuate inequities in all students’ access to quality education and support services.  These services must recognize the range of experiences, histories and abilities of individuals in all races and ethnicities, women, the LGTBQ communities, those with disabilities and family circumstances.

Potential Actions

  • Work to expand local, state and federal funding for public education at all levels and change the way schools are funded, e.g. eliminate the property tax as the primary source of revenue and the policies that use public resources to fund private schools at the expense of public ones, e.g. vouchers and tax credits; and support the evidence-based funding formula in Illinois, etc. 

  • Work to expand services that students need to succeed, directly and through partnerships, including affordable and accessible pre-K and after school programs, tutoring, mentoring, physical and mental health care, and internships.  

  • Support increased financial aid or free access to post-secondary education and training and student loan forgiveness, for vocational, technical and college programs. 

  • Support highly effective instructional teams at all schools including full staffing and on-going comprehensive training and development to enable them to meet the needs and aspirations of diverse student bodies.

  • Provide safe and welcoming schools for all students that prevent bullying, discrimination, and violence.

4. ENSURE PERMANENT AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR ALL

Stable, affordable housing is fundamental for the physical, mental, and economic well-being of women and their families. Approximately 135,000 people live in public housing in Chicago and another 68,000 people are homeless. The vast majority of the 250,000 individuals or heads of households who typically apply for public housing or housing vouchers each year are women. 

Quality affordable housing is also a key element in the development and sustainability of our communities, which anchor the quality of our lives.

Potential Actions

  • Support the use of city, state, and federal funds for building and sustaining affordable housing, provide rental subsidies, and ensure the availability of necessary social, employment, and health services. 

  • Expand and strengthen the enforcement of anti-discrimination laws.

  • Ensure that permanent affordable housing, both rented and owned, is protected from speculation and market forces.

5. ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Greenhouse gasses, carbon dioxide, poisonous industrial waste, and disaster-creating practices continue to damage the environment and are major causes of the climate change that threatens our planet.  At the same time and more immediately, the impacts of pollution and climate change on health and well-being are unequal, disproportionately affecting economically disadvantaged communities, especially those of color.  

Local, state, and national policies that regulate pollution, waste, noise, and the location of hazardous land-uses have failed to protect these communities. Actions grounded in environmental justice and the creation of sustainable communities should be at the forefront of the environmental agenda. All actions should minimize and mitigate negative unintended consequences.

Potential Actions

  • Monitor and provide input on Chicago’s climate action planning, with particular attention to the equitable expansion of access to clean energy and energy efficient infrastructure. This includes passage of the Clean and Affordable Buildings Ordinance (CABO) which sets standards for indoor air quality. 

  • Keep the Illinois Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) strong by monitoring legislation that would weaken its provisions and encouraging legislators to ensure the Act is fully funded

  • Monitor federal efforts to fund public infrastructure, ensuring that it is appropriately spent in the most impacted communities first and supports reducing greenhouse gas emissions

  • Work to assure that everyone has access to clean water within their homes.

  • Support efforts to ensure that all disadvantaged communities can take advantage of innovative solutions to improving the environmental quality and the benefits of a green economy.

6. ENSURE ECONOMIC JUSTICE

Economic justice is critical to empowerment and democracy. Capitalism has created economic injustice. Privatization and maximization of profit have devalued our public institutions and our human rights. Resistance to fair taxation, especially by the top 1% of wealth holders, has exacerbated inequalities of tremendous proportions.

Black, Indigenous, and other people of color in America have been particularly exploited by private and government policies that have perpetuated structural racism, denied them land and homeownership, and devalued their homes, businesses and communities through redlining. 

The pandemic has laid bare the uber-exploitation of working people including those in the gig economy, who are denied even the most meager of benefits. These are the people who kept us safe and our economy moving during the worst of COVID 19.  While the wealthy have gained more wealth during the pandemic many working people on the front lines are being denied increased compensation for their service. Women have been especially impacted.

Potential Actions

  • Enact nationwide minimum wage laws that guarantee a living wage – one that ensures that a single job provides income adequate to access housing, education, good food, and leisure.

    Mandate that anyone who works for a company providing a service or product is treated as an employee, entitled to benefits, pensions, healthcare vacation and sick time, and all other entitlements.

    Decrease or end regressive taxes and increase the income tax at federal and state levels for those making over $250,000 - $400,000 per year. Support tax reform that reduces the wealth gap by eliminating loopholes and taxing wealth and not just income.

    Commit national and local resources to rebuild communities; support reinvestment in the people and communities decimated by racism.

7. ENACT COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM

Current immigration policies harm both undocumented residents and their families – of the 1.8 million immigrants, an estimated 400,000 do not have legal status. The lack of legal status endangers the immigrants and their families and undermines fights for economic justice, too often dividing workers, intimidating those without papers, and lowering wages. 

Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in deportations, which continue to tear apart families and create fear and misery among those left behind. To end the exploitation and suffering, comprehensive reform that reunites families, protects asylum seekers, and provides a pathway to citizenship for undocumented individuals is more essential than ever. 

More than ever we see the right-wing using immigration to further its racist agenda, and it has made it impossible for the federal government to pass any meaningful reform legislation. Cities, like Chicago, are struggling to respond to the crisis without the necessary federal support or leadership.  

Potential Actions

  • Support  comprehensive immigration reform, including provisions for asylum for refugees.

  • Advocate protection for undocumented people and DACA recipients and create a pathway to citizenship in the US. 

  • End family separation and the incarceration of children. 

  • Support an Increase in the number of visas for nations of non-European origin. 

  • Prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. (delete - does this fit in #2 - End Discrimination

  • End the use of private prisons and  private detention centers. (should this be in #8 below - or make it specific to refugees.

8. RETHINK AND REFORM THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

The history of ‘criminal justice’ has prioritized the protection of private property and owners, and has a deeply rooted history maintaining slavery and Jim Crow laws, and in suppressing progressive actions, labor organizing, and civil rights movements.  The structure of the system continues to perpetuate, and often exacerbate racism and inequality through disproportionate incarceration and sentencing of people of color,  use of force and warrantless violence, cash bail, and restrictions on those who served their prison sentences.  At the same time, police union contracts protect officers from prosecution and accountability for wrongful and criminal conduct.

 Potential Actions

  • Build effective civilian oversight and accountability of the Chicago Police Department by supporting full implementation of the Empowering Communities and Public Safety Act of 2021 and the enforcement of the Federal Consent Decree for Police Accountability, elimination of Qualified Immunity, and streamlining the disciplinary process for police misconduct, and inclusion of these provisions in the police contract. 

  • Support implementation of the Illinois 2021 Criminal Justice Reform Act and subsequent state laws signed in 2021 that eliminate cash bail,allow resentencing, amend the felony murder rule, provide  for the de-certification of police officers who engage in misconduct,, provide rights for pregnant prisoners, eliminate mandatory sentencing, ensure use of faire interrogation practices for adults and minors and encourage use of restorative justice. 

  • Support making prisons places of restitution and renewal,by  allowing incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people to vote and increasing access to housing, employment, healthcare, and transition services. 

  • Eliminate privatized prisons.

9. GUN VIOLENCE - PROTECT WOMEN AND THEIR FAMILIES

There are over 18,000 homicides and 22,000 suicides annually in the U.S, and in 2023 there were over 4,543 shootings in Chicago. Now is the time to enact gun safety laws that outlaw assault weapons and make guns of all types less accessible. 

Potential Actions

  • Pass gun safety legislation at federal, state, and local levels, including outlawing assault weapons and making guns and ammunition less accessible and boycott stores that sell guns. 

  • Support community-led, anti-violence strategies and efforts to create safe neighborhoods, and increase private and public investment for services, education, mental health services, and  employment in disadvantaged communities.

  • Expand educational and rehabilitative programs in the criminal justice system.

10. PROTECT AND ENHANCE PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS AND RESOURCES

Women and their families thrive and have opportunities when the public sphere is strong. Much of America’s social mobility derives from creating and protecting public assets – education, public lands, public health, water systems, public transportation, roads/sidewalks, and other infrastructure that benefit us all.  

The public sphere has been under relentless attack for the past forty years. The privatization of schools, deregulation of environmental protections, dependence on private health insurance, the reduction of essential government services, including the weakening of the U.S. Post office, deprive us of the common foundation for building our lives and communities. To ensure a society that promotes social justice, we must work to reinvigorate the public sphere, prioritizing and providing full funding for our public institutions. And we must ensure that public institutions and buildings, transportation, sidewalks, and other public ways are accessible for all people, including those with disabilities.   

Potential Actions

  • Support the equitable implementation of the recently passed Federal Infrastructure legislation, including ensuring the availability of broadband and access to the internet nationwide.

  • Promote adequate and equitable funding for public services, including public transportation, public health, public education, housing, and other social safety net services.

  • Oppose efforts to privatize existing public assets.