While we have made progress, we must continue the fight to protect the rights of women and for fair pay at work.

We passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to do away with gender-based compensation discrimination and help ensure fair pay. Now we are fighting to ensure that there is equal pay for equal work.

Our state has passed paid family and medical leave and the nation should follow suit. We must also continue working to help make child care more affordable. We lead the nation in this respect but we’ve still got to keep moving forward.

In the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, I fought to extend the protection of this legislation to the most vulnerable women in our society.

We must continue to raise awareness of, and speak out against, sexual harassment in the workplace.

Working with women entrepreneurs, I helped pass a law to ensure women-owned small businesses have equal access to federal contracting. And we are continuing to push for policies that increase access to capital and funding for business counseling so we can grow more women-owned businesses.

After the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team won the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, I introduced the Equal Pay for TEAM USA Act which was signed into law by President Biden. The law requires that the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and sports’ governing bodies provide the same pay, medical care, travel accommodations, and coverage of expenses to U.S. athletes regardless of gender. Now when women win, they no longer have to worry that a men’s team will somehow be paid more.