“I didn’t run for President so that the dreams of our daughters could be deferred or denied. I didn’t run for President to see inequality and injustice persist in our time. I ran for President to put the same rights, the same opportunities, and the same dreams within the reach for our daughters and our sons alike. I ran for President to put the American Dream within the reach of all of our people, no matter what their gender, or race, or faith, or station.”
-President Obama, March 8, 2010
From ending the war in Iraq to increasing support for veterans to legalizing same-sex marriage to combatting climate change, President Obama has fought for humanity in some astounding ways. In specific, his presidency marks a progressive time for women. Here are a few of the many concrete steps President Obama has taken to ensure that women’s voices are heard in government and society. Although, there are far too many to note in just one article. And for that, we say thank you.
1. Combating Gender Stereotypes
Appointing two women to the Supreme Court and a strong team of women leaders to his Cabinet and White House staff, as well as launching a “career-life balance initiative” that removes barriers and increases support for girls and women in STEM, President Obama allows women the space to exert their intelligence, skills, and passion. He promotes women’s strength and capability in tackling both family life and professional careers because, heck yes Obama, a girl can aspire to be both a mom and a doctor!
2. Supporting Women in the Work Force
The first piece of legislation President Obama signed into law, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, restored basic protections against pay discrimination. The President continued to advocate for the Paycheck Fairness Act and Equal Pay Task Force, which gives women the tools and protection against unjust pay discrimination.
His policies provided tax cuts for working families and implemented a rule that insisted minimum wage and overtime protections for workers in home-care services, roughly 90% of whom are women.
3. Supporting Motherhood and Families
In 2010, the President’s Council of Economic Advisors issued its first-ever report on the economic benefits of workplace flexibility. Concluding that flexibility strengthens a company’s bottom line while helping workers meet the needs of their families and stay in the workforce, the promotion of flexibility would help working mothers nationwide. And while at work, as a result of the President’s Affordable Care Act, many working mothers were provided reasonable break times and private spaces to breastfeed.
Arguably most impressive, the President made a historic investment in Head Start, expanding access to childhood programs to 61,000 more children and their families in the first year, while also improving early childhood education. In the 2015 State of the Union Address, Obama comments on his promotion of childcare: “in today’s economy, when having both parents in the workforce is an economic necessity for many families, we need affordable, high-quality childcare more than ever. It’s not a nice-to-have—it’s a must-have. So it’s time we stop treating childcare as a side issue, or as a women’s issue, and treat it like the national economic priority that it is for all of us.”
4. Expanding Women’s Access to Quality, Affordable Health Care
President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, which led to a number of new benefits and protections for women. The act prevents insurance companies from denying coverage or raising premiums based on gender, forces insurance plans to cover a number of women’s services (mammograms, domestic violence counseling, HIV testing, etc.), and promotes women’s access to free contraceptives (for the first time ever!). An estimated 47 million women have received services covered by ObamaCare. That is 47 million thank yous to the President!
5. Allowing Women the Right to Make Choices Regarding Their Own Body
President Obama worked to protect funding for Planned Parenthood, a nationwide service for women’s reproductive health and family planning. He has consistently supported and defended Title X Family Planning clinics, which provide crucial health services to low-income families. Because the President should not stop me nor other women from handling our own bodies as we see fit (and it should stay that way).
6. Emphasizing The Role of Everyone in Sexual Equality
In a 2016 essay, Obama writes, “It is absolutely men’s responsibility to fight sexism too. And as spouses and partners and boyfriends, we need to work hard and be deliberate about creating truly equal relationships… That’s what twenty-first-century feminism is about: the idea that when everybody is equal, we are all more free.”
7. Expanding Opportunities for Women-Owned Businesses
The Obama Administration has implemented the Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract program, which helps level the playing field for women entrepreneurship in over 300 industries. Industries where women-owned small businesses are substantially underrepresented, so the program allows them greater access to Federal contracting opportunities.
8. Combatting Sexual Assault and Other Violence Towards Women
Because violence against women remains a pervasive issue, the Obama Administration has worked to protect women from violence on college campuses by helping schools, colleges, and universities better understand their obligations to prevent and respond to the problem of campus sexual assault.
The President also signed the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act which provides funding for nearly 1,700 shelters and service programs for victims of domestic violence and their children. It also supports the National Domestic Violence Hotline, whose staff answers more than 23,000 calls each month, linking victims with the resources they need to rebuild their lives.
9. Supporting Women in the Military and Women Veterans
With about 2 million women veterans in America, the President continues to fight for their access to comprehensive health services. As far as allowing women serve, the President eliminated many barriers for military service members, which opened over 13,000 new positions to women soldiers. Because service members should rise to their highest potential according to their individual abilities, rather than be held back due to gender.
10. Educating Girls and Boys Worldwide
“The good news is that everywhere I go across the country, and around the world, I see people pushing back against dated assumptions about gender roles. From the young men who’ve joined our It’s On Us campaign to end campus sexual assault, to the young women who became the first female Army Rangers in our nation’s history, your generation refuses to be bound by old ways of thinking. And you’re helping all of us understand that forcing people to adhere to outmoded, rigid notions of identity isn’t good for anybody—men, women, gay, straight, transgender, or otherwise. These stereotypes limit our ability to simply be ourselves.” – Obama, 2016
With the new president-elect and his derogatory discourse towards women, plans to take away women’s reproductive rights, ideas about women in society, and multiple cases of sexual assault, the reflection on Obama’s progressive presidency is as empowering as it is emotional. President Obama has fought hard to expand equality and social opportunity for women, but moving forward we must continue the fight ourselves. So, to my “nasty army,” I ask that the election of Trump bring forth the fiercest, smartest, toughest generation of ass-kicking women this country could possibly imagine.
Sources: whitehousegov.com, inquiresjournal.com, twistedsifter.com