Women

California is the proud home of pioneering women who have blazed new trails in business, entrepreneurship, culture and politics. We proudly and vigorously support a woman’s right to choose how to use her mind, her body and her time. Democrats respect women as full partners in family and society.

To demonstrate this respect, California Democrats will:

• Promote and support equal access for women of all ages to training, jobs and promotions, and equal pay for equal work, capital, equity and contracts;

• Promote and support affirmative action, the rights accorded to women in Title IX, the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, and ratification of the ERA;

• Preserve confidential, unrestricted access to affordable, high quality, culturally sensitive health care services, including the full range of reproductive services, contraception and abortion, without requiring guardian, judicial, parental, or spousal consent or notification;

• Support the programs of the Violence against Women Act (VAWA), including educational and preventive initiatives, especially those that serve women at risk of sexual and domestic violence;

• Promote and support universally available health screening and treatment programs for all women in California, including regular gynecological screening and early breast cancer detection, treatment and supportive services;

• Promote age-appropriate sex education in every public and private school curriculum in California;

• Promote and support available, high quality pre-natal and peri-natal services for all women and children in California;

• Promote health insurance and medical coverage of the full range of mental health services and treatment for women, including early screening and intervention for postpartum depression, and of supportive care, including substance abuse treatment, for women who are pregnant;

• Increase both parenting and job skills for women through available, comprehensive education and training for single mothers and women who were formerly incarcerated;

• Expand workplace rights for women including flex time, compensatory time and pregnancy and family leave in all employment contracts;

• Stand against human trafficking and sexual exploitation of minors both domestically and internationally; and

• Promote and support the engagement of young women in our political process in order to develop a pipeline for new leadership.