The First 100 Days: A Call To Support Women Workers of Color & Civil Rights for Students

By Noreen Farrell, Executive Director, Equal Rights Advocates

In just one day, the Biden-Harris Administration already made progress on many of the crises currently devastating our nation, with executive actions restoring protections for LGLBTQI+ workers, requiring pandemic safety, protecting Dreamers, lifting the Muslim travel ban, reinstating federal DEI trainings, and more. Equally as incredible, our nation now has its first woman, Black American, and Asian American to ever hold executive office: Vice President Kamala Harris. It feels like a new day.

While we may no longer struggle just to keep up with new federal attacks on civil rights on a daily basis, there is a lot of work ahead for our country. We cannot go back to “the way things were.” The past year has exposed systemic inequities that cut even deeper than many of us realized. Beyond civil rights, we must address dire threats to the basic safety, health, and dignity of many Americans, especially women of color and their families. And we must face these threats head-on in new ways.

That’s why Equal Rights Advocates created a “First 100 Days” plan, centering essential women workers of color disproportionately harmed by structural inequities and COVID-19 and students threatened by civil rights rollbacks of the Trump Administration. The plan presents 20 concrete policy recommendations for the Biden-Harris Administration, prioritizing immediate COVID and economic relief for women and families; workplace and immigration reform; child care and paid leave; and civil rights for students.

Please join us: check out our plan, and sign our petition to the White House.

The needs of our communities are many, and the injustices against us demand redress requiring many hands. But I believe we have the right people in place to start this work immediately, with backing from new leaders who will champion our rights.

Noreen Farrell is Executive Director of Equal Rights Advocates, a national civil rights gender justice organization.