In October 2016, the Washington Post released a tape of Donald Trump boasting to Access Hollywood reporter Billy Bush that he would “grab [women] by the pussy.” Trump’s misogyny prompted a reaction from women around the world. Immediately after his inauguration, two million people — mostly women — marched in protest.
Trump’s sexist rhetoric is not singular; it is echoed in all of Washington. And in an effort to create a counternarrative, there has been a surge in the number of women running for public office after the 2016 election.
A’shanti Ghola, political director of Emerge America, a national organization that recruits and trains democratic women to run for office, says that the increase in women running came in reaction to Hillary Clinton’s loss.
“Woman woke up the next day [after the election] and said ‘Okay if not Hillary, then who? Then me. It has to be me. I have to stand up and make the changes that I want to see in my community,’” said Ghola.
Congress is currently 20.7% female, a figure that’s low for a record high. In 2016, only 237 women ran. But change is afoot: in November’s midterm elections, 481 women are running for 470 seats.
On the national level, women face deep-seated misogyny, but in progressive San Francisco opportunities are abound for women to claim their political power. This June, London Breed became San Francisco’s first black, female mayor, and over 50 percent of the District Supervisors are women.
Lia Salaverry, Political Action Committee Co-Chair of San Francisco Women’s Political Committee (SFWPC), a non-partisan organization that works to engage women in local politics, says that increased female representation in government leads to an increase in legislation focused on securing and elevating women’s rights.
“Having female elected officials matters because the world is gendered. We see the world through the lens of our own experiences, and women have unique experiences that they can bring to the table, and they will therefore champion policies that will uniquely cater to those experiences,” Salaverry said.
Two examples of local initiatives regarding women’s rights are Supervisor Hillary Ronen’s office of Sexual Harassment and Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) and Katy Tang’s Lactation in the Workplace Ordinance.
On September 13, 2018, Mayor London Breed approved SHARP, a new city department housed under the Human Rights Commission that will work to support to victims of sexual harassment and assault. Supervisors Jane Kim and Sandra Lee Fewer worked with Ronen to draft the legislation to create SHARP. They created the office in response to a group of women who came forward at a committee meeting in April of 2018 to spotlight San Francisco law enforcement’s inadequate treatment of and investigation procedures for sexual harassment cases. SHARP will help survivors file complaints against city agencies who have turned them away due to a lack of evidence, and will hold city departments accountable by publicly disclosing negligence in handling sexual assault cases. Accountability and transparency are at the forefront of their campaign to improve the response to victims.
Katy Tang’s legislation, passed by the Board on June 20, 2017, reshaped the norms and requirements around lactation in workplaces. The ordinance provides improved accommodations and hopes to create a destigmatized culture for breastfeeding mothers as they return to work after maternity leave. Employers are now required to have a space that is devoted to breastfeeding, which cannot be a bathroom. It must be safe and clean, have access to electricity and a place to put a breast pump and other personal items. The ordinance also requires new buildings to include these breastfeeding spaces.
Change is created when women’s issues are looked at as bipartisan issues.
“There is that moderate, progressive divide in San Francisco, but the one thing I love about SFWPC is that I can really sit at the table with women and talk about issues we care about and not make it about personal politics, which is something I wish everyone could do. That’s how you get stuff done in San Francisco; working across the lines,” Kelly Groth, president of SFWPC, said.
Despite the political leanings of Supervisor Tang, a moderate, and Ronen, a progressive, women’s issues remain priorities. Both SHARP and the Lactation in the Workplace Ordinance are clear examples of powerful women coming together, disregarding political ideology to make their voices heard.
While much of the ability to propose and pass women-focused legislation comes from having more women in office, male allyship is an integral part in the movement to elevate women’s issues.
“Men, especially white men, have dominated both the San Francisco and national political stage for so many years. Now that we finally have the first African-American mayor and have so many women running for office, we need men to step back. A male ally on the board is awesome, but it’s important that he understands how to have a seat at the table but not be the dominant person talking,” Groth said.
Male allyship is a crucial part of SFWPC’s mission. They want to support any candidate, regardless of gender identity, who is fighting for women’s rights.
Assemblymember David Chiu, a SFWPC endorsed candidate, proposed Assembly Bill 3118 after one of his legislative aids came forward about another assembly member sexually harassing her. Passed in May 2018, the bill called for an one-time statewide audit of untested rape kits to counter California’s rape kit backlog.
“Having a male leader promote and care about legislation like [Assembly Bill 3118] sets a precedent for other people in office to take note and importance to such issues,” Groth said.
Chiu’s allyship and legislation demonstrates a prioritization of women’s rights at the local level. It is a step that could be mimicked in Washington if more women are elected to Congress.
Ghola notes, “We are definitely in a time where more and more women are owning their political power. I disagree when people say that this is a wave. This is absolutely a movement. It’s a movement that we’ve been been waiting for in women starting to receive parity in elected office and having their seat at the table.”
Even in progressive San Francisco, it is still important to remember that there is more work to be done to achieve equal representation in government.
Salaverry points out, “There are a lot of trends in local leadership that still do disenfranchise the most marginalized people, women included. A lot of times we think that because we’re progressive we can be let off the hook, and that actually makes us more closed off to progress. It’s a matter of holding men, particularly men in power, accountable. It’s a matter of checking our own biases and backwards ideas.”
