Melissa DeRosa: Women’s Equality Is A Public Health Issue

In this guest post, Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa discusses New York's effort to respond to the specific challenges women have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic — and what the federal government can learn from it.

Over the last six months, the COVID-19 crisis has laid bare what 51 percent of us already knew: that public health, economic health, and women’s equality are deeply intertwined. The federal government’s failure to prepare for and respond to the pandemic exacerbated the inequalities women face.

Now, we’re building back from this crisis, and preparing for the next one. Today, on Women’s Equality Day, the 100th anniversary of the certification of the 19th Amendment, it’s more important than ever for women to stand together and ensure we have an equal seat at that table.

In New York, we’ve seen the life-saving value it has when women are heard. Our state’s response to a gender-blind virus has not been gender-neutral.

Like every massive societal and economic threat, COVID-19 struck hardest at those with the least power. Though the virus has impacted the life of every New Yorker, it particularly hit those who were already disenfranchised, vulnerable, and overburdened – and in America, that means women, especially women of color.

When the severity of the virus first became evident and strict stay-at-home guidelines were issued, domestic violence rates spiked by as much as 30 percent in New York as women became stuck in increasingly dangerous situations. 

The enormous stress and powerlessness many of us felt while the virus raged was an acute challenge to expecting parents – I heard directly from pregnant women who were denied the support of a partner in the delivery room.

And the majority of essential workers who heroically and selflessly put their lives on the line for us were women – particularly low-income women and women of color.

Even today, as New York continues our phased reopening, women continue to bear most of the burden of childcare as schools remain closed, often while balancing the demands of a job. These issues are made worse by the dismissive, indifferent, and inadequate response from a federal government that wears sexism and racism like a badge of honor. While New York was not spared, our administration took swift, decisive action to level the playing field and support women.

To protect the rights and health of pregnant women and new mothers, the Governor issued an Executive Order requiring hospitals to allow partners to attend births, and I convened a COVID-19 Maternity Task Force of more than a dozen maternal health experts to advise the Governor. The Governor directed the State Department of Health to develop a streamlined process to accept applications from licensed health care facilities to convert unused space in their facility to dedicated labor and delivery spaces during an emergency – two such centers have already been approved.

To help the State reach domestic violence survivors and provide critical, life-saving services, we convened a COVID-19 Domestic Violence Task Force. Our policy recommendations were accepted and implemented in full, with the Governor directing the State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence to create a new model of survivor-centered domestic violence service provision, focused on mobile advocacy, flexible funding, and housing choice.

We stood up the nation’s largest testing program in New York, prioritizing frontline essential workers, and distributed personal protective equipment to workers across the state, so that the women who stepped up for us could do their jobs without unnecessary risk or fear. And today, as more workplaces reopen and we begin to settle in to our new normal, we remain committed to developing innovative solutions to employment and childcare disparities.

These actions, and the lessons we learned throughout this crisis, will be central to our rebuilding efforts in New York. We’re committed to using this as an opportunity to build back a more equal, and more equitable, state. 

It’s past time for the federal government to follow our lead. We need a Senate and a White House that will bring these same reforms to women across the country. But in Donald Trump’s America, it’s going to be up to us to make that happen – to “bring a folding chair,” like Shirley Chisholm. 

We’ve seen in New York what a government that has women at the table can produce – making our rights a top priority. I can’t think of a better way to mark 100 years of suffrage than by more women demanding a seat at the table and raising their voice this November.