Sen. Tammy Duckworth: Like You, I Know Working Moms Deserve Better
The day after President Trump's inauguration, when millions of women took to the streets in protest, I was right beside them, holding my two-year-old daughter’s hand. I believed the values of our nation—values that service members like me have always been willing to sacrifice to protect—were under threat. And like many of the women around me, I feared that, as president, Donald Trump would treat women, well, the way he’s always treated women.
I wish we had been wrong. But we weren’t.
From defunding Planned Parenthood to appointing judges who don’t believe in a woman’s right to make her own healthcare decisions, Trump has spent his administration working to undermine the progress generations of American women have made to build a more equitable society. And in recent months, his handling of COVID-19 has only exacerbated the challenges women already faced, with women of color being especially devastated by both the health and economic crises this country is facing.
Since March, millions of women have lost their jobs or had their hours slashed, while others continue to do the essential work—including caring for our children and the elderly—that has long gone unseen while being underpaid and undervalued.
But Donald Trump hasn’t lifted a finger to solve the problem, making matters worse with every action he’s refused to take and every inaccurate, offensive statement he has made. But in November, we have a chance to vote him out and elect a president who will make sure that systemic changes to improve the lives of women are part of our pandemic response and long-term recovery plans.
I believe Joe Biden will be that advocate for women. As a Senator, he wrote and championed the Violence Against Women Act—fighting for its passage for years until the bill became law. As Vice President, he helped President Obama pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which was designed to combat gender-based wage discrimination. And in the years since, he has helped lead the effort to end sexual assault on campuses across the country.
Last week, Joe released his plan for how he will build on this progress as president and make our economy fairer for women. That means continuing the fight for equal pay, investing in women-owned small businesses, strengthening pay and benefits in careers disproportionately filled by women, and building on the progress of the Affordable Care Act, including expanding access to reproductive healthcare.
America is the only advanced economy in the world that fails to provide access to affordable child care, paid family leave, and fair and flexible work schedules, and I know from experience the nearly impossible juggling act of raising your kids at home and doing your job well at work.
Shortly after I became the first U.S. Senator to give birth while serving in office, I needed to cast an important vote, but my daughter was just 10 days old, and rules required me to vote in person. So I brought my daughter to work with me—something I could only do because we had fought to change the archaic rules that prohibited infants in the Senate chamber and required a dress code that could have mandated my newborn wear a blazer. (I’m still unclear on whether the policy would have counted her duckling onesie as a formal jacket.)
When I was finally able to cast a vote in the chamber with my baby girl, Maile, on my lap, one of the first thoughts that crossed my mind was that it’s about time the Senate acknowledged that new moms can be Senators, too. But I also thought about the millions of parents around the country who struggle with the challenge of how to do their work and parent their kids at the same time.
My girls are now five and two, and every time I hear my younger daughter try out a new word or my older daughter read aloud from a schoolbook, I’m reminded just how lucky I am to have a job that doesn’t prevent me from being there for some of those firsts—a job that doesn’t require me to put my life on the line working double-shifts during a pandemic just to make ends meet for a company that refuses to provide paid leave or offer wages high enough to actually afford childcare. So this fall, we need to vote for a president who will fix this crisis facing too many women once and for all.
It doesn’t matter whether you vote early, vote by mail or safely go to the polls with a mask. It just matters that you vote—maybe even with your own baby swaddled on your lap.
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