Joe Biden comes out swinging on women’s issues
Two recently announced, groundbreaking White House initiatives are focused on bolstering a group of individuals that makes up more than half of the U.S. population: women. Indeed, with women accounting for most of the population, the Biden-Harris administration is claiming that United States cannot succeed if women are “left behind,” and that a lack of proper women’s health research is threatening “serious consequences for the health of women across the country.”
On the first claim, Vice President Kamala Harris this week announced the launch of the Women in the Sustainable Economy (WISE) Initiative, which is the latest step the administration is taking to empower women in the global economy. WISE accomplishes this by expanding access to employment, training, leadership roles, and financial resources across top industries.
Led by the United States, WISE draws on the resources of public and private sectors, aiming to promote high-quality jobs, support women-based businesses, and remove barriers to participation. Already, Harris has revealed more than $900 million in commitments in sectors such as clean energy, fisheries, recycling, forest management, and environmental conservation.
For example, PepsiCo has committed over $17 million over five years to promote women’s involvement in agricultural supply chains. Japan has committed roughly $31 million through 2027 to fund efforts across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East to increase women’s leadership in combatting climate change.
When it comes to women’s health research, the administration argues that women have been “understudied and underrepresented in health research for far too long,” which has limited our understanding of conditions that are particular to women or affect women differently. As a result, the United States needs to alter its approach to funding women’s health research to “pioneer the next generation of discoveries.”
For these reasons, President Biden this week established a first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research to be led by First Lady Jill Biden and the White House Gender Policy Council. According to Jill Biden, it is “unacceptable” that doctors cannot offer more answers because “there’s just not enough research yet on how to best manage and treat even common women’s health conditions.”
This new initiative is hitting the ground running, aiming to “deliver concrete recommendations to advance women’s health research” within 45 days, then achieve results quickly through a “targeted, high-impact approach.” As with the WISE Initiative, this initiative will also engage the public and private sector to “spur innovation” and “unleash transformative investment,” in the name of improving women’s health.
While Republican “leaders” are actively engaged in figurative and literal infighting, Democrats are doggedly focused on improving the lives of all Americans in ways that propel the nation forward. With such monumental differences between both major political parties, the importance of next year’s election cannot be overstated nor the need to vote overhyped.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month