Sharon Nelson is the Democratic leader of the Washington State Senate and represents the 34th District, which includes parts of Burien, North Highline, Vashon and Maury Islands, and West Seattle.
Sharon Nelson is the Democratic leader of the Washington State Senate and represents the 34th District, which includes parts of Burien, North Highline, Vashon and Maury Islands, and West Seattle. Courtesy of Sen. Nelson

Women’s Equality Day, August 26, honors the day women gained the right to vote in the United States. It’s a great opportunity to celebrate all that we’ve achieved as women in the past century. It’s also a chance to reflect on everything we still have left to accomplish.

As a voice in the state senate for women’s full participation in the economy, democracy, and their own reproductive decisions, I was disappointed last year to watch a slate of bills that would have helped women achieve full equality fail because some of my senate colleagues decided to stand in the way.

Some of our priorities that did not move forward included:

A statewide minimum wage of $12 an hour. Women make up two-thirds of all minimum-wage workers nationwide, and Washington State’s current minimum wage, $9.47 an hour, or around $19,700 a year, is woefully inadequate to meet basic needs like shelter, food, and transportation. The proposed bill represented a modest step toward a better quality of life for Washington State’s most vulnerable women and families. Unfortunately, Republican leadership in the senate stalled the proposal in committee.

The Reproductive Health Act. The RHA would have required all insurance plans to cover abortion care, guaranteed access to 12 months of birth control at a time, and updated contraceptive equity. This common-sense bill would have ensured that women who choose to terminate a pregnancy do not have to pay out of pocket for abortion care, which can cost thousands of dollars and presents an insurmountable financial burden for many women.

Closing the wage gap. Washington State’s Equal Pay Act has not been updated in more than 40 years, and it shows. In our state, women working full-time still make just 80 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gap that persists across all education levels, position types, fields, and skill levels. In Seattle, the pay gap is even worse: Women earn just 73 cents for every man’s dollar. Legislation to address this disparity, the Equal Pay Opportunity Act, would have made it illegal to pay a woman less than a man for the same work, and would have protected employees who ask about wages from retaliation.

Paid sick and safe time. A bill that would have mandated paid sick and safe leave for all full-time employees died in the Republican-led senate. Paid sick and safe leave is especially important to women, who are more likely than men to be responsible for taking care of sick family members or to be victims of domestic violence.

Meanwhile, a bill to require parental notification for minors to obtain abortions made it all the way to committee, highlighting the need to redouble our efforts to protect and advance the right to choose, and to elect and retain state and local officials who stand with women.

Blocking vital legislation that moves us toward gender equality while pushing legislation that moves us back in time is simply unacceptable. And frankly, backsliding is not the Washington way. Our state has long been a leader in protecting and expanding women’s rights. Washingtonians gave women the right to vote a decade before the 19th Amendment made it federal law. We also approved the right to a safe, legal abortion with the passage of Referendum 20 in 1970, three years before Roe v. Wade, and reaffirmed it with Initiative 120 in 1991.

This year, the senate's Republican majority faces a choice: Will they stand with women by supporting reforms that help women achieve full equality in Washington State? Or will they choose, once again, to stand in the way?