Millions of moms graduate from college every year. Women-owned Georgia businesses generate millions of dollars in revenue and create thousands of living wage jobs. Affordable child care for all working mothers. Women earn equal pay for equal work. All women live longer with access to high quality and affordable health care.
These are pieces of a larger vision for Georgia women that emerged during a late May meeting cohosted by the Atlanta Women’s Foundation and members of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute team.
Nearly 50 nonprofit and government leaders gathered to imagine what a brighter future looks like for Georgia women. One common theme: public policy must improve to overcome the barriers that limit opportunity for women in the Georgia.
Organization representatives imagined ways to overcome those barriers by writing a postcard from the future to picture a Georgia where all the structural hurdles that impede women’s success are dismantled. Convening attendees represented grantee organizations of the Atlanta Women’s Foundation. Their work collectively focuses on health and wellness, workforce development and entrepreneurship.
Most of the organizations work directly with people, but the gathering focused on ways to play an active role to change public policies to benefit women.
The GBPI team detailed proven solutions to some of the largest challenges Georgia women face, detailed in two GBPI reports: Women Working Ahead: An Economic Opportunity Agenda for Georgia Women and Laying the Foundation: A Wealth Building Agenda for Georgia Women. Those solutions are designed to:
- Close Georgia’s coverage gap through Medicaid expansion to extend health insurance coverage to all uninsured women in the state
- Make child care affordable and accessible
- Pass the Georgia Work Credit, a state Earned Income Tax Credit to provide a bottom up tax cut
- Raise the state minimum wage to $10.10 per hour to increase the incomes of nearly 500,000 Georgia women working in low-wage jobs
- Establish paid family and medical leave at the state and local levels
- Support state and local housing trust funds to increase and preserve home equity among Georgia women
- Bolster women’s entrepreneurship
For Georgia to reach its highest potential, everyone needs the opportunity to participate fairly in the economy. That means transforming Georgia into a place where all women and girls get the opportunity to participate, lead and thrive.
The GBPI team will continue to nurture partnerships and help empower organizations that serve women and girls.
