In the wake of the many sexual harassment and assault allegations that have come to light over the past few weeks, women and our experiences are being placed front in center of the political and social dialogue of the nation. This could offer a pivotal opportunity for the advancement of women’s rights. Except for one thing—Republicans, especially the leader of their party who resides in the White House, truly hate women. And they’ve been working hard in the last ten months to make it even more difficult for women to report their experiences of abuse and discrimination.
The clearest example came in March. It received little coverage at the time. President Donald Trump reversed an Obama-era order that forbid federal contractors from keeping secret sexual harassment and discrimination cases. The 2014 rule prohibited these companies, which employ about 26 million people, from forcing workers to resolve complaints through arbitration, an increasingly common method businesses use to settle disputes out of the public eye. [...]
The attack so far has seen the most success via executive order, but a vast swath of the public policies proposed or endorsed by administration officials attempt to scale back women’s rights. From Trump’s repeal of executive orders meant to reduce pay discrimination to the budget floated in May, the failed repeal of Obamacare, and now the Republican tax bills, actions taken or backed by this administration harm women.
An self-proclaimed sexual assaulter who likes to grab women by their private parts without consent, Trump has at least 13 women who have accused him of sexual misconduct or assault. And his misogyny dates back decades—with very public battles with women who turn him down or call him out for being the vile human being he is. Not one to demonstrate restraint or subtlety, when he is challenged by a woman, he resorts to calling us fat and pigs.
It’s astounding how any woman could support this administration. And yet so many of them do. Even as he continues to do everything in his power to devalue our lives.
After the order on arbitration came in March, the administration in August ditched an innovative equal pay initiative launched by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Currently, women on average make just 80 percent of what men earn. And women of color face even wider pay gaps. [...]
In September, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos rescinded a key Obama-era effort meant to help victims of sexual harassment and assault on college campuses: A 2011 letter sent by the administration to colleges defining sexual assault and setting a new standard for how schools should respond to such accusations.
We know that the vast majority of women do not support Trump. After all, he came in third in the presidential election. Almost half of those who were eligible to vote didn’t (and that’s a separate more complex conversation since we can’t ignore the role voter suppression has played in many states). After that, more people voted for Hillary Clinton than Trump. But, because of the Electoral College, here we are. And, of the women who do support Trump, some of them are so very blinded by empty promises and rage that they refuse to care what he does. Even though it’s all so incredibly bad for women. And humanity.
Last week, when asked what he would say to women at this moment in time, Trump said:
“Women are very special,” he said. “I think it’s a very special time because a lot of things are coming out, and I think that’s good for our society and I think it’s very, very good for women, and I’m very happy a lot of these things are coming out. I’m very happy it’s being exposed.”
These are nothing more than lies and alternative facts. We know this because of all he’s done since he’s been in office to do the opposite of good things for women.
In ten years, what’s the story we will tell children about this presidency? How will we explain making all the strides we have toward gender equality and that, as a nation, we willingly decided to backtrack to the days where women weren’t protected under the law to report discrimination, weren’t entitled to pay equity and couldn’t obtain abortions? What a truly sad and terrible waste of America’s potential.
