In response to the president’s March 7, 2024, State of the Union address, YWCA USA CEO Margaret Mitchell released the following statement: 

“Women—particularly women of color, who navigate the compounding harms of racial discrimination on top of gender discrimination—have lost long-cherished rights and supports that are essential to our empowerment and the elimination of racism.

In his State of the Union address, President Biden presented a vision of our nation that includes priorities YWCA advocates for every day in our local communities, state legislatures, and in the halls of Congress.

A future that includes: 

• Access to abortion and the full range of reproductive health care;  

• Access to affordable, quality child care that sets our children up for success and keeps women – who carry most of the work it takes to raise our next generation – in the workforce; 

• Strengthened voting rights for racial and ethnic communities who face steep barriers to exercising their most fundamental rights;

• Access to paid family and medical leave so that we don’t have to keep choosing between paying the rent or caring for an aging parent, ourselves, or a new child;  

• Pay for caregivers that actually matches their critical, difficult, and often thankless work; 

• Expansion of the Child Tax Credit, to help more parents keep food on the table and provide for their children;

• Stronger enforcement of the Violence Against Women Act to address domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence; 

• Common sense gun laws that protect school children, survivors of gender-based violence, and communities; 

And so much more.

We applaud the president’s decisive call to action for these and other measures needed to build a nation where women and girls can thrive. And we will continue to do the work to urge our lawmakers to join us in building that future together.”