Walters seeks common ground to advance women’s issues in leadership role on caucus

As the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues prepares to celebrate its 40^th anniversary, a bipartisan group of women members aim to tackle topics like combating human trafficking and helping women to advance in the workplace.

“We truly want to find areas where we can work together and move the ball forward and really speak as one voice for women,” U.S. Rep. Mimi Walters (R-CA), vice chair of the caucus, said in a recent interview with The Ripon Advance.

Walters will work closely with U.S. Reps. Susan Brooks (R-IN) and Lois Frankel (D-FL) who are co-chairing the caucus this year.

Members are optimistic that common ground can be found on the need to support victims of human trafficking. U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO) recently introduced a bipartisan bill, the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act, which would allow victims of human trafficking to petition courts to have their non-violent criminal records cleared. Original co-sponsors of the bill include Walters and Brooks, along with U.S. Reps. Barbara Comstock (R-VA), Kristi Noem (R-SD) and Diane Black (R-TN).

Economic issues will also top the list of priorities for the caucus with the goal of putting more women back to work.

Walters is currently crafting a bill on creating more flexibility in the workplace. She would like to see businesses be given incentives for allowing women to pursue non-traditional work arrangements that leverage technology so they can better balance the demands of their jobs with the needs of their families.

Strengthening women’s financial security is another area members will likely emphasize. “Often you have women who don’t pay the bills in the house and maybe aren’t educated in terms of money and we need to make sure that women understand the financial side of having security,” she said.

The House got off to a strong start this year by advancing a number of bills that benefit women and girls and help drive innovation.

The House recently approved legislation that was led by Comstock to encourage women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.

The Inspiring the Next Space Pioneers, Innovators, Researchers and Explorers (INSPIRE) Women Act would authorize NASA to help women and girls pursue careers that will further advance America’s space science and exploration efforts. The bill passed the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on Thursday.

“We don’t have a lot of young women that are involved in engineering and the sciences,” Walters said. “We need to get them more involved because there is such a huge opportunity in those fields for jobs and the more we can get women involved in that area, the better off we’re going to be.”

Women make up about 50 percent of the workforce, but less than 25 percent of the workforce in STEM professions.

Hoping to change that, U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-CT) also won House approval for a bill she sponsored known as the Women in Entrepreneurship Act. That legislation authorizes the National Science Foundation to recruit and support women to extend their focus beyond the laboratory and into the commercial world.

The Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues, founded in 1977, has advocated on a vast array of issues to improve the lives of women and families. In the past, the caucus has been a leading force for a strong Violence Against Women Act and for the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

“When we talk about women’s issues, really all issues are women’s issues,” Walters said. “I think sometimes there is a tendency for people to pigeonhole women and to talk about traditional women’s issues. We’re seeing more women entrepreneurs and more women who are the breadwinners in their families.”