CHC CHAIRMAN GONZALEZ STATEMENT ON WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

(Washington, DC)- Today, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Charles A. Gonzalez issued the following statement on Women’s History Month:

“As we celebrate National Women’s History Month this March, and International Women’s Day today, we commemorate and recognize the vital contributions women have played in building and creating our society. We also commit ourselves to keep fighting for women’s rights and equality and recognize that doing so means upholding one of our nation’s founding principles: that we are all created equal.

We have worked hard to right many of the wrongs that exist when equality for women is concerned. The Democratic-led 111^th Congress championed many significant advances for America’s Women. We passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which restored the rights of women and other workers to challenge unfair pay and became the first bill that President Obama signed into law. The Paycheck Fairness Act, which would provide more effective remedies to women who are not being paid equal wages for doing equal work, was also passed by the House of Representatives.

Another historic achievement for women came as part of the Affordable Care Act, which ended the insurance company practice of labeling being a woman a “pre-existing condition” and thus prohibited them from denying health insurance to women all over America. Gender rating, the practice of charging women more than men for the same coverage, was also eliminated and new insurance plans are now required to provide free preventive services which are key to women’s health such as mammograms, certain colon cancer tests and hypertension screenings.

And Congress also took major steps to combat violence against women and to protect our women veterans. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided $225 million for Violence Against Women Grants for victim service programs to improve the criminal justice system’s response to violent crimes against women. And our women veterans were also well served by the landmark provisions in the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act which expanded and improved VA health care services for our 1.8 million women veterans and removed existing barriers to women seeking health care, care of newborn children. This legislation also enhanced treatment of sexual trauma for women at the VA.

We must also not forget the leadership roles that women now serve in our government. Most recently, Leader Nancy Pelosi became the first woman Speaker of the House, Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez became the first Chairwoman of a full House Committee and Justice Sonia Sotomayor became the first Latina to serve on the Supreme Court. There are also now a record number of women serving in congress with 93 women members serving in the House and Senate.

As the Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus I am proud to serve side-by-side so many trailblazing women and Latinas whose wisdom and leadership I consider to be invaluable. This month, I hope we all take some time to recognize and congratulate the women in our lives that have made us who we are, and recommit ourselves to fighting for their equality and full inclusion into our society.

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