With so many women’s rights under attack every day, it's a challenge to know where to begin fighting back. But JWI believes that ordinary people taking ordinary actions are what’s needed in these extraordinary times. Join us on this journey by taking small steps that can change the world. Our grassroots campaign – Ordinary Actions in Extraordinary Times – asks each of us to pick up the phone, write an email, read about the issues. You bring the will; we'll show you the way.

by Ashley Emery, JWI Advocacy Fellow

Ending the Gun Violence Epidemic

Gun violence continues to devastate our communities, schools, and houses of worship. It also constitutes a major threat to women’s safety: A woman is 500% more likely to be killed by an abuser if there's a gun in the house. Congress must mandate background checks for every person who tries to buy a gun, weeding out those with a history of intimate partner violence.

Legislation that needs your voice:

The Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act of 2019, and the Protecting Domestic Violence and Stalking Victims Act of 2019 are common-sense measures that could go a long way toward mitigating escalating waves of violence.

Advancing Reproductive Justice

Women are confronting an unprecedented barrage of extreme abortion restrictions challenging their constitutional right to safe, legal abortion. We cannot allow anti-choice politicians to squeeze access to comprehensive health care, gag doctors from discussing abortion with patients, or further disadvantage low-income women, women of color, and young women.

Legislation that needs your voice:

The Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) and the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH Woman) Act protect reproductive agency and ensure that insurance covers all reproductive care.

Combatting Gender-Based Violence

Last year may have been the "Year of The Woman," but violence against women remains an epidemic in our country. One in five women experiences sexual assault in her lifetime; every 16 hours, a woman is shot and killed by a male intimate partner; and more than 80% of Native women are victims of intimate partner violence, sexual violence, or stalking.

Legislation that needs your voice:

In April, Congress passed the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019 (H.R.1585). Tell your senators that it's (past) time to introduce and pass a companion bill.

Bolstering Women’s Financial Security

Women still only earn, on average, 80 cents to a man's dollar, and the U.S. is the only industrialized country in the world lacking universal paid family leave. The gender pay gap and lack of paid family and medical leave stunts women’s equality, economic stability, and career advancement.

Legislation that needs your voice:

The Paycheck Fairness Act and the Family and Medical Leave (FAMILY) Act were created to break patterns of pay discrimination, strengthen workplace protections, and guarantee paid family leave – all essential to achieving economic justice for women.

Holding Sexual Assailants Accountable

Survivors of sexual assault and harassment have ignited a powerful dialogue on consent and gender norms in our society. While women face dehumanizing rhetoric and misogynistic policies that normalize non-consensual sexual contact and discrimination, these dynamics perpetuate power disparities, inadequate protections, and wage stagnation in the workplace.

Legislation that needs your voice:

The Fair Employment Protection Act and the Raise the Wage Act can help dismantle systems that leave women vulnerable to sexual harassment and also maintain barriers to recourse.