Is a Biden presidency good for women?

On Wednesday, January 27 at 19:30 GMT:
US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have announced the formation of a ‘White House Gender Policy Council’ they say is aimed at fighting for the rights of women and girls across the world.

The council will guide government policy in a broad range of ways, according to a statement, and will focus on economic security, health care, racial justice, gender-based violence and foreign policy.

“Too many women are struggling to make ends meet and support their families, and too many are lying awake at night worried about their children’s economic future,” Biden said. “This was true before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the current global public health crisis has made these burdens infinitely heavier for women all over this country.”

The initiative comes after a year in which the coronavirus had a devastating impact on women. In September last year, four times as many women as men dropped out of the US labour force. Critics of the Trump administration said its policies, such as restricting equal pay rules, limiting access to reproductive health care and reducing international aid budgets, also hurt women.

We’ll speak to a panel of women to ask what the policy priorities of the new administration should be.

In this episode of The Stream, we are joined by:
Seema Jalan, @UnivAccessProj
Executive Director, Universal Access Project, United Nations Foundation

Fatima Goss Graves, @FGossGraves
President & CEO, National Women’s Law Center

Dr Milly Kaggwa, @KaggwaMilly
Senior Clinical Advisor for Africa & the Globe, PSI