• Expand STEM and leadership pipeline programs in high schools and HBCU partnerships.
• Raise wages and support unionization in caregiving sectors.
• Fund incubator programs that address the digital divide within the Black community.
• Expand childcare subsidies: currently, a Black single mother with an infant and a school-age child spends, on average, 67% of her income on childcare if state-subsidized care isn’t available.
Civic and Leadership Representation
• Fund training and mentorship for Black Women running for office or professional leadership. • Require demographic reporting for government agencies and nonprofits receiving state funds.
Protect Vital Support Systems
• Maintain or expand Medi-Cal, CalFresh/SNAP, CalWORKs and mental health services. With over a third of Black families dependent on these, cuts would severely undermine survival and recovery.
• Research & Accountability
• Create a
permanent Black Women’s Equity Data Dashboard (modeled on the CA Black Women’s Think Tank). longitudinal studies disaggregated by race, gender, age, and region to track outcomes.
• Frame these protections in anti- racist policy
design— ensuring services reach those historically excluded.
• Fund
Leverage the Women’s
WellBeing Index for Equity-Based Budgeting
• Prioritize
funding to counties where WWBI shows Black Women underperforming on key indicators. • Establish regular WWBI-based audits for state programs to ensure improvements in health, safety, economic security, and political inclusion.
Target Wage Equity Through Legislation & Workplace Policy
• Expand pay-transparency and equity laws (e.g., the California Fair Pay Act) to include enforced reporting by race, gender, and job role to close the nearly 40% wage gap. • Strengthen promotions support: implement sponsorship and mentorship programs to raise the promotion rate of Black Women beyond the current rate of 54 per 100 men.
Close the Wage Gap:
• Mandate disaggregated pay transparency by race and gender.
Invest in Care Economy & Childcare Infrastructure
• Penalize companies that fail to meet equity targets.
17
CA BLACK WOMEN’S COLLECTIVE
EMPOWERMENT INSTITUTE
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