International Women’s Day 2014

International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900's, according to internationalwomensday.com. The first National Women's Day was observed across the United States on February 28, 1909. However, the tragic 1911 Triangle Factory Fire in New York City that took the lives of more than 140 working women, became a catalyst for subsequent Women's Days, which was already growing as an internationally celebrated event. Only days before the Triangle Fire, more than one million women and men attended IWD rallies in Europe campaigning for women's rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination.

On this International Women's Day, March 8, POPVOX is spotlighting a variety of bills related to women, internationally and in the United States. Weigh in on these bills on POPVOX and share with your friends and networks.

International Women's Day: Related Bills

Bill List Updated 3/8/14

Women and International Affairs

• HR 4112Equal Rights and Access for the Women of South Sudan Act: To require that activities carried out by the United States in South Sudan relating to governance, reconstruction and development, and refugee relief and assistance will support the basic human rights of women and women’s participation and leadership in these areas.
• HR 3398Girls Count Act: To authorize the Secretary of State and the Administrator of the US Agency for International Development to provide assistance to support the rights of women and girls in developing countries.
• HR 2947International Women’s Freedom Act: To express United States foreign policy with respect to, and to strengthen United States advocacy on behalf of, individuals persecuted and denied their rights in foreign countries on account of gender.
• HR 3583Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act: To expand the number of scholarships available to Pakistani women under the Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program.
• HR 3571 International Violence Against Women Act: To prevent international violence against women.
• S 1942 Women, Peace, and Security Act: to ensure that the US promotes women’s meaningful inclusion and participation in mediation and negotiation processes undertaken in order to prevent, mitigate, and resolve violent conflict and implements the US National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security. (And HR 2874 in the House.)
• HRes 19 CEDAW: Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Senate should ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Equal Rights Amendment

(Learn more about the history of the ERA.)

• SJRes 15 A Joint Resolution (And HJRes 43 in the House) to eliminate the deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
• SJRes 10 A Joint Resolution proposing an amendment to the US Constitution relative to equal rights for men and women.

Women in the Workplace

• HRes 507Women’s Economic Bill of Rights: Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives in support of a women's economic bill of rights.
• HR 2452Women’s Procurement Program Equalization Act: To amend the Small Business Act with respect to the procurement program for women-owned small business concerns.
• S 84 Paycheck Fairness Act: amends the portion of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) known as the Equal Pay Act to revise remedies for, enforcement of, and exceptions to prohibitions against sex discrimination in the payment of wages. (And HR 377 in the House.)
• S 168 Fair Pay Act: to prohibit discrimination in the payment of wages on account of sex, race, or national origin. (Allows payment of different wages under seniority systems, merit systems, systems that measure earnings by quantity or quality of production, or differentials based on bona fide factors that the employer demonstrates are job-related or further legitimate business interests.) (And HR 438 in the House.)
• HR 951 Women and Workforce Investment for Nontraditional Jobs: To promote the economic self-sufficiency of low-income women through their increased participation in high-wage, high-demand occupations where they currently represent 25 percent or less of the workforce.
• HRes 94 A resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding women's health and economic security.

Women in STEM

• S 1796STEM Gateways Act: To increase the participation of women, girls, and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields, to encourage and support students from all economic backgrounds to pursue STEM career opportunities.(And HR 3690 in the House)
• HR 1358 STEM Opportunities Act: To direct the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy to carry out programs and activities to ensure that Federal science agencies and institutions of higher education receiving Federal research and development funding are fully engaging their entire talent pool.
• S 288 Women and Minorities in STEM Booster Act: to increase the participation of historically underrepresented demographic groups in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education and industry.

Women's Health

• S 1696Women’s Health Protection Act: To protect a woman's right to determine whether and when to bear a child or end a pregnancy by limiting restrictions on the provision of abortion services.(And HR 3471 in the House)
• HR 3295Eliminating Disparities in Breast Cancer Treatment Act: To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to eliminate contributing factors to disparities in breast cancer treatment through the development of a uniform set of consensus-based breast cancer treatment performance measures for a 6-year quality reporting system and value-based purchasing system under the Medicare program.
• HR 2457Women’s Preventive Health Awareness Campaign: To provide for a national public outreach and education campaign to raise public awareness of women’s preventive health.
• HR 1675Ensuring Women's Access to Free-Market Healthcare Act: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to permit health plans without a deductible for prenatal, labor and delivery, and postpartum care to be treated as high deductible plans with respect to health savings accounts.
• HR 2030Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women’s Services Act: To direct the Federal Trade Commission to prescribe rules prohibiting deceptive advertising of abortion services.(And S 981 in the Senate)
• HR 1830 Accelerating the End of Breast Cancer Act: To provide for the establishment of a Commission to Accelerate the End of Breast Cancer. (And S 865 in the Senate.)
• SRes 60 A resolution supporting women's reproductive health.
• S 139 Pregnant Women Health and Safety Act: to impose admitting privilege requirements with respect to physicians who perform abortions.
• S 144 Pregnancy Assistance Fund Expansion Act: to authorize additional funding for FY2014-FY2019 for the Pregnancy Assistance Fund for grants to states to assist pregnant and parenting teens and women.
• S 333 Access to Birth Control Act: to establish certain duties for pharmacies to ensure provision of Food and Drug Administration-approved contraception. (And HR 728 in the House)

Violence Against Women

• HR 780Violence Against Indian Women Act: To authorize Indian tribes to exercise jurisdiction over crimes of domestic violence that occur in the Indian country of that tribe.
• HR 1836Protect our Native Women Act: To enhance training and cooperation between law enforcement officers to respond to and prevent domestic violence and sexual assault in Indian country, to swiftly bring perpetrators to justice, to commission a GAO study.
• HR 757 SAVE Native Women Act: To decrease the incidence of violent crimes against Indian women, to strengthen the capacity of Indian tribes to exercise the sovereign authority of Indian tribes to respond to violent crimes committed against Indian women.
• HR 629 Violence Against Immigrant Women Act: To provide protections against violence against immigrant women.

Women's History

• HR 2763Reauthorize the National Women’s Rights History Project Act: Reauthorizes appropriations through FY 2018 for the Votes for Women History Trail Route in the state of New York, the National Women's Rights History Project Registry, and the National Women's Rights History Project Partnership Network.
• HR 863Commission to Study the Potential Creation of a National Women’s History Museum Act: To establish the Commission to Study the Potential Creation of a National Women’s History Museum.
• S 398 National Women's History Museum Commission Act: to establish the Commission to Study the Potential Creation of a National Women’s History Museum.
• S 457 Alice Paul: to posthumously award a Congressional gold medal to Alice Paul, in recognition of her role in the women's suffrage movement and in advancing equal rights for women.

Please keep in mind that highlighting a bill doesn't imply a POPVOX endorsement in any way. Rather, we're simply trying to offer one more way to stay informed of an overwhelmingly complex legislative system.