2. Reducing Violence Against Women and Girls
At each Tour stop participants discussed the violence women and girls face at school and at home. Mothers and adolescent girls described school climates where young people fear for their own safety and where administrators do not do enough to enforce sexual harassment policies. Throughout the state, domestic and sexual violence is an escalating problem. Nearly 10,000 forcible rapes were reported to law enforcement in California in 2003. In addition to finding ways to prevent violence from occurring, Tour participants emphasized the need for law enforcement agencies to improve how they respond to the victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. For example, it is well recognized that a batterer can be prosecuted for violating a Family Court restraining order.12 Yet, according to a statewide database, in some counties up to 50 percent of these orders have never been served by law enforcement.13 Women also emphasized the need for outreach to undocumented residents about available domestic violence services and for family violence prevention programs that teach adolescent boys and girls.
3. Ensuring Women’s Economic Security
The problems California women face in making ends meet were a recurring theme in every city. Tour participants focused on the need for a living wage, economic equity and access to jobs that pay higher wages. They had a solid understanding of the causes of the slow, steady decline in earning power experienced by a large population of women who are identified as “working poor.” The need for a living wage is driven, in part, by the high cost of living in California. A nationally developed Self-Sufficiency Standard estimates that in California a single parent with a preschooler must earn $12.50 an hour to be economically self-sufficient — almost double the state minimum wage of $6.75. In one-third of California counties, these families require an hourly wage above $15 per hour to make ends meet. The fact that many women are in low-paying, dead-end jobs compounds the problems they face meeting a higher cost of living. Among poor women between the ages of 25 and 59, 36 percent work, 25 percent have a working husband and 25 percent rely on public assistance as their main income source.
