The following statement is from Professor Amy Nantkes, Member of the CEDAW Rising Advisory Board and the San Diego Commission on the Status of Women and Girls:
In May of 2022, San Diego County passed a robust CEDAW ordinance to ensure human rights protections for women, girls, and gender- diverse individuals in the County. Part of this monumental achievement was the requirement for an independent third party to conduct a baseline intersectional gender equity analysis of the County government as a service provider, employer, and community and business partner. The analysis layered countywide disaggregated Census data and data gathered from County departments at all levels.
The County’s Commission on the Status of Women and Girls advocated throughout this process for transparent, timely, and thorough data collection. Earlier this month, the completed report was recognized by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. It is our hope that this standard-setting, well-resourced, thoughtful analysis serves as an example to other localities in the US as they work to codify and implement CEDAW in their regions.
While we celebrate this moment in our County’s history, we also acknowledge that the report sheds light on the disparate impact of regional and systemic issues, particularly in the deep gender and racial/ethnic wage gaps, the high percentage of women working in occupations that do not offer them benefits such as paid family leave and affordable healthcare, and the high percentage of rent-burdened households. The results of this analysis also remind us that these disparities can only be solved through a structural, multi-sector approach.
From this report, we not only learned more about focus populations from an intersectional perspective, such as intergenerational households, recent immigrants, women who are 65 and older, low-income no-car households, women veterans, women with disabilities, and households with children under six, but we also note who is missing in the data—particularly gender-diverse individuals and undocumented immigrants. It became immediately clear that a first step must be to expand departmental data-collection practices with minimum standards and checks for accountability. The baseline is just that: a starting point to better understand who is served, who needs to be included, who needs further support, and which populations are not accessing the same quality of services due to gendered and intersectional barriers.
To read the Baseline Intersectional Gender Equity Analysis and learn more about its methodology, please visit this link.
CEDAW Rising 