Women’s Rights -- We need to strengthen our pay equity law, maintain access to to comprehensive health care, and eliminate all forms of gender discrimination.

Natalie in India working with the Human Rights Law Network on a PHRGE Fellowship

In Massachusetts, women still only earn 82% of what men earn, and women of color are even more affected by the wage gap, with African American women earning 66 cents and Latina women earning 54 cents for every dollar earned by men. I will support legislation to strengthen our pay equity law, which would better defines “comparable work,” outlaws employers from forbidding the discussion of salaries between workers, and increases the fine for pay equity violations.

As State Representative, I will advocate for access to comprehensive health care, including reproductive health care and women’s cancer prevention, screening and treatment. I will fight to protect a woman’s right to choose. I will support adequate funding for vital family planning services.

We must eliminate all forms of gender discrimination and promote equal opportunities for girls and women. We need increased gender balance in leadership, in private, nonprofit, and government settings.

I have been an advocate for survivors of sexual and domestic violence for nearly a decade, as a counselor, medical advocate, teen educator, law student, and Board Director. I secured a competitive Rappaport Fellowship in Policy and Law, where I worked with the Governor’s Council to Address Sexual and Domestic Violence. I even travelled to India as the recipient of a Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE) Fellowship to work with the Reproductive Justice Initiative of the Human Rights Law Network, where I drafted legal briefs on access to maternal health care and homelessness prevention.

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