On International Women’s Day 2021, President Biden signed two executive orders to promote gender equality in the United States and around the globe.
Biden said in a statement, “In our nation, as in all nations, women have fought for justice, shattered barriers, built and sustained economies, carried communities through times of crisis, and served with dignity and resolve. Too often, they have done so while being denied the freedom, full participation, and equal opportunity all women are due.”
The first order reestablished the Obama-era White House Council on Women and Girls to the White House Gender Policy Council and will be international.
According to the Council’s co-chair, Jennifer Klein, a women’s issues aide under former President Clinton administration, said during a White House press briefing, “We are very inclusive in our definition of gender. We intend to address all sorts of discrimination and fight for equal rights for people, whether that’s LGBTQ+ people, women, girls, men.”
She followed up by highlighting the Council will focus on, “policies to advance equity for Black, indigenous and Latina women and girls of color.”
The second executive order was created to undo the Trump-era policy of protecting those accused of sexual assault and or harassment until proven either guilty or innocent.
It will make the Department of Education focus on their current policies to ensure, “an educational environment free from discrimination on the basis of sex, including discrimination in the form of sexual harassment, which encompasses sexual violence, and including discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.”
