By Kellie Campbell, Chair of the Vermont Commission on Women’s Education & Human Development Committee and Ellie Lane, Policy Analyst & Business Manager for the Vermont Commission on Women.

As families prepare for going back to school, remember the children and youth who are in foster care. While it's a hectic time for everyone, it can be particularly unsettling for children and youth who are not able to return to their birth or adoptive families.  The Department for Children and Families seeks Vermonters to step forward and offer foster, kin, or occasional respite care.

Speaker of the House, Mitzi Johnson has appointed Ashley Messier of Jericho to serve a four-year term on the Vermont Commission on Women (VCW), the state’s non-partisan commission working to advance rights and opportunities for women and girls.

The Senate Committee on Committees has appointed Sarah Mell of Winooski to serve on the Vermont Commission on Women (VCW), the state’s non-partisan commission working to advance rights and opportunities for women and girls.

As a result of the federal CARES act, the State of Vermont has announced new Economic Recovery Grants for Vermont businesses, which includes a set-aside of $2.5 million for women-owned businesses and $2.5 million for minority-owned businesses with zero - five employees.

The state’s independent non-partisan Vermont Commission on Women just released a new data dashboard report focusing on the ways the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately and uniquely impacted women.

Report link: COVID-19 Crisis and Vermont Women

In May 2020, the US Department of Education, headed by Secretary Betsy Devos, announced new regulations to Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, governing how educational institutions, including colleges and universities, respond to allegations of sexual harassment, sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.

Cary Brown, executive director of the Vermont Commission on Women, said the bill would not only benefit women candidates who historically have had to bear the brunt of child-rearing responsibilities. 

“That is one of the teeny little tiny steps we can take to shift the culture a little bit,” Brown said, referring to the adoption of the bill. “So the expectation is that parents are equally taking care of children and it’s not falling disproportionately on women.”

This conversation highlights COVID-19 response inspired policy changes to reduce income inequality with Rep. Emilie Kornheiser and Cary Brown of the Vermont Commission on Women and UVM Prof. Stephanie Seguino on WVEW’s Montpelier Happy Hour with Olga Peters.

This VtDigger piece by Elizabeth Gribkoff looks at the impact for women owned business, workers on the frontline, and in some of the sectors hardest hit by the COVID-19.

VCW’s Cary Brown is quoted: “We know where women are starting, which is that more of them are concentrated in low wage jobs, more of them are tipped workers.”

Read the piece here.