By Fatima Goss Graves, President
When the National Women’s Law Center started in 1972, women did not have the right to take out a credit card without a male co-signer, the WNBA was decades away from existence, and marriage between same-sex couples was illegal in all 50 states. That reality did not stop our work — it fueled it. We began our organization during this time. Since our founding, we have always been an organization dreaming about and working toward a world that doesn’t yet exist.
Right now, that world we want — where women and girls are treated equally, where gender is not a narrowing construct but an expansive opportunity, where girls of color aren’t policed in school for their clothes or hair, where we have full control over our bodies — may seem further away than most times in recent memory. I understand the outpouring of despair over Trump’s win. I do not wish to deny people’s despondency. It is a valid and natural response to finding out more than half of our country voted for a candidate who has been found responsible for sexual assault, who directly set into motion the overturning of Roe v. Wade, whose casual racism and sexism has softened the ground for dangerous policies, who now surrounds himself with people who hold women in such low regard. What does the future resistance look like when a plurality of people did not resist? When the majority voted for the candidate whose agenda is regressive, anti-woman, anti-Black, anti-trans, anti-abortion, anti-us?
To everyone who believes that women and girls deserve better than the vision for gender justice Trump set out, your hope for more was not naive, or unjustified. It is never wrong to aspire for more. Hope is a tool we use to create the change that today feels far off. And that hope you held — it is not lost.
We can take measures right now and in the months to come that will make a difference in the rights and lives of women and girls. Our work will necessarily be more defensive and protective, but no less important. We will need to reconsider what winning looks like. Much of our successes will be in limiting the worst of the worst, slowing down harm, and creating as much of a buffer around the rights and protections we do have.
We start that work today.
At this very moment, 40 Biden judicial nominees are still waiting to be confirmed. Sixteen highly qualified nominees have been waiting months for their Senate floor vote. They must be confirmed, along with the others in line. A dozen more judicial nominees are waiting for the Judiciary Committee to act. The Senate must fill all federal judicial vacancies before President-elect Trump and the new Congress take office. Confirming more judges with life tenure will be essential to fortifying our Constitution and institutions against illegal actions Trump or the GOP-controlled Congress take.
We can also demand institutions and elected leaders fulfill their obligations to act as a check on the executive branch. Congress, courts, businesses, states, municipalities, people in every corner of this country—together, we must meet this moment. Trump declared himself to be all powerful. But that’s not up to him—it’s up to us. We can influence how much power he has and how he’s able to wield it.
And while we’re largely playing defense on the federal level (and in some states), we can also explore exciting new opportunities to push gender justice forward in friendly state and local environments. We can build on Illinois’ model of making sure early childhood educators are paid a living wage, or replicate DC’s new law ensuring LGBTQ people have the same access to IVF and other fertility services as most couples. We also can capitalize on new gains in pay transparency, restoring voting rights and ensuring abortion access.
I understand the agony and the pain of this moment. But two things can be true at once. So I offer an additional truth: the arc of justice is long. It is staggered, full of agonizing setbacks and sudden leaps forward. Our vision of gender justice at the National Women’s Law Center started more than 50 years ago wishing and working for things we now take for granted. It is true our path just got harder and rockier, and it is also true we have come a long way. Although our vision for a brighter, more vibrant future for women, girls, and LGBTQI+ people may appear far off today, we will keep steadily marching toward it, slowly making progress. We always have, and we always will.