Feminist Policy
We know more is possible when we work together. Women’s Foundation California is proud to be a longtime partner in coalition work across our state to advance racial, economic, and gender justice.
Policy wins are shaped and influenced by the steadfast work of our partners and allies across our network. Building solidarity across our communities is how we create new possibilities for our future and for the #FeministPowered California that we deserve.
Since 2003, over 600 fellows have helped develop and support numerous bills and gained invaluable experience navigating complex legislative processes. With over 50 of our fellows’ policy projects signed into law, and various resolutions and administrative wins at both the state and county levels realized because of our fellows’ hard work, we’ve seen how a single leader’s actions can have an enormous impact on communities.
Our Feminst Policy Wins
2023
Our dedicated State fellows at the Solís Policy Institute worked tirelessly, championing a total of four bills, and we’re delighted to announce that Governor Newsom has signed two of these bills into law: SB 474 and SB 521.
2022
In 2022, our Solís Policy Institute State fellows tirelessly championed five bills – four of which were signed into law. When intersectional feminist policy becomes law, we’re all winners. And we won big this legislative cycle.
2021
In 2021, our Solís Policy Institute fellows and Women’s Foundation California partners championed seven bills that made it to the Governor’s desk for signing and are now laws in California.
Our Coalitions & Memberships
A Stronger California
A Stronger California seeks to promote policy reform in order to meet basic needs and provide better income support, achieve fair pay and working conditions, support workforce development, encourage asset building, and ensure work-family flexibility and access to quality child care.
Memberships
Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP)
Bay Area Justice Funders Network (BAJFN)
California Association of Nonprofits (CalNonprofits)
Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties (formerly San Diego Grantmakers)
Funders for LGBTQ Issues
Funders for Reproductive Equity (FRE)
Northern California Grantmakers (NCG)
Southern California Grantmakers (SCG)
Voices for Progress
Historic Wins
Assembly Bill 2761 was signed into law on September 30, 2022
Author: Assemblymember Kevin McCarty
Greater transparency in the reporting of deaths of incarcerated individuals by requiring jails and state prisons to post information on their websites.
Assembly Bill 418 was signed into law on September 30, 2021
Author: Assemblymember David Chiu
This law compels police departments to seek local approval before buying or receiving funds to buy military equipment like armored cars and unmanned aircraft. This law advances the need for transparency from local law enforcement to outline what kind of equipment they plan to use and for what purposes.
Senate Bill 1393 was signed into law on September 30, 2018
Author: Senator Holly Mitchell
Restores judicial discretion to strike sentence enhancements for prior felony convictions.
Senate Bill 310 was signed into law on October 15, 2017
Author: Senator Toni Atkins
Makes it easier for incarcerated trans people to petition for a legal name and/or gender marker change. The first piece of legislation written by currently and formerly incarcerated transgender people.
Senate Bill 219 was signed into law on October 11, 2015
Author: Senator Carol Liu
Expands access to the Alternative Custody Program (ACP), which currently allows eligible incarcerated people to finish their sentences outside of prisons in order to care for their families. (This bill started with the Class of 2014 WPI fellows and continued by the alumnae.)
Assembly Bill 1468, a budget bill, was signed into law on June 20, 2014
Author: Committee on Budget
This budget bill included an authorization for a sheriff or a county director of corrections to implement a voluntary alternative custody program for male and female inmates who have been committed to a county jail for a felony or misdemeanor and to additionally include confinement to a mental health clinic or hospital that offers appropriate mental health services.
Assembly Bill 2530 was signed into law on September 30, 2012*
Author: Assemblymember Nancy Skinner and Assemblymember Holly Mitchell
Ensures that incarcerated pregnant women are restrained in the least restrictive way possible when being transported to and from a state or local correctional facility (reintroduction of AB 568 and AB 1900). *Worked on by two previous WPI teams and passed on the third try.
Assembly Bill 2015 Calls for Kids Act was signed into law on September 30, 2012
Author: Assemblymember Holly Mitchell
States the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would ensure that the right of an arrested custodial parent to make telephone calls or otherwise arrange for the care of a minor child or children during his or her absence is applied without regard to immigration status or language of the person arrested.
Assembly Bill 2070 was signed into law on September 28, 2008
Author: Assembly Speaker Karen Bass
Gives social workers more discretion to extend the timeline before parental rights are terminated in the case of a parent’s incarceration. This bill also expands the reunification services available to families following incarceration.
Assembly Bill 1796 was signed into law on Sept 29, 2004
Author: Assemblymember Mark Leno
Provides that a convicted drug felon, with certain exceptions, shall be eligible for aid under the Food Stamp Program. The bill will require these Food Stamp Program applicants to have proof of completion or other affiliation with a government-recognized drug treatment program, or other evidence that the illegal use of controlled substances has ceased.
Assembly Bill 2300 was signed into law on September 27, 2022
Author: Assemblymember Ash Kalra
Critical protections for workers that ensure CalWorks and CalFresh recipients maintain their benefits when facing workers’ rights violations.
Senate Bill 331 was signed into law on October 7, 2021
Author: Senator Connie Leyva
As a part of the Stronger California Advocates Network, this legislation will make it harder for companies and corporations to hide harassment and discrimination. This expands on an existing law that prohibits companies from preventing disclosure of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and discrimination based on sex to include other forms of workplace harassment and discrimination.
Senate Bill 321 was signed into law on September 27, 2021
Author: Senator María Elena Durazo
As a part of the Stronger California Advocates Network and led by the California Domestic Workers Coalition, we’re so proud that the nannies, house cleaners, and nurses that work in more than 2 million California households will now be safer at work. The Health and Safety for All Workers Act will mandate that Cal/OSHA generate occupational health and safety guidelines specific to the domestic work industry for the first time ever.
Assembly Bill 2413 was signed into law on October 24, 2018
Author: Assemblymember David Chiu
Strengthens housing protections for survivors of violence and individuals in emergency situations who are threatened with eviction as a result of their calls to emergency services.
Assembly Bill 2413 was signed into law on October 24, 2018
Author: Assemblymember David Chiu
Strengthens housing protections for survivors of violence and individuals in emergency situations who are threatened with eviction as a result of their calls to emergency services.
Assembly Bill 273 was signed into law on October 12. 2017
Author: Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry
Increases access to opportunities for families across the state by allowing parents to qualify for subsidized child care during the time they take English as a Second Language and High School Equivalency courses.
Assembly Bill 523 was signed into law on October 7, 2017
Author: Assemblymember Eloise Gómez Reyes
Allocates 35 percent of California’s renewable energy fund to projects located in and benefiting disadvantaged and low-income communities.
Senate Bill 1015 was signed into law on September 12, 2016
Author: Senator Connie Leyva
Removes the sunset provision on the successful AB 241 from 2013 (below), making permanent the overtime labor protections for domestic workers.
Assembly Bill 2057 was signed into law on September 30, 2016
Author: Assemblymember Mark Stone
Provides expedited CalFresh for survivors of domestic violence.
Assembly Bill 1603 was signed into law on June 17, 2016
Author: Committee on Budget
Repeals the Maximum Family Grant rule that prohibited additional aid to children born into a family receiving aid under the CalWORKs program.
Assembly Bill 1579 was signed into law on September 26, 2014
Author: Assemblymember Mark Stone
Known as the Healthy Baby Act of 2014, this bill gives pregnant women access to lifesaving CalWORKs cash and healthcare benefits in their second (as opposed to third) trimesters of pregnancy. It will particularly affect women facing domestic violence because abuse often starts or escalates during pregnancy.
Assembly Bill 2102 was signed into law on September 18, 2014
Author: Assemblymember Phil Ting
Facilitates the collection of demographic data within allied health professions. This data will help create a workforce that’s better equipped to meet our communities’ diverse health needs. This law will go a long way towards helping us develop a dynamic workforce capable of helping everyone, in particular the state’s growing Latino population.
Assembly Bill 241 was signed into law on September 26, 2013*
Author: Assemblymember Tom Ammiano
This bill, better known as the California Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, provides overtime pay to an estimated 100,000 California housekeepers, child care providers and caregivers when they work more than nine hours in a day or forty-five hours a week. More than 90 percent of domestic workers in California are women.
*Worked on by two previous WPI teams and passed on the third try.
Senate Bill 612 was signed into law on August 19, 2013
Author: Senator Mark Leno
California law currently allows survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and elder or dependent adult abuse to break their residential leases with documentation limited to either a court-issued protective order or a police report. This bill expands the type of documentation allowed as proof of abuse to include reports from domestic violence and sexual assault counselors, human trafficking case workers and other mental health and health care professionals.
Assembly Bill 138 was signed into law on October 9, 2011
Author: Assemblymember Jim Beall
The Elder Economic Planning Act of 2011 requires the California Department of Aging and the local area agencies on aging to use the Elder Economic Security Standard Index as a guide in making resource allocation decisions and in crafting statewide and local area plans. The Elder Economic Security Standard Index quantifies the costs in the private market for meeting the basic needs of elders, including, but not limited to, the costs of essential household items, food, health care, shelter, transportation, and utilities.
Senate Bill 897 was signed into law on September 30, 2011
Author: Senator Mark Leno>
The RCFE Residents Foreclosure Protection Act protects elderly residents living in Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly (RCFEs) from the physical and emotional upheaval that results from unexpected and abrupt foreclosures. Under this bill, California’s 8,000 RCFEs must provide timely notification to residents, their legal representatives, and the state should the facility fall into severe financial distress or foreclosure, thereby preventing the forced eviction of vulnerable RCFE residents through no fault of their own.
Senate Bill 1569 was signed into law on September 29, 2006
Author: Senator Sheila Kuehl
Serves victims of human trafficking by extending certain public benefits including refugee cash assistance, Medi-Cal, and employment social services — to qualified victims of trafficking, domestic violence, and other crimes.
Senate Bill 1639 Education Works! was signed into law on September 22, 2004
Author: Senator Richard Alarcón
Improves access to education to community college for CalWORKs students whose primary language is not English and increases access to higher education for foster care youth by requiring that they receive information about educational opportunities. The bill also establishes the intent of the Legislature to enable residents to reach self-sufficiency, to develop a Student Parent Scholar grant program to assist low-income parents with postsecondary education, increase access to higher education for foster care youth and ensure that programs operated with federal TANF funds promote education and training for jobs that offer self-sufficient wages.
SB 65 The California Momnibus Act was signed into law on October 4, 2021
Author: Senator Nancy Skinner
The passage of the Momnibus bill keeps Black, Indigenous women, and gender expansive folks of color in California healthy while they birth and parent and provides long overdue resources to close racial, economic, and gender health gaps. The law provides birthing options like doulas, expands access to midwives, extends Medi-Cal care and provides cash aid to low-income pregnant people.
SB24 (The College Student Right to Access Act) was signed into law on October 11, 2019
Author: Senator Connie Leyva
Will make California the first state to mandate that all student health centers at all 34 public universities and colleges offer abortion medication.
Assembly Bill 2785 was signed into law on September 30, 2018
Author: Assemblymember Blanca Rubio
Requires California Community Colleges and California State Universities to provide lactation accommodations to student parents.
Assembly Bill 2695 was signed into law on September 26, 2006
Author: Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg
Strengthens protections from physical assault for frontline workers dealing with domestic violence, reproductive rights, and human rights. The bill permits employers to obtain protective orders for the entire worksite when an individual or a group of employees experiences violence or a credible threat of violence in the workplace.
Assembly Bill 1285 was signed into law on October 7, 2005
Author: Assemblymember Cindy Montañez
Expands the family childcare retention program in Los Angeles County, thereby increasing working families’ options for affordable quality childcare.
Senate Bill 1017 was signed into law on September 27, 2022
Author: Senator Eggman
Housing protections for survivors of domestic violence.
Assembly Bill 124 was signed into law on October 8, 2021
Author: Senator Sydney Kamlager
Over 90% of female-identified folks in California’s prison are themselves victims of abuse. Correcting a longstanding wrong, this law supports survivors of violence, including domestic violence and human trafficking, by providing a clear legal mechanism for trauma-informed charging, sentencing, and resentencing for survivors on trial and currently imprisoned.
Assembly Bill 420 was signed into law on September 27, 2011
Author: Assemblymember Roger Dickinson
Limits the number of California students who are suspended and expelled, particularly for relatively minor behavioral problems that do not threaten school safety. Until this bill passed, the “willful defiance” offense was used disproportionately to discipline and expel minority students.
Senate Bill 1441 was signed into law on July 15, 2004
Author: Senator Sheila Kuehl
Provides that a victim of domestic violence or abuse has the right to have a domestic violence counselor and a support person of his or her choosing present at any interview by law enforcement authorities, district attorneys or defense attorneys, as specified, and shall be notified orally or in writing by the attending law enforcement authority or district attorney of that right prior to the commencement of an initial interview.
Assembly Bill No. 2195 was signed into law on September 30, 2022
Author: Assemblymember Jones-Sawyer
Vital support for alternatives to criminalization for drug users
AB865 (Resource families: training)
Will make sure children who have experienced or are at risk of experiencing human trafficking get the care they need. Foster care providers will now be required to receive training to provide appropriate care to exploited and trafficked minors.
AB942 (CalFresh: Restaurant Meals Program)
Will expand access to hot and prepared food choices for people experiencing homelessness, disabilities, and old age through a statewide expansion of the CalFresh Restaurant Meals Program.
Senate Bill 160 (Emergency services: cultural competence)
Author: Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson
Will make sure that our emergency response plans will reflect the needs of diverse Californians. This law will require emergency planning to be culturally competent by incorporating qualified representatives and interpreters in all emergency communications.
Senate Bill 495 (Bias-Free Child Custody Child Act)
Author: Senator Maria Elena Durazo
Makes sure that sex, gender expression, gender identity or sexual orientation of a caregiver has nothing to do with that person’s ability to love and care for a child. This new law will make it easier for every child to have a loving family.
Senate Bill 1000 was signed into law on September 24, 2016
Author: Senator Connie Leyva
Started as a WPI-Local project, this bill requires cities and counties to address environmental justice in their general plans.
Assembly Bill 422 was signed into law on October 1, 2013
Author: Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian
Updates the information provided to parents about the National School Lunch Program to include information about the new low-cost health care coverage through the California Health Benefit Exchange and the Medi-Cal programs. By updating information provided to parents through schools, the parents will be better informed to take advantage of new and lifesaving health care coverage options.
Senate Bill 73 (originally Senate Bill 39) was signed into law on June 27, 2013*
Author: Senator Kevin De León
Outlines how the Proposition 39 funds will be allocated to California’s K-12 schools and community colleges and it ensures that those funds deliver the expected energy efficiency and cost savings. Because of SB 73, some of the Proposition 39 funding will be allocated to school districts based on the proportion of their low-income student population as well as to small school districts in pollution-impacted regions.
* SB 39 went through the traditional legislative process but was subsumed in the state budget’s last minute negotiations, becoming SB 73, a budget trailer bill.
Senate Bill 1440 was signed into law on September 29, 2010
Author: Senator Alex Padilla
The California Community Colleges Student Transfer bill guarantees admission to the California State University System with junior standing. The law will allow thousands of community college students with an associate’s degree to have a more streamline path for transfer to the California State University system. This bill would enact the Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act, which, commencing with the 2011–12 academic year, would require a student that receives an associate degree for transfer to be deemed eligible for transfer into a California State University baccalaureate program when the student meets prescribed requirements.
Assembly Bill 1963 was signed into law on September 27, 2010
Author: Assemblymember Pedro Nava
The Farm Worker Health Act provides oversight and structure to a program aimed at protecting farm workers from overexposure to dangerous pesticides. This law protects farm workers from pesticide poisoning – before it occurs – and will lead to workplace safety improvements, ensuring long-term protections to farm workers and their families.
Senate Bill 148 was signed into law on September 29, 2006
Creates safer and more livable communities by increasing local control over liquor store licensing.
Assembly Bill 450 (Changed to AB 1179) was signed into law on October 7, 2005
Author: Assemblymember Leland Yee
Prohibits the sale or rental of violent video games to minors.
Senate Bill 484 was signed into law on October 7, 2005
Author: Senator Carole Migden
Establishes the California Safe Cosmetics Act of 2005 and requires cosmetics manufacturers to disclose to the Department of Health Services (DHS) a list of ingredients in their products that are chemicals that have been identified to cause cancer or reproductive harm.
Increased access to CalFresh Employment & Training program in 2015
This administrative win helped the state seek clarity from the federal government that parents receiving both CalWorks and CalFresh will be allowed to receive the highest level of employment and training program assistance.
AJR 6 ‘Elder Economic Dignity Act’ was sent to the White House in August 2009
Author: Assemblymember Jim Beall
A resolution to ensure that the United States is working to achieve the economic security of the aging population in California and beyond by modernizing the way in which poverty among seniors is calculated.
Increased Housing Opportunities in Riverside County in 2017
This WPI-Local win decreased barriers to housing aid for the formerly incarcerated. It reduced the “look back period” for criminal convctions from 7 years to 3 years, allowing more persons to qualify for help from the Housing Authority.