Seneca Falls Redux: New York’s Governor Cuomo Pushes A New Law to Protect Women’s Rights

When Cuomo first announced the Women’s Equality Agenda, outlining the issues that would ultimately be tackled in a bill, he released a promotional video featuring two babies, wrapped in identical hospital blankets and caps, with no telltale blue or pink to distinguish them. The narrator of the video promises that each baby will be raised by loving parents, who will provide for their basic needs, and each will be given the same opportunities for a good education. Each will attend the same schools and earn the same grades and diplomas. But then the narrator turns to a parade of horribles that one—and only one— of the babies will face. One of them is more likely to be the victim of domestic violence; more likely to be sex trafficked; less likely to be paid fairly for work done; more likely to be sexually harassed; more likely to face housing and lending discrimination; more likely to be a single parent in poverty; and more likely to live out old age without sufficient means. And for many of these issues, the one baby is significantly more likely to experience the harm than the other