[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 44 (Tuesday, March 5, 2024)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 15939-15941]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-04819]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 44 / Tuesday, March 5, 2024 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 15939]]
Proclamation 10706 of February 29, 2024
Women's History Month, 2024
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
During Women's History Month, we celebrate the
courageous women who have helped our Nation build a
fairer, more just society.
Throughout history, the vision and achievements of
powerful women have strengthened our Nation and opened
the doors of opportunity wider for all of us. Though
their stories too often go untold, all of us stand on
the shoulders of these sung and unsung trailblazers--
from the women who took a stand as suffragists,
abolitionists, and labor leaders to pioneering
scientists and engineers, groundbreaking artists, proud
public servants, and brave members of our Armed Forces.
Despite the progress that these visionaries have
achieved, there is more work ahead to knock down the
barriers that stand in the way of women and girls
realizing their full potential--in a country founded on
freedom and equality, nothing is more fundamental. That
is why my Administration has put women and girls at the
heart of everything we do. When I first came into
office, I established the White House Gender Policy
Council to advance their rights and opportunities
across domestic and foreign policy. I also released the
Nation's first-ever National Gender Strategy to advance
gender equity and equality across my Administration--
from women's economic security and leadership
opportunities to freedom from gender-based violence and
equal access to education and health care. Women are
seated at every table where decisions are made in my
Administration--from our first female Vice President,
Kamala Harris, to a record number of female cabinet
secretaries to the most diverse set of judges ever
nominated to the Federal bench, including Supreme Court
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
If we want to have the strongest economy in the world,
we cannot leave women--half of our workforce--behind.
Since I have been in office, the economy has created
nearly 15 million jobs, and we have seen the lowest
unemployment rate among women in more than five
decades. As we implement major pieces of legislation
like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and
Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, we are
ensuring that women get their fair share of
opportunities. We are increasing their access to new
jobs in sectors where women have been historically
underrepresented, like manufacturing, construction, and
clean energy. We are championing equal pay, including
issuing new regulations that advance pay equity and pay
transparency for Federal workers and employees of
Federal contractors.
We are making sure women have access to the resources
they need to enter and remain in the workforce,
including high-quality, affordable child care. My
Administration's American Rescue Plan helped working
mothers, especially during the most challenging times
of the pandemic, by keeping the doors of 220,000 child
care centers open--90 percent of which are owned and
staffed by women. Our Child Tax Credit cut the number
of children in poverty by 50 percent and provided
breathing room for 65 million children and their
families, and we will keep fighting to restore it. I
have also signed legislation that provides new
protections for pregnant and postpartum workers.
[[Page 15940]]
To promote the health and wellness of women in America,
under the leadership of Vice President Harris, we
launched the Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal
Health Crisis to combat the high incidence of maternal
mortality--especially for Black, Native, and rural
women--due to systemic inequities in quality health
care. We have expanded access to health care services
for women veterans--the fastest growing group of
veterans receiving services at the Department of
Veterans Affairs. Last fall, we launched the White
House Initiative on Women's Health Research to change
how we approach and fund women's health research, and
pioneer the next generation of discoveries in women's
health care.
Further, Vice President Harris and I are fighting to
protect women's reproductive freedom. In 2022, the
Supreme Court made an extreme decision to overturn Roe
v. Wade, reversing nearly five decades of recognizing a
woman's constitutional right to choose and make deeply
personal decisions about her health care. Now, tens of
millions of women live in States with an extreme and
dangerous abortion ban currently in effect. Across the
country, women are being turned away from emergency
rooms, forced to go to court to seek permission for the
medical attention they need, and made to travel
hundreds of miles for care. This is unacceptable. That
is why I have taken action to safeguard access to
reproductive care, including abortion and
contraception. Vice President Harris and I will keep
calling on the Congress to restore the protections of
Roe v. Wade in Federal law--the only way to ensure
women in every State have the right to choose.
As we lift up women's health and economic prosperity,
we also have to protect their physical security. As a
United States Senator, I was proud to write the
Violence Against Women Act, which helped change the
culture of silence around the scourge of gender-based
violence in America. When we reauthorized the law, we
increased our total investment in prevention and
support to $700 million for 2023 alone--the highest
funding ever to protect women from gender-based
violence in nearly 30 years. I have also spearheaded
historic military justice reforms to better protect
survivors and ensure that, in cases of gender-based
violence, prosecutorial decisions are fully independent
from the chain of command. Last year, my Administration
released the first-ever National Plan to End Gender-
Based Violence, advancing a comprehensive Government-
wide approach to preventing and addressing gender-based
violence across the United States.
Globally, my Administration is supporting initiatives
that help expand access to child care, end gender-based
violence, cut the digital gender divide in half,
promote women's leadership, and more. Thanks to the
leadership of Vice President Harris, we have galvanized
more than $2.9 billion in investments to advance the
economic status of women around the world and ensure
they play a meaningful role in the industries of the
future.
This Women's History Month, may we recognize the long,
storied history of great women helping to realize our
Nation's founding promise and highest aspirations. May
we all continue working to build a world worthy of the
dreams and goals of all women and girls.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of
the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws
of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 2024 as
Women's History Month. I call upon all Americans to
observe this month and to celebrate International
Women's Day on March 8, 2024, with appropriate
programs, ceremonies, and activities. I also invite all
Americans to visit WomensHistoryMonth.gov to learn more
about the vital contributions of women to our Nation's
history.
[[Page 15941]]
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-ninth day of February, in the year of our Lord
two thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of
the United States of America the two hundred and forty-
eighth.
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2024-04819
Filed 3-4-24; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3395-F4-P