[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