By Taylor S. Lavallee
In her March 13, 1776, letter to her husband, John Adams—who, at the time, was in Philadelphia drafting the Declaration of Independence—Massachusetts native and women’s rights activist Abigail Adams wrote, “I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.” More than two centuries have passed since Abigail Adams’s letter urging her husband to advance the causes of women in the United States. Generations later, women are still demanding equal protections in all aspects of society.
At the center of the women’s rights movement, Massachusetts has long been a trailblazer in enacting legislative protections for women and girls. Today, representation of the female perspective in Massachusetts government has grown exponentially. In the past five years, the state elected its first female governor and its first Black female Attorney General. Earlier this year, the Massachusetts Women’s Caucus of Legislators celebrated its 50th anniversary and became the longest continuously running bipartisan women’s caucus in the country.
Despite increased representation of women in state government, and the many advancements in women’s rights, discordant times in our nation raise new challenges in the fight for equality. Although the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution has been championed for over a century, the United States has continuously failed to ratify it – leaving the door open for the denial of equal protections on the basis of sex. Over the last decade, Massachusetts has taken a stand to enact laws and codify its own protections for women by making significant strides in the areas of reproductive freedom, economic equality, and domestic relations.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Massachusetts legislature acted swiftly to protect reproductive rights and healthcare by codifying the ROE Act in 2020. In recognition of the systemic biases that exist in the workforce, the legislature advanced paid family medical leave benefits in 2021, and last session, it passed a law requiring salary and wage transparency for both prospective employees and those seeking internal career advancement.
Massachusetts has also recently taken steps to recognize “coercive control” in addition to physical violence, or the immediate threat thereof, as a form of abuse. Domestic violence disproportionately impacts women, and in the context of domestic relations matters, survivors are now permitted to present a wider range of evidence in abuse-related proceedings.
Faced with national policy shifts, Massachusetts has spoken loudly and clearly to remind its constituents, and the rest of the nation, that the Commonwealth stands with women and girls and that their access to equality in every aspect of life matters. Perhaps, these legislative accomplishments and protections are one reason that Massachusetts has been ranked by WalletHub as the best state for women to live for the past two years.
This issue of the Boston Bar Journal celebrates the legislative victories that have advanced Massachusetts toward female equality – the same equality for which Abigail Adams advocated in 1776. In bringing these discussions forward, this volume touches upon the importance of reproductive freedom, pay equity, and improvements in domestic relations laws as key components to establishing a just society for women.
Taylor Lavallee is an associate at Raipher, P.C.’s Springfield office where she focuses on personal injury, wrongful death, and civil rights litigation. She serves as a co-chair of the Massachusetts Women’s Bar Association’s Legislative Policy Committee.
