Assemblywomen Still Miffed at ‘Watered-Down’ Equality Act

Female Democratic Assembly members are still bitter that they were asked to approve a “watered-down” package of women’s equality measures to address everything from pay equity to sexual harassment to abortion, The Buffalo News reports.

Several Assemblywomen complained the bill was a compromised package that had moved too much to the right on several key positions, including pay equity and housing discrimination against domestic violence victims.

And, added female Democratic lawmakers, the reason the package failed to pass muster in the Assembly was because Gov. Andrew Cuomo negotiated too much with women’s groups and not with the lawmakers.

“That was one of the things we said to him… ‘Why all the advocates’ meetings?’ They have an opinion, and we don’t mind working with them, but we wanted to talk to him,” said Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes, a Buffalo Democrat.

She said the female legislators made clear to the governor that the negotiations should have directly included them and not been limited to the many closed-door talks he held with private women’s rights organizations over the months and weeks.