Vito Lopez may be gone, but the problems in New York’s state Assembly remain. And now the same leadership that failed women by covering up his sexual harassment has failed women once again. How long will this body continue to close its eyes to the failure at the top?
This time, the failure has to do with the Women’s Equality Agenda, a 10-point program meant to break down barriers that discriminate against women. On 90 percent of this agenda, there’s almost no political disagreement.
So with this legislation, the Assembly had a chance to take the lead on tackling sexual harassment. Especially at a time when the appalling behavior of a sitting Assembly member was strewn across the front pagesof every newspaper in New York, women were looking for decisive action from Albany signaling that this kind of behavior would not be tolerated in the New York workplace. But instead of action, Albany ducked and covered — and the legislation remains stalled.
Yes, we forced a single transgressor out of office. But that did nothing to get to the root of the problem. That is a speaker who, at best, turns a blind eye to sexual harassment, and at worst, plays an active role in enabling such behavior, ensuring that it goes unpunished and unpublicized. The message to women could not have been clearer: Your right to safety and dignity is less important than the quest for political power.
The Women’s Equality Agenda gave the Assembly another chance to do right by the women of New York. While the sexual-harassment provision in the bill was only a modest step in the right direction, it was packaged with important other measures that would combat human trafficking, expand protections for victims of domestic violence and prevent housing discrimination.
Every member of the Assembly knew from Day One that, if we were going to deliver real results for the women of New York, we would need to take up the 10 points in this plan on an individual basis, have each debated and discussed individually — and then let democracy take its course.
Yet with the legislative session drawing to a close, and with even the governor’s coalition of women’s groups calling for an up-or-down vote, Speaker Silver refusedto do the obvious: introduce each of these measures individually, where again 90 percent would likely pass (just as they passed in the Senate).
Instead, the Assembly went home having accomplished nothing. Silence prevailed, and the women of New York were cast aside for nothing more than political posturing.
The Assembly should heed the call of the governor and return to Albany immediately to pass the nine vital points already adopted by the state Senate.
As the only female Republican elected official in New York City, it is painful for me to hear the constant political mudslinging that takes place regarding which party stands up for women in our state.
The failure of Assembly Democrats, led by Speaker Silver, to pass the 90 percent of the Women’s Equality Agenda that everyone agrees on, and instead leave session empty-handed, could not be a clearer indication of which group is waging the real “War on Women.”
Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R,C,I) represents Brooklyn and Staten Island in the state Legislature.