The Big Ideas for Women and Girls Coalition, co-chaired by CGA alumna Leslie Archambeault, Director of Gender Policy and Advocacy at Save the Children, sees tremendous opportunities with the new administration to drive much needed progress. The Big Ideas Coalition, based in D.C., convenes key actors on cross-cutting issues related to global gender equality and works with policy makers to ensure that U.S. government agencies, including their gender structures, policies, funding, and data, serve to advance global gender equality and are informed by civil society experience and evidence.
The Coalition has provided concrete recommendations for the new administration to take forward in its first 100 days, to hold President Biden and Vice-President Harris accountable for their campaign commitments on gender equality, and to call their attention to urgently addressing the last four years of attacks on gender equality across the globe. These attacks have led to massive risks and evidenced rollbacks of decades of hard-fought normative and policy progress, and real world, often life-threatening harm to women, girls, and those of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities around the globe. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is further exacerbating gender inequalities, adding an additional layer of urgency to an already dire context.
Although there is much to be done, civil society partners working in D.C. and around world are ensuring that despite crowded conversations and competing priorities, gender equality, and the rights of women, girls are not forgotten by the new administration, or the newly elected 117th Congress.
The Biden administration has already announced a new White House Gender Policy Council, has rescinded a previous Executive Order that halted DEI training across U.S. agencies, and has announced other strong directives and policy change on LGBTQI+ rights and the rights of women and girls. The Big Ideas Coalition is calling for further attention to other harmful policies related to gender equality that were put in place by the previous administration, including the updated USAID Gender Equality policy, finalized just two weeks before inauguration.