Care in Action Puts Women of Color’s Voices, Values, and Priorities First

Justice and equity begin at home. 

Across the U.S., more than two million nannies, house cleaners, and care workers, most of them women of color and immigrant women, toil every day to keep children healthy and happy, tend to the health of older family members or those who need care, and play the countless other roles that keep a home running. Like all workers, these women must have the power to keep themselves safe in the workplace and to earn wages befitting the value of their work.

If the women who work in homes across the country can secure dignity and fair compensation for themselves, it will not only provide a solid economic foundation for the people who do this work and for their families; it will also make a powerful statement about who we are as a country and what we value. 

Conversely, no country can truly be free and just, if its homes are powered by exploitation.

Domestic workers play some of the most important roles in our communities, and yet their needs and priorities have long been ignored or even intentionally excluded from our political discourse and our public policy. As a result, they earn 60 cents on the dollar compared to the average earner, are three times as likely to be living in poverty as other workers, and have abysmal rates of employer-provided insurance coverage or retirement plans. 

One of the roots of these disparities is a lack of political muscle. Groups like Care in Action are building a movement to fight for – and win – policies that will make a lasting difference in the lives of domestic workers. In just five years, Care in Action has grown into the largest women-of-color-led political organization in the U.S., backed by tens of thousands of nannies, house cleaners, and care workers across the country. 

Care in Action is the c4 sister organization to the National Domestic Workers Alliance, which creates frameworks for domestic workers to organize and make their voices heard against the disenfranchisement of domestic workers, which has its roots in slavery.

The organization supports candidates and pushes for policies that expand access to care and put the needs of domestic workers first. Care in Action has supported women of color at the state level, helping push them to victories in high-stakes, highly-competitive races. And, throughout the debate over policies like the Build Back Better Act, Care in Action has engaged the public on the ways that everyone benefits when we protect the rights of domestic workers and expand access to care.

WDN Action is proud to support groups like Care in Action, while WDN supports the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Both organizations are building the kind of power that enables the deep systemic change that is so urgently needed. 

The advocacy and electoral strategies that WDN Action funds are always powered by, never on behalf of, women, and especially women of color. We move funds quickly, trust the expertise of grassroots leaders as to where resources will have the greatest impact, and provide flexible funding to support advocacy and electoral organizing.

As a network of feminist donors and activists, WDN Action brings a unique gender justice lens to political giving. As the c4 sister organization to the Women Donors Network, our c4 funding strategy also complements WDN’s c3 work, broadening our network’s potential to help achieve the profound policy and cultural changes we need. 

Care in Action plans to mobilize a strong ground game in 2022 in order to reach undervalued Black and Brown voters in Arizona, Michigan, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Nevada, and Virginia. This strategy is essential to winning state-wide races and realizing our vision of building lasting political power for women of color, care workers, and immigrants. As Care in Action prepares for its most ambitious year yet – and the high stakes behind it – we are proud to highlight their critical work. 

There is much more work to do to engage with voters and face the significant challenges ahead as the midterms approach. Despite the obstacles, we know care is among the few, popular issues among diverse segments of the electorate, that we are poised to make progress on, and can unite and animate voters and win elections.