Ayanna Pressley is an advocate, a policy-maker, an activist, and a survivor. On November 6, 2018, Ayanna was elected to represent Massachusetts’ 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, making her the first woman of color to be elected to Congress from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Ayanna believes that the people closest to the pain should be closest to the power, and that a diversity of voices in the political process is essential to crafting more effective public policy.
When I began my first campaign for the Boston City Council, I made advocacy on behalf of women and girls a central element of my platform. Many people told me that a campaign focused largely on lifting up women and girls couldn’t succeed, but it did, and eight years later, the City of Boston has made important progress on issues of critical importance. Now, more than ever, the 7th District needs a representative in Congress who is steadfastly committed to highlighting the role women and girls play in our communities, addressing the inequities they continue to face, and resisting efforts to roll back critical protections for women’s health and civil rights.
As a member of the City Council, I founded - and continue to chair - the Committee on Healthy Women, Families, and Communities. My colleagues and I have the opportunity to listen to women and girls in our community and work on the issues impacting their lives. Their voices are the reason I have worked with young women and school officials to address the discipline policies that lead to disproportionate push out of young women of color; they are the reason I have shared my own experience and worked with survivors of sexual violence to heal and create awareness; it is why I have fought for the intentional inclusion of women in City of Boston contracting; and why I have supported the repeal of archaic statues that impinge on a woman’s right to choose.
We must resist, with everything we have, efforts to roll back critical protections like those enshrined in Roe v. Wade, but if we want to build thriving communities and achieve real equality, we must apply the same passion to closing the wage gap, ensuring equal educational opportunity, supporting expecting and new mothers, providing gender-responsive conditions for female inmates, and empowering senior women to age as they wish. That is why it is so important to have an intentional, activist leader in Washington, D.C. who sees these issues as central and work diligently with community to identify the key levers of progress.