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VWW's office remains closed as staff primarily work remotely. Please contact us in advance if you need to visit our Winooski office; our team is available via phone or email.

Our Advocacy Priorities

Supporting Policies & Efforts to Advance Gender Equity

Since 1987, Vermont Works for Women (VWW) has worked directly with women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals to help them overcome individual and societal barriers to economic security.

Through programming, partnerships, and policy, our goal is to ensure education and work are equitable and accessible for all. For decades, VWW has partnered with employers, state agencies, schools, career and technical education centers, and policymakers to advance gender equity in these spaces and systems.

Explore our advocacy priorities below. Please contact us for testimony, data, and recommendations. 

Engage Underrepresented Workers to Meet State Workforce Needs 

Vermont continues to experience an incredibly tight labor market, especially within the construction and skilled trades. To meet labor needs and ensure a thriving economy, Vermont employers and training programs must prioritize the recruitment and retention of underrepresented workers, including women. By neglecting to recruit and retain women, employers are missing out on a motivated, skilled, and valuable section of the workforce.

VWW recommends:

  • Support pre-apprenticeship programs that provide viable pathways for women into high-wage, high-growth careers through flexible, annual funding.
  • Prioritize programs and policies that increase representation of women in nontraditional apprenticeship programs across Vermont. In 2024, only 13% of all registered apprentices in Vermont were women.
  • Identify mechanisms to support employers’ ability to establish and grow apprenticeship pathways, especially for small Vermont trades businesses.
Trailblazer learns to use a table saw during the seven week trades training program

Strengthen Employment Services for Justice-Involved Individuals

VWW has been working as a contracted in-facility service provider for the Vermont Department of Corrections (DOC) since 2001. Justice-involved women, due to their gender and other intersecting factors, face tremendous barriers to economic independence after being released from Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility. Providing career training programs and wraparound supports to justice-involved women – both in-facility and while in transition – helps their successful reintegration into the community.

VWW recommends:

  • Improving Contract Oversight: Ensure DOC staff work collaboratively with service providers to maintain and enhance in-facility programming available to all, especially considering the delay of a new facility.
  • Addressing Service Disparities: Increase access to programs and case management services for detainers. Detained incarcerated women have limited access to services compared to sentenced incarcerated women, yet they often face longer pretrial stays, higher trauma rates, and limited reentry support. Targeted investments and supports for this population can improve outcomes, reduce recidivism, and ensure they are able to successfully enter the Vermont workforce
A VWW staff member works in facility on resume skills with an incarcerated woman

Address Wage Gap in Economic and Workforce Investments

Vermont Works for Women, Vermont Women’s Fund, and the Vermont Commission on Women are reigniting the effort to update Vermont’s data on the gender wage gap and occupational segregation. We’re launching a new, streamlined bi-annual data report focused on the economic status and opportunities for Vermont women. It is critical to incorporate this data into decision-making processes in the legislative committees focused on areas of workforce, education, housing, justice systems, and childcare. The wage gap persists in Vermont (women make $0.86 to every $1 men make).

VWW recommends:

  • The 2025 Pay Transparency Act (Act 155) is an important step forward and needs strong education and enforcement efforts to ensure compliance across employers.
  • Strengthen efforts to increase female student representation at Technical Education Centers in high-wage, nontraditional occupations through early exposure for all students.
  • Continue to fund and support childcare subsidies and universal school meals that provide working parents more support, flexibility, and opportunity to re-enter the workplace.
Student tries using an excavator at Women Can Do career conference
Rhoni Basden
Contact Us

Rhoni BasdenExecutive Director

802-655-8900 rbasden@vtworksforwomen.org

Please contact us for testimony, data, and recommendations.