L.A. County supervisors move to consider creating gender equity office

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Set us as preferred The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday directed county officials to study the prospect of creating an Office of Gender Equity to pursue the goals of eliminating gender-based discrimination and advancing gender equity across county government.The board approved the motion, which was introduced by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, by a margin of 4-0, with Supervisor Kathryn Barger absent.“For too long, our gender equity work has been siloed without a central entity responsible for coordinating and advancing this work,” Horvath said during the meeting.“An Office of Gender Equity would help change that,” she added.The motion directs the county’s Chief Executive Office and Department of Public Health to work with County Counsel on a report due back in 60 days.

The report, according to the measure, should include a recommendation for where in county government the gender equity office could live; information about existing programs and resources that could support the office; and a clear timeline for the office’s creation.An amendment proposed by Supervisor Holly Mitchell to take steps to ensure that the office’s work would not be redundant with that done by other county entities was accepted before the vote.“I’m just asking that we pause, understand what’s happening, identify the gaps that would help clarify for us what work needs to be done to determine if an office should be established and also to figure out where the resources would be coming from,” Mitchell said.The motion comes in the wake of the sunsetting of the county’s Women and Girls Initiative in 2024.The initiative was approved by the Board of Supervisors in 2016 as a temporary way to analyze systemic issues that cause inequitable gender treatment and outcomes, and identify responses to help address those concerns....