What does “one size doesn’t fit all” mean? It means women’s lives, experiences, and needs are distinct. Too often, the word “humanity” takes for granted a universal experience. But women, despite our diversities, share experiences men largely do not have.
We are the primary victims of gender-based violence. We need maternal care, abortion services, and reproductive freedom. These are not niche issues. Absorbing the Department on the Status of Women into a generalized Human Rights — as the 1994 voter-approved Proposition E Commission and Streamlining Taskforce has already done — ignores these realities.
Now, in the interest of reducing the $782 million deficit and making government more efficient by streamlining and eliminating city boards, commissions, and public bodies, the Commission on the Status of Women may be on the chopping block.
Established in 1975 by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors through Resolution No. 780–75, the commission was enshrined in the city’s charter by 70 percent of the popular vote and made into an independent city department in 1994.
Over the last 50 years, the commission has become an important policy-influencing body engaging in direct advocacy, data gathering, convening, and coordinating among relevant city agencies. The commission has influenced the policies and operations of relevant city agencies through the Justice and Courage Blueprint, the Violence Against Women Intervention Strategic Plan, and the Family Violence Reports. Grants for crisis hotlines, shelters, and services have helped gender-based violence survivors’ recoveries. The Domestic Violence Response Cross Training Institute has offered professional development to city employees. Domestic violence and informed consent campaigns have educated the public. The commission has advocated for gender-based violence prevention legislative efforts on the local and state levels.
Granted, Mayor Lurie’s plan to address San Francisco’s $782 million deficit by prioritizing homelessness, housing, and public safety is essential. Public safety, however, has been defined too narrowly. Public safety is more than ending retail thefts, home burglaries, and car break-ins. Public safety is also about ending gender-based violence, a central focus of the commission and the department’s work since its beginning.
Ending gender-based violence saves money and lives. According to a 2024 study funded by the Blue Shield of California Foundation, gender-based violence costs the state of California a staggering $73.7 billion, of which San Francisco alone would account for an estimated $1.7 billion annually. Per this study conducted by U.C. San Diego and Tulane University, the costs include law enforcement, court proceedings, incarceration, medical expenses, supportive services, housing, and lost worker productivity. Researchers estimate that domestic violence costs an estimated $88,000 per victim.
Domestic dollars hide the human costs of gender-based violence. Mayor Lurie’s plan to promote public safety will not succeed unless gender-based violence incidents are addressed. Per the Department on the Status of Women 2024 Family Violence Council Report, there were 6,658 reported incidents of domestic violence and three domestic violence homicides in the 2021–23 fiscal year.
Post Roe v. Wade, one in five women must now travel out of state for abortion care. The Bay Area has seen a 17 percent spike in demand for services. The Department on the Status of Women plays a role as a coordinating hub for services to manage this surge, ensuring that low-income women and marginalized groups are not denied care.
Nationally, women’s rights are under assault. We cannot allow San Francisco, a city known for its progressivism, to dismantle women’s hard-won protections. Merging the Department on the Status of Women into the Human Rights Agency is not a new idea. From 1979–89, the commission was part of the Human Rights Commission. Deemed a failure, Mayor Agnos restored the commission’s autonomy and independence.
The commission was born out of the 1960s women’s movement, a time when women had no voice in public life.
As 48 percent of the city’s population, we are an important voting bloc! We will not be silenced! We will not go back!
San Franciscans for an Independent Commission and Department on the Status of Women
Caryl Ito, commissioner, 1989–98
Dorka Keehn, commissioner, 199–2010
Nancy Kirschner-Rodriquez, former commissioner
Sonia Melara, executive director, 1995–2001
Emily Murase, Ph.D., commissioner 1997–2003; executive director 2004–20
Sharon Pearl, former commissioner
Andrea Shorter, commissioner, 1999–2010
Kathryn Kenley-Johnson, Ph.D., MPH, writer and gender policy consultant