PEP, May 2008: Helen Sears speaks on womens issues

City Council member Helen Sears was the guest speaker as more than 200 DC 37 members and retirees celebrated Women’s History Month March 13 at a meeting of the DC 37 Political Action Committee.

As chair of the City Council Women’s Committee, Sears brings women’s issues to the forefront and sees that they are given the proper attention at City Hall. She presses for pay equity and nontraditional jobs training for women and has called for the City Council to hold hearings on women’s health issues, such as heart disease, breast and cervical cancer screening, prenatal care, infant mortality and domestic violence.

Years ago people did not talk about domestic violence, Sears said. Women and their children suffered in fear and silence. Today more services are available for battered women. But additional protections and services are needed for women and adolescent girls, who may become targets for domestic or sexual violence.

In 2006 Sears created a human trafficking initiative to educate police and other law enforcement officials to work with and help victims of labor and sex trafficking.

Women are under a lot of pressure these days. They work outside the home yet are still expected to carry the greater share of family responsibilities, such as rearing children and maintaining the household, said Sears, who became a single parent early in life when her husband died.

A longtime ally of DC 37, Sears helped provide $4 million in capital improvements to fund the construction of the cancer care unit that will open in the spring at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens.