Dear MCSW Community:

Over the past year, the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women hosted 4 public hearings across the state, listened to hundreds of women and over 40 grassroots and community organizations, coalitions, and worked alongside our 11 regional bodies as they identified pressing issues that affect women and girls in our communities. 

Equipped with this information and relying on our own research – more than 26 years of rigorous data and policy analysis that has offered solutions for the Commonwealth’s most pressing challenges – we are proud to release our 2025-2026 Legislative Priorities for the 194th general session.

In our legislative agenda, we are prioritizing bills that would help advance rights and opportunities for all in four key categories:  

• Safety and security  
• Healthcare and Housing  
• Childcare and Caregiving   
• Government Access and Transparency 
• …and more!

As women, we do not lead single issue lives. Our legislative priorities focus on health, both physical and mental, support parents both at the birth of their child and throughout their lives and bring a holistic sense of caring for our full selves.

According to MassBudget, Massachusetts is one of the wealthiest states in the nation and also one of the states with the most significant income disparities and wealth inequities. While we navigate federal funding and policy uncertainty, our Commonwealth has the opportunity to demonstrate its core values by using the state budget to invest in people excluded from the decision-making table.

The 2025 campaign theme for International Women’s Day 3/8 is ‘Accelerate Action’ and in step with that idea, I urge each one of us to accelerate action and take hold of our futures. The wheels of gender parity move forward, if slowly.

But we can’t do this work without all of you. Your input, your voices, and your experiences ultimately inform our legislative priorities. Everything we do, from data collection in our regional districts to public hearings across the state is focused on listening to – and responding to – the needs of women. We seek to represent the incredible diversity of women across the Commonwealth in our advocacy. As a result, our 2025-2026 proposed slate of legislation is robust and ambitious. See the full list on our website.

In addition, be sure to save the date for the MCSW’s 2025 Advocacy Day at the Massachusetts Statehouse and join us in speaking with legislators from across the state about both issues and solutions to realities we’re facing here in the Commonwealth. We’ll put our advocacy into action, together. If you can’t join us in person, be sure to tune into our livestream to catch the amazing program featuring Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, and Massachusetts State Auditor Diana DiZoglio.

This year, let’s ‘Accelerate Action’ to speed up the rate of progress worldwide – starting right here in Massachusetts. I look forward to advancing an agenda that will have lasting and positive impacts that will protect and preserve the rights of all women, children, and families in Massachusetts.

In Solidarity,
Guimel DeCarvalho
Legislative and Public Policy Committee Chair

Guimel DeCarvalho was appointed to the Commission by Senate President Karen E. Spilka in November 2021. Guimel speaks fluent Portuguese and lives in Natick with her wife and son. She is currently the Vice President of Administration & Chief Information Officer at Wayside Youth & Family Support Network’s first. Before her current role, Guimel was the Vice President of People and Culture and Chief Diversity Officer, as well as the Program Director for Wayside’s Framingham Family Networks and worked for the Department of Children and Family Services in Compton, California. In 2020 she was named to the 50 Most Influential Business People of the Color list by Newton-Needham Metrowest Regional Chamber. Guimel co-founded Natick Is United, a community antiracist organization, and recently launched the Wayside Equity Training Center to provide antiracist trainings and strategic planning support for non-profits and community organizations.