South Dakota’s women have the highest labor force participation of any state in the union, at 69.4%.  Yet, they rank 44^th in median annual earnings, making only $26,900 for full-time, year-round work.   They also rank 44^th among the states in the percent (30%) who are employed as managers or professionals.  Worse yet, South Dakota women finish dead last – behind all other states and the District of Columbia – when it comes to owning their own businesses.  A mere 22.4% can claim to be business owners.  

Native American women continue to endure privations far greater than white women.  They have lower annual earnings, less education and significantly poorer health outcomes, while also experiencing greater discrimination and higher rates of domestic violence.

To improve these numbers, we need to increase the educational opportunities for women in South Dakota. Today, only about 21% have had four or more years of college.  Also, women are dramatically under- represented in fields involving math and science.  This starts in the early grades when boys are assumed to have more interest and ability in these areas.  We now know that when girls are encouraged to compete and not held back by stereotypes, they succeed. 

The Heidepriem Administration will work to create policies and practices that seek to increase women’s earnings by increasing opportunities for education and job training.  That means investing in technological training in schools, insisting on fair wages, encouraging businesses to recruit and promote women, and providing support to women living and working on farms.

Finally, the new Administration will also enforce laws against workplace harassment and discrimination, and make sure all government contracts are accessible to women-owned businesses.

With respect to Native American women, the Heidepriem Administration will work to encourage them to enroll in higher education through increased financial aid, scholarship opportunities and investment in tribal colleges.  The Administration will work actively with Native women to improve their health care and economic status, make every effort to prevent violence of all kinds, and support policies and practices that work to eliminate sex and race-based inequities, while respecting native culture and supporting tribal sovereignty.

Women’s Choice

It is no secret that I believe South Dakota women and their families should have choices when they face important life decisions. The women of South Dakota have a long history and a strong culture as some of the most loving, hard-working, self-sacrificing people in our nation. I’m proud to stand up for them.

The Republican ticket, on the other hand, doesn’t trust them to make responsible choices. My opponents sponsored and supported the radical effort to amend the state Constitution in 2006 to ban all abortions, regardless of the threat to the life or health of the mother and with no exception for rape or incest. In fact, most believe their real goal was to craft a law which would be a vehicle for a Supreme Court challenge, potentially costing taxpayers thousands of dollars to defend, and making South Dakota a pawn in the national abortion wars.

I appreciate and respect that good people may disagree on giving women a full range of options. But we should all agree on doing everything possible to help women prevent diseases and avoid unintended and unwanted pregnancies. That would mean providing comprehensive sexuality education, including an emphasis on abstinence, and increased access to comprehensive health care. When the time comes for South Dakotans to plan their families, they should have available to them the necessary information and services to make responsible decisions.

But Republican insiders in Pierre too often have done everything they could to make it harder for South Dakotans to plan their families. They defeated efforts to require insurance companies to cover contraceptives, and even insisted that pharmacists shouldn’t have to fill prescriptions written by doctors for contraceptives if they don’t want to. Thanks to some Republican insiders in Pierre, contraceptives will be expensive and hard to come by.

It doesn’t sound to me like this Republican administration trusts South Dakotans to make responsible decisions for their families.

I also do not believe this is an issue on which we’re going to agree, but I think most South Dakotans understand that and would simply like to move on.