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Zonta USA Advocacy Action Center

Zonta International is a global organization of individuals dedicated to building a better world for women and girls. The Zonta USA Advocacy Action Center is a tool for our members in the United States and other individuals who share our commitment to gender equality to take action to improve the lives of women and girls. With your help, we can make a difference. In addition to the actions below, click here to support our joint efforts with UNICEF USA to end child marriage in the United States.


Help cosmetology professionals recognize and respond to domestic violence
Domestic violence often goes unreported; only about half of all cases are reported to the police, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. As many as one in four women suffer physical violence from an intimate partner, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cosmetologists and barbers work in an environment that often acts as a “safe space” for survivors. 

The bipartisan Supporting the Abused by Learning Options to Navigate Survivor (SALONS) Stories Act (S. 3540) would amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to increase grants to combat domestic violence through implementing domestic violence prevention training in the cosmetologist and barber licensing process.

“Victims of domestic violence often don’t know where to turn or who to talk to, but they do often continue going to their salons—which puts beauty professionals in a unique position of potentially being among the first people who can recognize signs of abuse,” said Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), who co-sponsors the bill with Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).

The SALONS Stories Act provides grant money to the states that implement this act and requires aspiring cosmetologists and barbers to take a domestic violence prevention training course to obtain their licenses. The training would be at no cost to the individual and provided by a nonprofit anti-domestic violence organization. The lesson also covers nonphysical signs that a client may be experiencing abuse at the hands of a controlling partner—such as when clients are not allowed to change their hair color or appearance, or when abusive partners display signs of jealousy and accompany clients to each appointment. The training teaches them how to respond, not how to be a therapist.

Illinois, Tennessee and Arkansas have passed landmark legislation to give beauty professionals these necessary skills, serving as models for states around the nation.

“Some women, even at their most vulnerable and isolated, will continue going to the salon and building relationships with their cosmetologists,” Blackburn said. “This is a common-sense bipartisan bill to help equip cosmetologists with resources necessary to identify and support victims of domestic violence.” The bipartisan SALONS Stories Act is supported by YWCA USA, the National Network to End Domestic Violence and the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

Please use our pre-drafted letters to urge your representative to co-sponsor and support the SALONS Stories Act. If they have already sponsored or co-sponsored the bill, you can send a message of thanks.

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