LD522 requires the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women to study how much gender segregation exists in Maine’s workforce—meaning whether men and women tend to be clustered in different occupations—and to determine whether this segregation leads to differences in pay or workplace safety. The commission must submit its findings in a report to the secretary of state and the Legislature’s Labor Committee by January 15, 2026, and the committee may propose related legislation afterward.
The Maine State House of Representatives passed LD522 on April 15, 2025 by a vote of 82 to 63. We have assigned pluses to the nays because this bill expands government bureaucracy by directing yet another state commission to study supposed gender segregation in the workforce—an exercise that assumes inequality and invites policymakers to engineer outcomes through further regulation. Instead of uniting Mainers, this approach reinforces group identities and frames ordinary occupational choices as evidence of discrimination. As the Declaration of Independence affirms, “all men are created equal” and endowed with God-given rights; government’s role is to secure those rights, not to divide people into categories or use data studies to justify more interference in the free market.