Our Working Nation
How Progress Is Reshaping America's Families and Economy
When we look back over the 20th century and try to understand what has happened to workers and their families, the movement of women out of the home and into paid employment stands out as one of the most important transformations. Workplaces are no longer the domain of men: Women now make up half (49.8 percent) of employer's payrolls. Quite simply, women employed outside the home changes everything. We need to ensure that everyone—men and women, parents and non-parents alike—is able to meet the challenges of the workplace, while being able to provide care for their family. We need new ground rules that recognize this transformation.
Working Nation explores research and policy ideas behind and beyond this fundamental change in how we work and live.
Featured Content
The Effects of Paid Family and Medical Leave on Employment Stability and Economic Security:
Heather Boushey and Sarah Jane Glynn on how providing paid family and medical leave helps keep people employed.
Protecting Workers and Their Families with Paid Family Leave and Caregiving Credits:
Ann O'Leary explains how updating Social Security can help the program meet its original goal of providing economic security to families as a whole.
Social Security Cares 101:
On the anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act, Heather Boushey provides background on FMLA and outlines a strategy for providing paid family leave through Social Security.
Helping Breadwinners When It Can’t Wait:
Heather Boushey lays out a progressive program that would guarantee Americans access to paid family and medical leave, giving a boost to workers, employers, and the economy.
Women Provide for Their Families:
Interactive map shows that over half of families in almost every state rely on a woman as the primary breadwinner or co-breadwinner.
Women Still Primary Breadwinners:
Women are still the primary breadwinners, writes Heather Boushey, but they may begin to catch up to men's unemployment if job gains stall in the sectors that disproportionately employ them.
Our Working Nation:
Report from Heather Boushey and Ann O'Leary on how working women are reshaping America’s families and economy and what it means for policymakers.
A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything :
Women as half of all workers changes everything, and is the key piece to understanding why we are in a transformational moment.
The Three Faces of Work-Family Conflict:
The poor, the professionals, and the missing middle need policies that allow them to achieve the American Dream, write Heather Boushey and Joan C. Williams in this report.
The ‘Man-covery’:
Heather Boushey says we need to focus on jobs for women, who saw high losses during the recession in state and local government budget cuts.