The collapse of the child care sector and drastic reductions in school supervision hours as a result of COVID-19 could drive millions of mothers out of the paid workforce. Inaction could cost billions, undermine family economic security, and set gender equity back a generation.
Women took the biggest economic hit from the coronavirus-induced recession, and a slowing recovery is increasingly leaving women behind, threatening to set working women back a generation.
The Trump administration has issued dozens of regulations that have threatened women’s progress and cost them billions—revealing a fundamental disregard for women.
Policymakers must consider lessons learned from the emergency paid leave laws passed in response to the coronavirus pandemic in order to design national, permanent paid leave policies that ensure racial, gender, and economic equity and meet the needs of families.
Employers have a pivotal role to play in establishing pay practices within workplaces and correcting the disparities that have eroded Black women’s pay for decades.
Without federal relief funds, many child care programs will close, disproportionately affecting women’s labor force participation.
Existing support systems for domestic violence survivors are proving inadequate during the pandemic and point to the need for a stronger nationwide infrastructure connecting survivors to vital supports and services.
Women, especially women of color, in the United States are more likely to live in poverty than men, and they need robust, targeted solutions to ensure their long-term economic security.
Please join the Center for American Progress for an important conversation with leading economists to discuss the economic status of Black women and the need for a more inclusive economic narrative that prioritizes the real-world challenges Black women face.
Employers and policymakers must take concrete steps to avoid replicating and perpetuating longstanding racial, gender, and ethnic biases in workplaces of the future to create equitable environments where women have the best chance of success.
Women need policy solutions for their immediate health and economic needs during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as long-term systemic change.
Working women face new caregiving challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic and need structural policy change that mitigates long-term impacts on their earnings and employment, including resources to stabilize the child care industry.
Too little attention has been paid to the consequences of the escalating COVID-19 pandemic for women of color, even as it exacerbates existing disparities and further undermines their families’ economic stability and survival.
Women working full time earned an estimated $546.3 billion less than their male counterparts in the year since the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Paycheck Fairness Act. With each day the Senate fails to act, this earnings gap will only expand.
This fact sheet defines the gender wage gap, identifies what drives it, and quantifies its impact on women and their families.
