Join us for IWPR’s 2026 Power+ Summit, The Power Grid: Driving Gender Equity Forward, taking place September 28–29 in Detroit, MI.
Together, we will spark bold ideas, share breakthroughs, and shape the future of gender equity.
- In 42 of 50 states and DC, women were the majority of unemployment insurance claimants.
- A third of all unemployed women, and four in ten Latinas, have been out of work for more than 26 weeks.
- The receipt of unemployment benefits, including those provided under the CARES Act, substantially reduces but do not eliminate the odds of hunger or foreclosure threats for women and their families.
Women outnumbered men among state unemployment insurance claimants both nationally and in the large majority of the states in September (the most recent gender breakdowns available), and women were the majority of claimants in 42 states and DC (Table 1). Yet, women’s share of unemployment insurance claimants ranged widely, from two thirds (66.7 percent) of claimants in Vermont to just one third (33.4 percent) in Wyoming.