Of the 42.3 million women of color, age 18 and older, in the United States, 41.5 percent (17,537,563) live in the South, 23.2 percent in the Pacific West, 16.3 percent in the Northeast, 9.8 percent in East North Central, 6.4 percent in the Mountain West, and 2.9 percent in West North Central.
Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) analysis of data from the American Community Survey finds that between 2004 and 2014, Black women’s real median annual earnings for full-time, year-round work declined by 5.0 percent—more than three times as much as women’s earnings overall.
Over the last few decades, women’s increased labor force participation, education, and earnings have helped many women attain economic security. Yet, a substantial number of women in the United States face economic hardship.
The Status of Women in the South builds on IWPR’s long-standing analyses and reports, The Status of Women in the States, that have provided data on the status of women nationally and for all 50 states plus the District of Columbia since 1996. The Status of Women in the South uses data from U.S. government and other sources to analyze women’s status in the southern United States, including Alabama, Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Florida Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Get to the Bricks: The Experiences of Black Women from New Orleans Public Housing After Hurricane Katrina presents the results of qualitative research conducted with 184 low-income black women who lived in public housing prior to Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans, and who were displaced by the hurricane and the closure and demolition of their housing.
The Status of Women in the States: 2015 provides critical data to identify areas of progress for women in states across the nation and pinpoint where additional improvements are still needed. It presents hundreds of data points for each state across seven areas that affect women’s lives: political participation, employment and earnings, work and family, poverty and opportunity, reproductive rights, health and well-being, and violence and safety.
This brief aims to explain the circumstances of student parents – particularly vis-á-vis the financial aid system – as well as detail major federal programs that could impact student parents’ college-going experience.
This paper explores options for reforming the U.S. visa system to increase the pathways to legal status for undocumented immigrant women interested in providing long-term care for the elderly and for individuals with disabilities and chronic illnesses.
Women in North Carolina have made significant social and economic advances in recent decades, but the need for further progress remains. A forthcoming report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), The Status of Women in North Carolina, shows that many of North Carolina’s women are vulnerable to challenges such as unemployment, a persistent wage gap, poverty, and the high cost of child care.
The IWPR/Rockefeller Survey addressed the extent of economic security almost a year and a half after the recession officially ended. Many of the survey’s findings are detailed in the report, Women and Men Living On the Edge: Economic Insecurity After the Great Recession (Hayes and Hartmann 2011).
