COVID-19 and Recovery Response
As the pandemic enters its third year and the nation turns to recovery, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research is committed to amplifying and addressing the challenges women face. IWPR’s new research provides insights and recommendations for policymakers to help meet the urgent and long-term needs of women, their families, and their communities.
States and localities need federal funding to address housing insecurity among women and families
This article is part of a week-long series for IWPR’s Status of Women in the States initiative. The work featured in this series highlights the various ways the pandemic and related economic crisis are impacting women and their families at the state-level. This project builds on IWPR’s recent economic recovery report that details the extent to which women, and particularly women of color, have shouldered the greatest burden of the economic crisis, and also proposes a slate of bold [...]
The Pandemic Will Send More Women to the C-Suite
By Caroline Fairchild The immediate legacy of this pandemic is the outsized negative impact it’s had on working women. Yet when we look at the top of the corporate ladder, there are signs of hope. COVID-19 has been catastrophic for women — particularly minority women, low-income women and single mothers. Job losses have mounted in sectors that employ a large share of women, while school closures have forced many working mothers to drop out of the workforce altogether. In the U.S. [...]
Child Care Key for Equitable Economic Recovery
By Eric Galatas LINCOLN, Neb. -- Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, women in Nebraska and across the U.S. have left the workforce in unprecedented numbers. And a new report suggests a full economic recovery will not be possible unless steps are taken to help women get back on the job. Nicole Mason, president and CEO of the Institute for Women's Policy Research, said the lack of access to child care has forced women to choose between their families' [...]
Melinda Gates Believes the United States Needs a Child Care Infrastructure. We Do Too.
The coronavirus has laid bare what was painfully clear to many families already: The caregiving system in the United States is broken, and it is women who are paying the price. - Melinda Gates In yesterday's Washington Post op-ed, Melinda Gates offered a clear call to action: provide federal funding to rebuild child care infrastructure and expand work supports including paid leave and Medicare to promote economic security for women and working families. These critical policies would have facilitated [...]
Women’s Share of Unemployment Insurance Claimants varies Strongly Across States
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.
Congress needs to act now—women and families risk devastation after December 26 expiry of CARES Act benefits
The CARES Act, passed in March 2020, proved to be a lifeline for many women and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic. The benefits introduced by the CARES Act, including the $600 weekly federal unemployment benefit, lifted more than 18 million individuals out of poverty in April, a majority of whom were women. Women outnumber men among state unemployment insurance claimants both nationally and in the large majority of the states. By September, after the weekly federal benefit ended, the [...]
