COVID 19 and Recovery Response
In these unprecedented times, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) is committed to communicating and addressing the challenges women are facing. IWPR’s new research outlines how policymakers can address the immediate and long term needs of women, their families, and their communities in policy responses to the pandemic.
COVID-19 and Online Education Decisions
New survey data show pandemic may be disproportionately influencing women to choose online education over in-person options. By Lindsay McKenzie Women have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, and this may be why they feel they cannot pursue in-person education, even if previously this would have been their preference, said C. Nicole Mason, president and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Women are more likely to have lost work because of the pandemic and are more likely to be caring [...]
Prioritizing Student Parents in COVID-19 Response and Relief
Nearly four million U.S. undergraduate college students are parents or guardians of children under the age of 18. These student parents, who already faced immense financial, child care, food, and housing insecurity before the COVID-19 pandemic, are now dealing with multiple new barriers, including school closures, lay-offs, and child care disruptions, among other challenges.
America’s child care problem is an economic problem
“Families are not okay,” one expert says. It’s making the economic crisis way worse. By: Anna North Add to that parents needing and looking for jobs: More than 11 percent of women are unemployed right now The difficulty of finding child care is already causing parents to drop out of the workforce and reduce hours. Meanwhile, millions of Americans, many of them parents, have lost jobs due to the economic crisis. Job losses have been especially pronounced among women, 11.2 percent of [...]
Ending the extra $600 federal benefit will harm ‘vast majority’ of unemployed workers, especially women and people of color
By Alicia Adamczyk If Congress decides not to extend the extra $600 a week in federal unemployment benefits past its July 31 end date, the “vast majority” of unemployed workers will be “harmed” without it, according to the House Ways and Means Committee. While workers of all genders, races, ages and income levels will see a reduction in benefits, women, people of color and younger workers will be hit especially hard if the benefit is not extended. Those groups have have lost [...]
Women net more jobs than men post shutdown, but remain disproportionately impacted by overall losses.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Lea Woods | 202-785-5100 | woods@iwpr.org As the economy reopens and re-hiring begins, unemployment rates remain high for Black and Latina women, and younger workers. Washington, DC — Most recent employment data show steady declines in unemployment for both women and men. Women gained a majority (59.9 percent) of the 4.8 million new jobs added to payroll, but sustained 8 million (54.7 percent) of the 14.6 million jobs lost since February. Since the start of the Pandemic, women [...]
Economy Adds More Jobs for Women Than Men, But Women Still 8 Million Jobs-on-Payroll Below February and Majority of All Who Lost Jobs
The economy added 4.8 million to non-farm payroll employment, according to the latest U.S. Bureau Employment Situation Release. Yet, while women gained the majority of new job, they continue to lag further behind men in terms of getting back to pre-COVID 19 employment levels.