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.
Domestic abusers are taking survivors’ stimulus checks — and lawmakers want the IRS to do something about it
Domestic-violence survivors often use cash infusions as a springboard toward safety. By Meera Jagannathan and Andrew Keshner One reason many survivors remain with their abusers is insufficient means to financially support themselves and/or their kids, advocates say. Some 73% of domestic-violence survivors report staying with an abusive partner longer or returning to that partner due to financial problems, according to a 2018 Institute for Women’s Policy Research survey of 164 individuals in 11 states and Washington, D.C. Read More
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 [...]
