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.
Economic Recovery Could Take Years for Women Who Lost Jobs During Pandemic — Even with Biden’s Plans
By Francesca Chambers Women who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic could be waiting until 2023 to work again, experts warn, even if economic initiatives President Joe Biden has proposed become law. It could take more than two years for women’s employment to return to pre-pandemic levels because the industries women worked in were hit the hardest, according to the National Women’s Law Center, an organization that publishes monthly reports on how the pandemic is affecting women’s employment. Most [...]
How to Cure the She-Cession: 15 Moves to Help Working Women Recover
By Kerri Anne Renzulli More than 4.5 million fewer women are working now than at the start of the pandemic, setting women's participation rate in the workforce back more than 30 years. A combination of layoffs, particularly in female-dominated fields hit hard by COVID like tourism and hospitality, and a lack of child care resulting from school and daycare closures are to blame. But a "return to normal" won't by itself repair the economic damage to women and the goal [...]
Exclusive: Pandemic Could Cost Typical American Woman Nearly $600,000 in Lifetime Income
By Emily Peck New signs of the nation's expanding recovery from the pandemic crop up every day, but for millions of women in the U.S. the economic punch of COVID may never be over. Long after the face masks have been tucked away and the kids are back in school full-time, after offices reopen, jobs are regained and life returns to some semblance of normalcy, the financial fallout of the past 15 months will continue to trail these women—likely, for [...]
A Woman’s Struggle to Overcome Long-Term Unemployment
By Mitchell Hartman The Labor Department’s jobs report for April found that more than 4 of every 10 (43%) unemployed Americans were “long-term unemployed,” meaning they had been out of work and actively looking for 27 weeks or longer. That rate is comparable to the high levels seen in the years after the Great Recession. Women are bearing substantial burdens from both long-term unemployment and the struggle to return to the workforce after being laid off or leaving their jobs [...]
The Gender Pay Gap: Why It’s Still Here
By Tom Spiggle By now you’ve probably heard of the gender pay gap. It gets especially a lot of attention on Equal Pay Day. This year, Equal Pay Day was March 21, as that’s how far into 2021 the average American woman had to work (in addition to working all of 2020) to make as much money as the average American man earned in 2020. Over the past few decades, this gender pay gap has been narrowing. But it’s a [...]
IWPR Testifies to Congress on the Importance of an Accessible, Affordable Child-Care System
The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need for a robust child-care infrastructure in the United States. As the country emerges from the COVID-fueled recession and the Biden administration builds its recovery policy, the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) remains a strong advocate for the needs of parents and child-care workers. “The lack of access to affordable, reliable child care not only makes it harder for parents to work, it perpetuates systemic gender, racial, and class inequalities by relying on [...]
