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.
Young Women Workers Still Struggling a Decade After the Great Recession: Lessons for the Pandemic Recovery
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a “she-cession,” with women experiencing a disproportionate share of job losses (Institute for Women’s Policy Research 2021). Young women ages 16 to 24 years old suffered the largest percentage decline in employment compared to young men and prime-age workers, mainly due to their concentration in service sectors and occupations that had been hit the hardest by the pandemic recession (Sun 2021). The outsized effects of the COVID-19 pandemic recession on young women reflect pre-existing inequalities in the labor market. Achieving an equitable economic recovery requires understanding how the U.S. labor market has been transformed in the past decade and beyond—to the detriment of workers.
Why It’s Hard to Hire Right Now
In the past few weeks, 22 states have announced they would end federal pandemic unemployment benefits, which pay recipients $300 on top of state benefits and are scheduled to run into September. (New Hampshire is the latest.) Many of the states’ governors, all Republicans, made statements similar to that of Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina, who said the expanded benefits are “incentivizing and paying workers to stay at home rather than encouraging them to return to the workplace.” The [...]
Child Care at Core of Women’s Slow Post-Pandemic Return to Work
By Katie Kindelan In 1971, Congress passed the Comprehensive Child Development Act, legislation that would have established a network of nationally funded, comprehensive child care centers. But President Richard Nixon vetoed the legislation, and Congress has not passed anything similar in the five decades since. Now 50 years later, President Joe Biden has proposed an ambitious legislative proposal -- his "American Families Plan" -- that would, among other things, create universal pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds, cap how much low- [...]
Why Is Re-entering the Workforce So Hard on Moms?
By Heidi Borst In April 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nicole Peyer, 44, of Oakland, CA, was furloughed from her job as a sales consultant for a national wine and spirits distribution company. After four months, Peyer was rehired, but her needs had changed: With two elementary-school aged kids remote learning at home, she requested a more flexible schedule that would allow her to trade off on childcare with her husband — but her employers wouldn’t budge. [...]
STEMMing the Tide of Women’s Progress
By Rosalind C. Barnett and Caryl Rivers Women and girls weren’t doing very well in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine) before the Covid 19 pandemic. Despite accounting for over half of the college-educated workforce, women in the United States made up only 29% of those employed in science and engineering occupations in 2017. Further, a 2018 report from Microsoft found that girls and young women were still less likely than boys to imagine or pursue careers in STEMM. [...]
Why These Two Policies Are Vital to Working Moms and Post-Pandemic Recovery
By Tanya Tarr Mother’s Day in the United States has a curious origin. In 1914, Anna Jarvis petitioned President Woodrow Wilson for a national day to honor mothers. Jarvis wanted to honor her own mother, a peace activist, while also encouraging Americans to connect with their families. The victory was short lived. By 1920, Jarvis was disgusted with over-commercialization of the day and filed lawsuits to prevent businesses from profiting from the holiday. She even lobbied to have the day [...]