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.
Most new parents have 0 days of paid leave. Everyone could have 12 weeks under Biden’s plan.
By Caroline Kitchener Every two years, like clockwork, federal lawmakers have tried to pass legislation mandating paid family leave. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) introduced their family leave bill in 2013 — and again in 2015, 2017 and 2019. In 2021, the United States remains the only industrialized country in the world where parents are not guaranteed paid leave. President Biden introduced legislation on Wednesday that could provide new parents with the kind of financial [...]
Working Families Need Bold Child Care Solutions – This Reintroduced Bill Could Be the First Step
For the first time in half a century, the US is close to addressing its child care crisis. In the 1970s, Congress was prompted by the shift of more women in the workforce. They nearly passed a bill that would have funded locally run childcare centers around the country, but was vetoed by then-president Nixon for being in favor of “communal approaches to child-rearing" rather than a “family-centered approach”. In both 2017 and 2019, Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Representative [...]
The pandemic gave parents the chance to work from home. Now they don’t want to give it up.
By Ellen McCarthy Katy Clark left the house every morning by 7 a.m. to fight for parking. Lymari Vélez Sepúlveda spent two to four hours a day commuting, dragging her young son along for the ride so he could be dropped off at day care. Christopher Thomas left before his daughter woke up, and by the time he returned, she was starting to get ready for bed. Angele Russell raced to pick up her son each evening before his aftercare [...]
Trabajadoras domésticas buscan empleo durante la pandemia en EE.UU.
En EE.UU. las mujeres, sobre todo de origen hispano, se vieron afectadas de manera desproporcionada por el desempleo causado por la pandemia. Entre otros obstáculos, el cierre de guarderías infantiles y escuelas obligó a muchas a elegir entre el trabajo y el cuidado de sus hijos. Translation: In the U.S., women, especially Hispanic women, were disproportionately affected by unemployment caused by the pandemic. Among other obstacles, the closure of children's daycare centers and schools forced many to choose between working [...]
The Pandemic Worsened Inequities for Working Women. What Now?
By Christine Smith “All this data that we've seen in these groups that have been disproportionately hit, it's really just been COVID highlighting and exacerbating existing inequities,” says Ana Hernández Kent, senior researcher at the St. Louis Fed’s Institute for Economic Equity. She joins Meredith Covington, manager of Supervisory Policy and Risk Analysis, also of the St. Louis Fed. They talk with Christine Smith, communications specialist, about how the “she-cession” is disproportionately affecting women of color and sparking conversations about [...]
The Student Parent Equity Imperative: Guidance for the Biden-Harris Administration
As the Biden-Harris administration seeks to hasten the country’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, reforming the U.S. higher education system to ensure equitable access and attainment for all adults is more important than ever. The pandemic has disproportionately increased the caregiving, financial, and emotional burdens on student parents and their families—most of whom are mothers, students of color, adult and working learners, students with low incomes, and first-generation students [...]
