Economic Security, Mobility and Equity (ESME)Administrator2025-01-29T22:12:32-05:00

Economic Security, Mobility and Equity (ESME)

Whether paid or unpaid, women’s work is crucial for their families’ economic security and well-being. Greater gender equality in paid and unpaid work will reduce poverty and improve economic growth and prosperity; persistent inequity in employment and family work is costing all of us. Women are held back by the undervaluation of historically female work, workplaces designed as if workers had no family responsibilities, and a broken-down work-family infrastructure.

IWPR’s ESME program highlights the extent of pay inequalities, and the role played by stark occupational segregation in perpetuating unequal pay. We conduct research and analysis on women’s labor force participation and employment trends; workforce development, non-traditional employment, and apprenticeships; the impact of sex discrimination and harassment on women’s career advancement and mobility; the gender pay gap and pay inequity across race and ethnicity; work-family policies and employer practices; the and the impact of automation and technological advances on women workers.

We work with policymakers, employers, advocates, and practitioners to identify promising practices and policy solutions.

Women Lost More Jobs than Men in almost all Sectors of the Economy

Employment data released on Friday, April 3 show dramatic job losses and sharp rises in unemployment for both women and men since February. Altogether 701,000 jobs were lost, the majority (58.8 percent or 412,188) by women. While these estimates of job losses are already outdated – since their collection in the second week of March new applications for unemployment reached almost ten times that level–they point to the critical role of gender in understanding the impact of the COVID -19 crisis.

By Ariane Hegewisch|April 6, 2020|

The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation 2019

Women’s median earnings are lower than men’s in nearly all occupations, whether they work in occupations predominantly done by women, occupations predominantly done by men, or occupations with a more even mix of men and women. Data for both women’s and men’s median weekly earnings for full-time work are available for 125 occupations.

By Ariane Hegewisch and Zohal Barsi|March 24, 2020|

The Gender Wage Gap: 2019 Earnings Differences by Race and Ethnicity

The gender wage gap in weekly earnings for full-time workers in the United States narrowed marginally between 2018 and 2019. In 2019, the ratio of women’s to men’s median weekly full-time earnings was 81.5 percent, an increase of 0.4 percent since 2018, when the ratio was 81.1 percent, leaving a wage gap of 18.5 percent, compared with 18.9 percent in 2018.

By Ariane Hegewisch and Zohal Barsi|March 10, 2020|

Women-Owned Businesses Have Increased in Number, but Still Face Obstacles to Growth

Women have made considerable progress in increasing their representation among business owners in recent years. The number of women-owned businesses increased in almost every industry between 2002 and 2012, at rates higher than those of men-owned businesses.

By Zohal Barsi and Jessica Milli|February 19, 2020|

Providing Unpaid Household and Care Work in the United States: Uncovering Inequality

In the United States, women spend considerably more time than men over their lifetime doing unpaid household and care work. The unequal distribution of this work—work that is essential for families and societies to thrive—not only limits women’s career choices and economic empowerment, but also affects their overall health and well-being.

By Jeff HayesCynthia Hess, Ph.D. and Tanima Ahmed|January 20, 2020|