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.

The Union Advantage for Women

This briefing paper presents an analysis of women’s union membership and the union wage and benefit advantage for women by state and by race/ethnicity. It is based on an analysis of the Current Population Survey. Wage and benefit data are for all workers covered by a union contract, irrespective of their membership in a union.

By Julie AndersonAriane Hegewisch and Jeff Hayes|August 12, 2015|

Women in the Construction Trades: Earnings, Workplace Discrimination, and the Promise of Green Jobs

Based on the 2013 IWPR Tradeswomen Survey, an exploratory study of women working in construction trades, this report provides insights to working conditions for women in the construction industry, examines their earnings and employment experiences since the end of the Great Recession, and analyzes women’s motivations for pursuing green training and its impact on their employment.

By Ariane Hegewisch and Brigid O’Farrell|April 13, 2015|

Paid Parental Leave in the United States: What the Data Tell Us about Access, Usage, and Economic and Health Benefits

This paper was prepared by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) as a part of a series of Scholars’ Papers sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of American Women: Report of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women, 1963.

By Barbara GaultHeidi HartmannAriane HegewischJessica Milli and Lindsey Reichlin Cruse|January 23, 2014|