In the Lead
Lack of Abortion Access Will Set US Women Back, Economists Warn
“There’s a reluctance to talk about the economic case for expanding reproductive access, including abortion access,” says C. Nicole Mason in a new Financial Times article by Claire Bushey about the economic impact of abortion restrictions.
Almost a Year and a Half Later, Black Women Continue to Be Hard-Hit by the Pandemic
The disappointing September jobs report revealed that just 235,000 new jobs were created in August. It also showed an unemployment rate on the decline: falling from 5.9 percent in June to 5.4 percent in July, then to 5.2 percent in August. This is just over one-third of the 14.8 percent unemployment rate at the peak of the pandemic in April of 2020. Figure 1 below, however, shows how the unemployment rate breaks down by sex, race, and ethnicity. Not only [...]
Construction and Utilities Are the Only Industries Where Women Have Added Jobs Since COVID. Now the Task Is to Make Them Want to Stay.
There are just two major industries where there are now more women on payroll than there were before the COVID-19 pandemic, Construction and Utilities. Last month, in August 2021, IWPR’s analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistic shows that there were 1.026 million women on employer payrolls in the construction industry, 30,000 more than in February 2020; men’s jobs declined slightly over the same period, from 6.65 million to 6.39 million. Women’s jobs in Utilities grew by 1,300. [...]
“Nevertheless, I Persisted and Graduated”: A Single Mom’s Journey
This guest blog post is authored by Zoe Erickson in collaboration with IWPR’s Student Parent Success Initiative. Zoe graduated with her Bachelor's degree in June 2020 from Portland State University and is expected to obtain her Master of Public Policy at Portland State University by June 2022. Zoe is also a recipient of services of the Resource Center for Students with Children program at Portland State University.
“The Pandemic Was Not Going to Stop Me”: A Student Parent Reflects on Struggles, and Success, during COVID
This guest blog post is authored by Jessica Vera, a 2020 alumni of Misericordia University and participant of the Ruth Matthews Bourger Women with Children Program. The article was written in collaboration with IWPR’s Student Parent Success Initiative. This past year has drastically impacted my life as a college student and mother. During my last term in the winter of 2020, I was interning at a local news station when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. My university not only suspended in-person [...]
The High Financial Price Paid by Victims of Sexual Harassment
By Bryce Covert While it’s long been clear that victims of sexual harassment often face retaliation that can damage their careers, the financial cost they shoulder has been difficult to quantify. To put a number on it, a study published Wednesday by Time’s Up and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), “Paying Today and Tomorrow,” sought to nail down what people who had been harassed ended up paying. Victims interviewed faced expenses anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Read [...]
