RESEARCH MAKING THE NEWS
Women are better in tech than men, says a report
By Erin Carson | 
A report from the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution measured men’s and women’s digital scores, and found that women had stronger skills than men do. The Brookings report, called “Digitalization and the American Workforce,” looked at “information about the knowledge, skills, tools and technology; education and training; work context; and work activities required” for high tech jobs, and it gave women a digital score of 48 versus 45 for men.
Citing: Digitalization and the American Workforce by Mark Muro, Jacob Whiton, and Siddharth Kulmaki, at The Brookings Institution, November 2017
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Women start-ups hampered by bias among male investors: study
By Emily Velasco | 
A new study is highlighting one possible reason women aren’t making more headway in Silicon Valley: men prefer to invest in companies run by other men. With men making up 90 percent of venture capitalists, that preference is a bottleneck that keeps women out of the ranks of tech entrepreneurs. […] Because female-led start-ups face tougher funding prospects than male-led start-ups, fewer women enter the tech entrepreneur pipeline that ultimately feeds the ranks of venture capitalists.
Citing: Are Early Stage Investors Biased Against Women? By Michael Ewens and Richard R. Townsend at California Institute of Technology and University of California, San Diego, October 2017
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What we now know about who struggles with student debt
By Danielle Douglas-Gabriel | 
Older African Americans and college students with children disproportionately bear the burden of education debt, according to a pair of reports released this week that researchers say show the need for more nuanced solutions from higher education. Americans over age 50 collectively hold $247 billion in outstanding federal education loans, an amount that has grown threefold since 2003, policy analysts at the Urban Institute found. The impact of that debt differs depending on whether borrowers took out the loan for themselves or for family members, according to a report released Thursday by the think tank.
Citing: The Complexity of Education Debt Among Older Americans, by Kristin Blagg and Victoria Lee at The Urban Institute, November 2017
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Violence Against Transgender People Is on the Rise, Advocates Say
By Maggie Astor | 
The Human Rights Campaign has documented the killings of 25 transgender people in the United States so far in 2017, compared with 23 last year and 21 in 2015. Other organizations, like Glaad and the Transgender Law Center, have slightly different tallies, but the trend holds. Transgender people have been killed this year in Chicago and in Waxahachie, Tex.; in the Ozarks of Missouri and on the sidewalks of Manhattan. They have been shot, stabbed, burned and, in at least one case, pushed into a river. On average, one to two have been killed somewhere in the United States every week.
Citing: Violence Against the Transgender Community in 2017, by The Human Rights Campaign, October 2017
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On #LatinaEqualPayDay, Advocates Are Pushing for Change
By Lyanne Alfaro | 
When it comes to median annual earnings, Latinas make 54 cents compared to a dollar earned by non-Latino white men, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR). This means Latinas would have to work 10 more months in a year to reach the same level of pay. Women make almost half of the workforce, and only earn 80 cents to every dollar a man makes. But while non-Latina white women could close that gap by 2059, it would take Latinas until 2233 to reach parity.
Citing: Women’s Median Earnings as a Percent of Men’s 1985-2016 (Full-time, Year-Round Workers) with Projections for Pay Equity, by Race/Ethnicity, by Institute for Women’s Policy Research, November 2017
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NEW RESEARCH REPORTS
Becoming Visible: Race, Economic Security, and Political Voice in Jackson, Mississippi
By Rachel Black and Aleta Sprague, with Aisha Nyandoro | New America | November 2017
This report attempts to reveal how policies created through racial exclusion and oppression are maintained behind a veneer of race-neutrality, and to reject reform efforts that tinker at the margins of this system. In doing so, what we are calling for is nothing less than a new approach to making social policy based on our oldest beliefs about democracy and opportunity that truly affirms the equal humanity and dignity of all people.
Working with men to support women’s empowerment
Women for Women International | November 2017
Women’s equality is everyone’s business. All members of society suffer from patriarchal attitudes and have a role to play in promoting gender equality – these are not just “women’s issues.” The emerging literature suggests that there are three main reasons for engaging with men for women’s equality: Men hold important positions of power and influence over societies. Engaging with them as ‘gatekeepers’ can promote more efficient normative change via their influence. Men can become allies who understand the benefits of promoting gender equality and work in partnership with women. Men can also be co-beneficiaries, as patriarchal attitudes reinforce stringent masculine norms that dictate how men should behave and limit the roles a man can play in his family and community.
Persistent Gaps: State Child Care Assistance Policies 2017
By Karen Schulman and Helen Blank | National Women’s Law Center |November 2017
The average annual cost for full-time care ranges from nearly $3,000 to over $17,000, depending on the age of the child, the type of care, and where the family costs can strain families’ budgets, force parents to use lower-cost care even if they would prefer other options for their children, or prevent parents from working because they cannot a ord care. Child care assistance can enable families to overcome these challenges by helping families pay for child care.
Trends in College Pricing 2017
By Jaclyn Bergeron and Edward Lu | College Board | October 2017
Both the published tuition and fee prices of colleges and universities and the net prices students pay after subtracting grant aid and tax credits and deductions continued to rise between 2016-17 and 2017-18, even after adjusting for inflation. Average net prices in 2017-18 remain lower at public two-year and private nonprofit four-year institutions than they were in 2007-08 (in 2017 dollars). But each year since 2011-12, net prices have risen in these sectors, as well as at public four-year institutions, as the growth in grant aid slowed relative to the growth in tuition and fees.
