Political Participation
Shaping their own future
When women participate in the political process, they shape policies in ways that reflect their interests and needs. The Status of Women in the States’ Political Participation Index looks at women as voters, grassroots activists and campaign fundraisers, and officeholders and examines the uneven progress they have made.
Articles and Publications
Gender and Racial Wage Gaps Marginally Improve in 2022 but Pay Equity Still Decades Away
In 2022, women working full-time year-round made 84.0 cents per dollar earned by men (a wage gap of 16.0 percent), a marginal improvement compared to 2021 (83.7 cents per dollar) and significantly higher than in pre-COVID-19 2019 (82.3 cents).1 Based on median annual earnings [...]
Quick Figure: Pay Equity Still Decades Away
If progress continues at the same rate as it has since 1960, it will still take more than three decades, until 2053, for all working women to reach pay equity with men. It will take even longer, until 2058, to reach full pay equity [...]
Policy-at-a-Glance: Securing Student Parent Success
Earning a college degree has long been critical to unlocking many high-paying jobs – and, as a result, to economic mobility and security. Increasingly, however, the traditional “norm” of a college student – one who enrolls straight out of high school, receives some support [...]
State Policy for Student Parent Success: A Landscape Scan of Policy Solutions Enacted at the State Level
While promoting student-parent success has mainly been left to institutions of higher education, several states have considered or adopted a range of policy initiatives to support student parents in postsecondary education. This paper provides state policy stakeholders, including governors, state agencies, and advocates, with [...]
State by State, Mothers Are Paid Much Less Than Fathers
Mothers earned less than fathers prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, during the pandemic, and as the economy began to recover from the pandemic. In 2021, the most recently available annual earnings data, the median annual earnings for mothers amounted to just 61.7 cents on [...]
Black Women Earn Less Than White Men in Every State, Won’t Reach Pay Equity Until 2144
The COVID-19 pandemic and related recession both highlighted and exacerbated the persistent racial and gendered economic inequalities that Black women face in the labor market. Whether they worked full-time, part-time, year-round, or part-year, Black women were paid substantially less than White men. This brief [...]
