Work and Family
The equal participation of women in politics and government is integral to building strong communities and a vibrant democracy in which women and men can thrive. By voting, running for office, and engaging in civil society as leaders and activists, women shape laws, policies, and decision-making in ways that reflect their interests and needs, as well as those of their families and communities.
Today, women constitute a powerful force in the electorate and inform policymaking at all levels of government. Yet, women continue to be underrepresented in governments across the nation and face barriers that often make it difficult for them to exercise political power and assume leadership positions in the public sphere. This chapter presents data on several aspects of women’s involvement in the political process in the United States: voter registration and turnout, female state and federal elected and appointed representation, and state-based institutional resources for women. It examines how women fare on these indicators of women’s status, the progress women have made and where it has stalled, and how racial and ethnic disparities compound gender disparities in specific forms of political participation.
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Political Participation Rank and Score by State
Filling the Gap: Community College Students Expect Sexual Health Education on Campus
Decades of research point to the importance of comprehensive sex education for promoting health beliefs and behaviors that lead to healthier relationships and reduce young people’s risk for unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). But a survey of community college students found that [...]
The Numbers Don’t Add Up: Women Continue to Earn Less, Regardless of Occupation
In 2025, women were paid less than men for full-time work in all 20 occupations that employ the most women and in all 20 occupations that employ the most men in the United States. Across all detailed occupations with sufficient data, women were paid up to [...]
Unseen Efforts: Disparities in Unpaid Care Work Before and After COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic brought to the fore the need for unpaid care work, as well as the highly unequal distribution of care work. This study contributes to the understanding of care work by providing post-COVID assessments of changes in unpaid caregiving by gender, race/ethnicity, [...]
One Year Into Trump’s Second Term, Black Women Face Disproportionate Job Losses
The most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that Black women lost 251,000 jobs between January and August of 2025. While this number reflects a downward revision from a higher estimate last year, it still represents a large and unequal decrease [...]
Revisiting Occupational Segregation and the Valuation of Women’s Work
While population ageing increases the demand for care work, new automation technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), reinforce the importance of human interaction, with recent research documenting significant wage premiums for social skills. Against this background, we investigate two factors behind the gender wage gap: [...]
Essential but Undervalued: Systemic Barriers Facing Black Women in Social Work
Black women have faced systemic racial and gender discrimination in the labor force, and although historically they have had high labor force participation rates, they tend to be overrepresented in care and service jobs. As such, an intersectional lens is key to understanding Black [...]
