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Here’s why the work of women’s research is still crucial!

• Data has gone missing. The current administration continues to engage in a pattern of omission, distortion, and spin when it comes to information about women and girls. Data on the Department of Labor website has gone missing.

• Women are still massively underrepresented in the sciences. Despite substantial gains in the number of women pursuing graduate degrees in the sciences, women currently earn only 23.6% of all PhDs in math & computer science, 26.7% in the physical sciences, and only 18.3% in engineering.

• There are too few female tenured professors. Despite the fact that women have been at least half of all college undergraduates since 1978, women represent only 31% of all tenured faculty nationwide, only 9% of private doctoral granting universities boast women presidents, and 16% of public doctoral granting universities have women presidents.

• Women are underrepresented in corporate leadership. Women have made up more than 40% of the workforce since 1977, and are currently almost 50%, yet only 10 women are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.

• Women are still underpaid. Women earn only 77 cents to every dollar earned by men – and have done so for the past 20 years!

• Too few women lawyers make partner. Women have been 40% of all law school students since 1995, and 50% since 2001, but are only 17.9% of partners in law firms nationwide. Only 1.48% of partners in law firms are minority women.

• Men still dominate the airwaves. Women make up only 14% of the national "experts" on Sunday morning political talk shows, and only 13% of guests featured during the first segment were women. Of the female guests, only 14% were asked to appear for a repeat visit. 56% of all episodes featured zero female guests.

• Women are poorer. Women constitute about 70% of the world’s absolute poor – those living on less than a dollar a day. Although women make up 50% of the world’s population, women own less than 2% of all land and receive less than 5% of all support services. In the United States in 2005, there were 21 million women living below the poverty level.

• Women are plagued with HIV/AIDS. Today, women around the world account for nearly half (48%) of the 40 million people living with HIV, and women in sub-Saharan Africa account for 59%. Young people account for half of all new HIV infections worldwide. By the end of 2006, 39.5 million people worldwide were living with HIV; 17.7 million of these people were women. In 2005, women accounted for 26% of the estimated 37,163 diagnoses of HIV/AIDS for adults and adolescents in the US. From the time the epidemic began in 1981 to 2005, women accounted for 181,802 diagnoses, which is 19% of the total diagnoses in the US. In 2003, HIV infection was the leading cause of death for black women ages 25-34. The rate of AIDS diagnosis for black women is 23 times the rate for white women and 4 times the rate for Hispanic women.

• Women are trafficked. Of the 800,000 to nearly 4 million people trafficked internationally every year, 80% are female, and 50% of those females are children. Of the 17,500 people trafficked into the US each year, it is estimated that 80% are female, and 50% of those females are children.