Economic Security

A Gender Reversal On Career Aspirations: Young Women Now Top Young Men in Valuing a High-Paying Career

Submitted by asklar on Fri, 04/20/2012 - 10:57am

In a reversal of traditional gender roles, young women now surpass young men in the importance they place on having a high-paying career or profession, according to survey findings from the Pew Research Center. Two-thirds (66%) of young women ages 18 to 34 rate career high on their list of life priorities, compared with 59% of young men. In 1997, 56% of young women and 58% of young men felt the same way.

Pew Research Center Report, April 2012
by Eileen Patten and Kim Parker

URL:

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/04/19/a-gender-reversal-on-career-aspirations/?src=prc-headline

Rising to the Top?

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 04/19/2012 - 10:52am

Asia Society and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy deliver “Rising to the Top?”, a study that highlights the current socio-economic landscape for women in China and the region. The report discusses gender gap issues and presents policy recommendations to ease gender inequality.

URL:

http://sites.asiasociety.org/womenleaders/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Rising-to-the-Top.pdf

CNN Poll: Support for working women almost unanimous

Teaser:

A new CNN/ORC International poll shows that most Americans now think the number of women in the workplace is a good thing for children of working mothers, which is a significant change from attitudes on that topic in the 1980s and 1990s.

Editorial:

From CNN:

The CNN/ORC International poll also indicated that nearly nine in ten Americans approve of mothers of young children working outside the home, even if their husbands can support their families. Six in ten women, including six in ten mothers of children under the age of 18, said they would prefer to have a job outside the home.

Full results (pdf)

[...]

Source:

CNN

URL:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/16/poll-support-for-working-women-almost-unanimous/

Date:

April 18, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

How to Close the Gender Wage Gap in Just Seven Easy* Steps

Teaser:

Bryce Covert outlines 7 cultural and legislative changes that could end the gender wage gap.

Editorial:

From The Nation:

Congrats, ladies! By today you’ve earned the same as men did in 2011. That gap means that the typical woman working full-time, year round, makes about seventy-seven cents for every dollar a typical man does, and those missing twenty-three cents can really add up. In a year a woman loses $10,784 to a man—enough to buy about 2,700 gallons of gas. It can add up to a loss of $431,000 in pay for the typical woman over a forty-year career. No small chunk of pocket change.

This issue hasn’t gone unnoticed. The first thing President Obama did after settling into the West Wing was to sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law, which expanded the statute of limitations on lawsuits over equal pay. Yet Ledbetter did little to actually change the gap: it stood at seventy-seven cents when the bill was passed at 2009, where it stands today.

But this high holiday of gender inequality is not the day to get dragged down in pessimism! After all, it can’t be totally out of reach to change this thing that’s barely budged in fifty years, amiright? In the spirit of moving forward and focusing on real solutions, here are some quick steps we can all take to make the gap disappear:

[...]

Source:

The Nation

URL:

http://www.thenation.com/blog/167423/how-close-gender-wage-gap-just-seven-easy-steps

Date:

April 18, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Pay Equity and Single Mothers of Color

Teaser:

Recent Census data indicates that women earn 77 cents on the dollar compared to men--but for women of color, that wage gap is even higher.

Editorial:

From the Center for American Progress:

Although social and political efforts have been made to close the wage gap and in turn the wealth gap, recent Census data still indicates that women earn 77 cents on the dollar compared to men. For women of color the gap is even wider: Black women earn 69.5 percent, and Hispanic women 60.5 percent, compared to the earnings of their white male counterparts.

The wage story is just as unequal for single mothers: They make less than men, less than married women, and less than women without children. Adding race to the equation, single mothers of color are hit hardest by the wage gap. Studies show that single mothers of color are much more likely to live in poverty and face significant barriers to creating wealth. Lower wages can often prevent families from engaging in asset- and wealth-building mechanisms such as pension plans because of fewer job benefits and resources. Lower earnings can hinder families from investing and saving their money, a key strategy for building wealth. Additionally, wealth not only impacts economic security but long-term retirement security as well.

While it’s recognized that the racial wealth gap is widespread there is a critical need to understand the intersection of race and gender in accumulating wealth.

[...]

Source:

Center for American Progress

URL:

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/04/pay_equity_color.html

Date:

April 17, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

More Than a Date: The Connection Between Tax Day and Equal Pay Day

Teaser:

Kristin Maschka argues that there's a relationship between United States tax code and the pay gap.

Editorial:

From the Huffington Post:

Today, the biggest wage gap is between mothers and everyone else. Employed mothers earn just 73 percent what men earn. Even less if they are single or minority.

Even that 73 percent number is too rosy, because it only looks at a snapshot of mothers and men employed in a given year.

But mothers also spend more years out of the workforce than anyone else, usually to care for family. So the financial impact of mothers' employment patterns becomes clear only when we look across the years. The lifetime earnings of women are just 38 percent of the lifetime earnings of men.

Now that's a gap.

One of the reasons more women drop out of the workforce is because United States income tax policy is designed specifically to encourage them to drop out.

Yes, you read that right.

[...]

Source:

Huffington Post

URL:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristin-maschka/equal-pay-day_b_1427171.html

Date:

April 17, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Who says women don't care about wages?

Teaser:

Guest post by Sandra Fluke encouraging an end to the gender pay gap.

Editorial:

From CNN:

[...]

A significant gender pay gap still persists. That's why we cannot be passive as we acknowledge Equal Pay Day, which marks the day when a woman's earnings catch up to what her male peers earned in the previous year. To millennials, it's startling to see that women still earn just 77 cents to the dollar of what men earn. Women of color are hit especially hard: African-American and Hispanic women earn 70% and 61%, respectively, of what white men earn. Without any male income in their household, single women and lesbians may feel the pay gap effect all the more. This wage gap costs working women and their families more than $10,000 annually and jeopardizes women's retirement security.

This gap isn't just about women making different choices in their careers. Even after accounting for occupation, hours worked, education, age, race, ethnicity, marital status, number of children and more, a difference of 5% still persists in the earnings of male and female college graduates one year after graduation. After 10 years in the workplace, that gap more than doubles to 12%.

Today we are fortunate to have critical laws like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, which overturned a 2007 Supreme Court decision that made it harder for women -- and all employees -- to pursue federal claims of pay discrimination. Although this important law restored fairness for workers who want to use federal law to challenge cases of discriminatory pay, it only addresses one piece of the larger puzzle. More needs to be done.

[...]

Source:

CNN

URL:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/17/opinion/fluke-equal-pay-for-women/

Date:

April 17, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation

Submitted by asklar on Tue, 04/17/2012 - 10:22am

Women’s median earnings are lower than men’s in nearly all occupations, whether they work in occupations predominantly done by women, occupations predominantly done by men, or occupations with a more even mix of men and women.

by Ariane Hegewisch, Claudia Williams, Vanessa Harbin (April 2012)

URL:

http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/the-gender-wage-gap-by-occupation-1

Member Organization:

Institute for Women’s Policy Research

What's a Mom Worth in 2012?

Submitted by asklar on Sat, 04/14/2012 - 8:30pm

Salary.com has created an online salary calculator for stay-at-home moms.

URL:

http://www.salary.com/what-s-a-mom-worth-in-2012/

More Unwed Couples Are Having Babies

Teaser:

According to a new National Center for Health Statistics report, while 40% of American births are to unmarried mothers, most of those are to cohabiting couples.

Editorial:

From Time:

About 1 in 4 babies are now born to unmarried couples, a rate that has nearly doubled since 2002, according to a recent report from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The government has previously said that more than 40% of births are to unwed mothers, but the new report offers details showing that most such births occur in couples who aren’t married, but are living together.

“It’s thought that usually in births outside of marriage, one parent isn’t present. But many couples are cohabiting and these children do have two parents present,” says report author Gladys Martinez, a demographer in the CDC’s division of Vital Statistics.

The new data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics was based on in-person interviews with more than 22,000 men and women aged 15 to 44 during 2006 through 2010, as part of the National Survey of Family Growth. The researchers then compared the data to a similar 2002 survey.

[...]

Source:

Time

URL:

http://healthland.time.com/2012/04/13/more-unwed-couples-are-having-babies/

Date:

April 13, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

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