Economic Development & Security

Women are active players driving the economy, nationally and globally. They are important breadwinners for their families, grow most of the world’s food and are entering the formal and informal sectors of the labor market in increasing numbers. Despite their enormous contributions, women are still largely absent from leadership positions and their voices and perspectives are often missing from economic policymaking at the local, regional, national and international levels. To promote their wellbeing, women need access to adequate income and quality education to support themselves and their families. Women still earn less than men and make up a disproportionate number of the poor, both nationally and globally. In the United States, women’s wellbeing and advancement depend on their access to basic services, opportunities and safety nets, such as paid sick leave, affordable child care and elder care, advanced education, health care and adequate housing.

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Critical Issue: Measuring the impact of economic recovery efforts on women and families

Several experts from NCRW member centers are examining the impact of the Amercian Recovery and Reinvestment Act on women and low-income families. As efforts continue to restore and jumpstart the economy, it is critical that policymakers and the public be aware of how effective these efforts are at addressing the challenges faced by those left vulnerable by the recession, joblessness and the housing crisis. For more information, visit our Economic Stimulus Package page in the Projects and Programs tab.

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Blog Posts

Posted November 24, 2008 by Linda BaschLinda Basch: What three recommendations do you have for Timothy Geithner, our next Treasury Secretary?Sara...
November 21, 2008 posted by Kyla Bender-Baird [caption id="attachment_722" align="alignleft" width="258" caption=...
Posted by Marcia D. Greenberger and Nancy Duff Campbell, Co-Presidents, National Women's Law Center Throughout the nation's history, the actions of...
November 7, 2008 Posted by Rita Henley Jensen, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Women’s eNews As The Memo: A Status Report on U.S. Women produced...

Member Experts

Dinah Asante is Executive Assistant to the President. She has an M.S. in Urban Policy from the New School and studied at Algonquin College in...
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Lynda M. Sagrestano, Ph.D. is the Director of the Center for Research on Women at the University of Memphis.  She earned a Ph.D. in social psychology...
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Nancy Biberman founded WHEDco in 1991 with the vision of restoring the South Bronx to the beautiful, bustling place it once was. WHEDco’s first...
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Natalia Cardona, is the Constituency Engagement Manager at the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID). Cardona has worked on issues of...
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Eileen Appelbaum joined the Center for Economic Policy and Research in 2010 after eight years at Rutgers University as Professor and Director of the...
Radhika's picture
Radhika Balakrishnan, Executive Director of the Center for Women's Global Leadership, and Professor, Women's and Gender Studies, has a Ph.D. in...
Rita HJ's picture
Rita Henley Jensen is Founder and Editor in Chief of award-winning nonprofit news service Women's eNews (www.womensenews.org) and its sister site...
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Dr. Mariko Chang is the author of the new book, Shortchanged: Why Women Have Less Wealth and What Can Be Done About It, and the main author of the...
Sari Pekkala Kerr is an economist and a senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College. She joined the WCW in 2010...

News

  • December 20, 2011

     With states under pressure to cut their budgets and federal stimulus money gone, low-income working parents are facing a paradox. Just when they have to work longer hours to make ends meet, they are losing access to the thing they need most...


  • December 19, 2011

     In northern India, where one in two girls is wed before the age of 18, the rate of child marriage is dropping—and an innovative program is paying girls to stay unmarried.


  • December 18, 2011

     Younger women, blacks and women with a high number of recent life disruptions are more likely than their counterparts to get second-trimester abortions, a new study from the Guttmacher Institute finds.


  • December 18, 2011

     A number of studies have shown that women overall tend to be less confident about their retirement than men, and a study released by Wells Fargo shows that this holds true even for wealthy women.


  • December 18, 2011

    With the share of married adults at an all-time low in the United States, research by demographers at Cornell University and the University of Central Oklahoma unveils clues why couples don't get married – they fear divorce.