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

By Sara K. Gould* Linda Basch: How has ARRA impacted our economy from a local, community, or individual/family perspective?Sara Gould: ARRA has...
By Alan Jenkins* At year one, the legacy of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is still unwritten. Most economists agree that the Act has...
By Yvonne Liu* One year has passed since the Obama administration enacted the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the largest...

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...
LyndaS's picture
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...
Mariko's picture
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

  • March 12, 2012

     House Republican leaders are looking for a way to reshape the debate over the administration's new rule on birth-control insurance coverage before moving ahead with a bid to nullify the requirement.


  • March 12, 2012

      Analysis by the National Women’s Law Center of jobs data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that women gained 86,000 jobs in February – 38 percent of the jobs added last month. However, women have gained less...


  • March 12, 2012

     Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook Inc.’s chief operating officer, said the past decade has seen little or no gain for women in top government or executive positions.


  • March 11, 2012

     Women work two-thirds of the world's working hours and produce half of the world's food. Yet, women earn only 10 percent of the world's income and own less than 1 percent of the world's property.


  • March 8, 2012

     March is Women’s History Month, and March 8th is International Women’s Day. First observed in the U.S. on February 28, 1909, the day has come to symbolize women’s struggles for equal rights. While it’s been nearly a...