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

January 9, 2010 posted by Kyla Bender-Baird
December 9, 2009 posted by Kyla Bender-BairdThe DC Women's Agenda, a program of Wider Opportunities for Women, recently released a gender analysis of...
By Gwendolyn Beetham*When I was in graduate school in London, one of my professors told a cute story about his daughter, born during the Thatcher era...
By Tonni Brodber*Linda Basch: From your perspective, what is the unfinished work of women’s political equality? Tonni Brodber: In the English-...
May 25, 2009 posted by Kyla Bender-Baird As the granddaughter of a woman engineer (and also someone who struggles to assemble her Ikea furniture but...

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...
nbiberman's picture
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...
nataliac's picture
Natalia Cardona, is the Constituency Engagement Manager at the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID). Cardona has worked on issues of...
EileenA's picture
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

  • February 29, 2012

     Source: This Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll was conducted by telephone Oct. 6 to Nov. 2, 2011, among a random national sample of 1,936 adults, including users of both conventional and cellular phones. The results from the full...


  • February 22, 2012

     As Roman Catholic leaders and government officials clash over the proper role of religion and reproductive health, shifts in health care economics are magnifying the tension. Financially stronger Catholic-sponsored medical centers are...


  • February 21, 2012

     Sixty-three percent of all births to women under 30 in Lorain County occur outside marriage, according to Child Trends, a research center in Washington. That figure has risen by more than two-thirds over the past two decades, and now surpasses...


  • February 21, 2012

     Bundles of filthy string hang from bars on her only window. Sacks of clothes are piled high in the corner. Outside, in the alley below, untreated sewage and anonymous grey liquids seep through the stones. Incense sticks dry in the sun. Handmade...


  • February 21, 2012

     Women are shunning academic careers in math-intensive fields because the lifestyle is incompatible with motherhood, researchers at Cornell University found in a study to be published next month in American Scientist Magazine.