Poverty

January 25, 2010 posted by Kyla Bender-Baird

Ever since my sophomore year of college, when I took “Social, Class, and Power,” I’ve had the refrain “the rich get richer while the poor get poorer” stuck in my head. Today’s report released by the Center for American Progress and Center for WorkLife Law at Hastings College of Law gave me the facts behind this refrain.

Since 1979, the median annual income of the bottom third of American families has decreased by 29% while the top third experienced a 7% increase in their median income. The middle third’s median annual income decreased 13%.

January 25, 2010 posted by Linda Basch

Over a week has passed since the earthquake in Haiti shook the world. Our hearts go out to the people of Haiti and those who have gone to help in relief efforts. We learn with sadness about the many lives lost, including key players in the Haitian women's movement. Experts are uniting behind the idea that the most effective way to help presently is to donate money.

Many members of the National Council for Research on Women network are involved in various humanitarian efforts in Haiti. Of particular concern is the gender dimension and ensuring that women and children's specific needs are not overlooked or undervalued.

Below is news about some efforts under way in sending both relief and funds to the people of Haiti. We are concerned with efforts to address the present dire situation, but also with those directed toward rebuilding the country's infrastructure and institutions. I hope you find this useful.

January 15, 2010 posted by Linda Basch

As reports filter in from Haiti in the aftermath of Wednesday's catastrophic earthquake, it is difficult to process the sheer immensity of this tragedy. My thoughts go to the tens of thousands of grieving and displaced who are struggling with unimaginable loss. I am also thinking about the hundreds, maybe thousands of colleagues, advocates and humanitarian workers who have sacrificed their lives while trying to rebuild a nation ravaged by hurricane, poverty and continuing mismanagement. The UN mission in Port au Prince is still missing more than 100 staff members and countless schools, clinics and businesses have been destroyed.

I won't go into the long and turbulent history of Haiti's past: revolt against slavery, independence, colonialism, dictatorship, fragile democracy and the US's troubling role in this tested nation's myriad challenges.

January 12, 2010 posted by Kyla Bender-Baird

December 9, 2009 posted by Kyla Bender-Baird

The DC Women's Agenda, a program of Wider Opportunities for Women, recently released a gender analysis of the 2008 American Community Survey. They found that women remain in poverty even while working. Here are some of the stats they shared:

• Women are eight times more likely to live in poverty than men in D.C.
• Approximately 22% of women-headed households, working full or part time, live in poverty
• Gender income disparities persist as men who worked full-time had an 8.5% increase in salary from 2007 to 2008 while their female counterparts had only a 2.3% increase.

To read the full report, click here.