Does Hard Work Pay Off For Black Women?
“Despite increasing college attendance and labor-force participation, African American women still aren’t getting the economic security of their white peers.”
The Atlantic examines a new report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and the National Domestic Workers Alliance explores why “the importance of women’s economic health in the black community is hard to overstate.
“That’s in part because black women tend to shoulder a lot of their households’ financial burden. More than 80 percent of black mothers are the breadwinners (defined as sole earner or bringing in at least 40 percent of total earnings) in their household. That’s compared with 50 percent of white mothers. And three-quarters of the black women who hold breadwinner status are doing so alone.”
In addition to analyzing the economic challenges and social inequities that black women face, the IWPR/NDWA report offers critical suggestions for how to improve the economic position of black women.
“The authors note, for instance, that union membership could increase black women’s earnings by more than 30 percent a week. They also suggest that policy changes that would generally improve wages, health coverage, and paid leave could particularly help black women. And increasing the representation of black women in politics and policy could help create a political system that actually addresses the problems that black women face.”
