These 5 Statistics Prove That Weâre Feminizing Poverty (And Keeping Women Down in the Process)
The following five statistics prove that women are suffering most here at home from class oppression â and for each, thereâs at least one action we can all take to change them.Â
1. 18 Million Women Live in Poverty in the US Alone
Despite the overall poverty rate declining in America, 18 million women remain below the poverty line. Thatâs one in seven American women â and 40% of women who head up families.
Women are poorer than men in every state, regardless of education or geographic location. And for women of color, elderly women, and LGBTQIA+ women, itâs even worse.
The poverty rate for Native American, Black, and Latina women is almost double the poverty rate for white women. 27.6% of Native American women and 26.6% of Black women live in poverty.
5.1 million LGBTQIA+ women are on the brink of poverty, and only 24% of LGBTQIA+ women would say they are âfinancially thriving.â
For LGBTQIA+ workers of color, and especially women and gender-nonconforming queer workers of color, a lack of workplace protections and career-oriented resources and opportunities leaves many in the community unemployed, financially insecure, and all-around flat broke.
The rate of elderly women in poverty skyrocketed up 18% in 2012, and retired women are twice as likely to live in poverty than their male counterparts.
2. Domestic Violence Survivors Lose 8 Million Days of Paid Work Per Year
Women are the majority of victims of intimate partner violence and domestic violence â and the abuse they suffer keeps them struggling financially.
Nearly 8 billion days of paid work per year are lost due to domestic violence, and 96% of victims experience problems at work related to their abuse.
A majority of Americans have observed and believe that the Great Recession and a long-standing economic downturn has made things worse for domestic violence victims â victims who may stay in a relationship with an abusive partner for economic reasons or face worse abuse due to economic stressors.
3. 12,728,000 Women Work in Low-Paying Fields
Women are often pushed into âpink collar jobsâ â like teaching, nursing, and service jobs â that pay less, in part due to gender discrimination that lets us consider âwomenâs workâ less valuable than work fields dominated by men.
In 2007, 43% of women in the workforce were employed in just 20 disciplines, all with a median income of just $27,383 per year.
In the same year, less than 15% of women were employed in management, financial operations, or business jobs. For women of color, segregation into low-paying jobs is even more common,and leadership even more rare.
Moreover, women make up a majority of low-wage service-sector jobs, such as fast food front-line work, and retail positions.
For women, and especially women of color, the fight to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 or $15 is very personal â and could be the difference, for them, between barely surviving and finally thriving. 28 million workers would benefit from a raise if the Minimum Wage Fairness Act passed through Congress, and a majority of them would be women.
4. Women Make at Least 23% Less Than White Men at Work
The Equal Pay Act, which banned gender-based wage discrimination, was signed into law in 1963 â over 50 years ago. Although weâve seen slight progress since then on closing the wage gap for women, discrimination persists â and its impact haunts women for the rest of their working and retired lives.
Overall, women earn, on average, 78 cents to every white manâs dollar in America. That means that over a lifetime, women lose an average of $434,000 to the wage gap. This kind of inequality is seen across fields and seniority, and is actually worse for women of color, LBTQIA+ women, and women with more academic achievements.
Black women make 64 cents on that white manâs dollar, and Latina women make only 54.Â
This means that although all women are suffering economically from the wage gap, women of color carry an even heavier burden. A recent study also found that even in states with the smallest wage gaps, women of color experienced some of the largest gaps in the nation. On top of the wage gap, LBTQIA+ women suffer from penalties for their gender identities and sexualities in the workplace.
And the reason so many elderly women live in poverty is because the impact of workplace discrimination like the wage gap leaves them with less overall earnings, a smaller pot of money in their savings, and less financial security throughout their lifetimes.
Closing the wage gap would cut poverty for working women in half. But attempts to do so have been met with a lot of political and social backlash, including claims that the scientifically proven wage gap doesnât exist. (Pro tip: It does.)
5. 43% of Women Leave the Workforce After They Have Kids
Whether itâs poor maternal leave policies, an inability to structure their jobs and access flexible work environments, or the caretaking duties â which so often fall on their shoulders â the careers of women with children are suffering simply because of their gender.
Some of those women leave because caring for a family becomes too imposing to allow them to keep up at work. Theyâre more likely than men to experience career interruption after starting a family, andresearch has proven that those interruptions become obstacles to future employment and success for working moms. When parents donât live together, women are more likely than men to shoulder childcare costs, and even in partnered households they do a brunt of the unpaid and often unappreciated domestic labor. But even when everything is good at home, pregnant women and mothers still suffer at work.
For some pregnant workers, asking for accommodations at work or even doing as their told by a doctor during the workday can leave them without a paycheck or a job.
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act was put in place 37 years ago to end this kind of gender-based discrimination against expecting employees, but complaints about pregnancy discrimination have actually been on the rise. One even went before the Supreme Court this year.
And after theyâve had children, women can expect to pay the âMotherhood Penaltyâ at work.
They miss out or be passed over for advancement opportunities, see an overall stagnation or decrease in earnings, and potentially go up against inflexible environments that make it impossible for them to balance their career and their families.
Men who parent, however, are rewarded for doing so with higher earnings and more opportunities for advancement.
Read more: These 5 Statistics Prove That Weâre Feminizing Poverty (And Keeping Women Down in the Process) by Carmen Rios
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