Abortion rights, women of color, and LGBTQIA+ people are under attack. Pledge to join us in fighting for gender justice.
NWLC Applauds the American Families Plan
(Washington, D.C.) The following is a statement from Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center:
“The outline laid out by President Biden tonight promises historic investments in paid leave, high-quality, affordable child care, and extensions of critical tax credits. Our country has taken the unpaid and underpaid caregiving labor of women of color for granted for far too long, demanding that caregivers bear the risk of poverty, debt, and economic desperation. But as the pandemic has made clear, the work of Black, brown, and immigrant women is the backbone of our entire economy, and the American Families Plan should serve as the foundation for a future where our government finally acts like it.”
According to the National Women’s Law Center:
- Women accounted for only 34.4% of net job gain last month, gaining 315,000 jobs while men gained 601,000.
- Women would need nearly 15 straight months of job gains at last month’s level to recover the over 4.6 million net jobs they have lost since February 2020.
- In March 2021, 495,000 women entered the labor force, meaning they are now either working or looking for work. Even with this gain, the net number of women who have left the labor force since the start of the pandemic remains at over 1.8 million
- Over 59 million women (46.2% of women overall) reported that their household had lost employment income since March 2020.
- Nearly six in ten Latinas (59.3%) and over half of Black, non-Hispanic women (52.7%) reported lost household income since the start of the pandemic, compared to 41.9% of white, non-Hispanic men and 41.3% of white, non-Hispanic women.
- Three in ten Latinas (30.8%), nearly one in four Black, non-Hispanic women (24.2%), and nearly one in five Asian, non-Hispanic women (18.7%) expected their households to lose employment income in the next month, compared to 14.6% of white, non-Hispanic men and 14.0% of white, non-Hispanic women.
- Nearly 4.7 million women (17.1% of women who rent) reported being behind on their rent payment in the first half of March 2021
- Among renters, more than one in four Black, non-Hispanic women (26.6%) and more than one in five Latinas (21.5%) and Asian, nonHispanic women (20.9%) reported being behind on their rent. By comparison, only 12.3% of white, non-Hispanic men and 11.1% of white, non-Hispanic women reported being behind on rent payments.
- In the first half of March 2021, nearly 11.8 million women (10.8% of women overall) reported sometimes or often not having enough food to eat in the prior seven days.
- Approximately one in five Black, non-Hispanic women (19.7%) and Latinas (20.5%) reported not having enough food in the past week, compared to 7.1% of white, non-Hispanic men and 6.9% of white, non-Hispanic women.