Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Surdna, Ms. Foundation Authors: Mind the Gap – How Philanthropy Can Address Gender-Based Economic Disparities
Today marks the 107th observance of International Women's Day. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, we'll have to wait until the 150th observance for the wage gap between men and women to close.
The women garment workers in New York City who marched on this day in 1857 and again in 1908 demanding safer working conditions, a ten-hour day, an end to child labor, and fair wages understood, as do movement leaders today, that we cannot wait. Not only is realizing gender equality in our economic, political, and social systems imperative to women's economic security, it is necessary for those systems to thrive.
More than a century after those demonstrations, media are celebrating what they're calling the Year of the Woman and trusting that Americans will finally recognize the importance of women's economic security. But how far have women come, really, if we continue to see gender-based economic disparities all around us? Could this be the moment when Americans finally stand up and insist that decision makers change policy and address the persistent economic inequality that women, and women of color in particular, have had to bear...
Authors: William Cordery (@WilliamCordery) is a program officer in the Strong Local Economies program at the Surdna Foundation. Aleyamma Mathew (@Aleyamma17) is the director of the Women's Economic Justice Program at the Ms. Foundation for Women.