Between 2014 and 2019, the number of women-owned businesses grew by 21%, far outpacing the rate of growth in the number of businesses overall (just 9%). This impressive growth was even more pronounced among businesses owned by women of color, with the number of women of color owned businesses growing at double the rate (43%), and, specifically, the number of African American/Black women-owned businesses increasing by 50%.

In our second of three episodes on the topic, hosts Ericka Burroughs-Girardi and Beth Silver are joined by Dr. Jessica Milli, an economist and the founder of the consulting firm Research 2 Impact. Dr. Milli talks about how the gender pay gap harms our health, entire communities and the economy.

As COVID upended domestic life, women's rate of self-employment rose faster than the share of men in the sector.

We evaluate the causes of the wage gap at the intersection of race, ethnicity and gender over time in the United States. We analyse the wage gaps for women of colour along three dimensions: relative to White women, relative to men of their respective race/ethnicity, and relative to White men.

At the start of the pandemic, self-employment rose for both women and men, who have a higher overall self-employment rate, according to an analysis of government data by Jessica Milli, an economist in Washington. But for men, self-employment has since returned to pre-pandemic levels, Milli found. Among women, it remained nine percent higher in February 2022 than two years prior.

On April 9, 2022, legislators in Maryland overrode Governor Larry Hogan’s veto and enacted the Time to Care Act of 2022, making Maryland the tenth state (plus the District of Columbia) to offer paid family and medical leave to workers.

From the gender wage gap to gender-based pricing, the cost of being a woman in America is integrated in our economic, health, and education systems and requires a multipronged policy approach to address.

Black women are staying in the workforce, but their need for paid leave continues to go unmet.

Increasing participation in invention and patenting by underrepresented groups would quadruple the number of American inventors, increase annual U.S. GDP by almost $1 trillion, and result in exciting new and different inventions.

The COVID-19 pandemic upended life for countless families and brought heightened attention to the plight of working parents. Recent IWPR studies find that during the pandemic, young mothers—especially those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged—experienced a sharp decline in employment and prolonged economic hardship for their families.

MomsRising member Deborah Purce and her husband live in Seattle with their three children. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, their child care program closed for several months and Deborah had to find a way to manage her job while caring for her children, since her husband’s essential health care job did not have any flexibility.

What prevents women from reaching the highest rungs of the leadership ladder? This report seeks to answer this by taking a closer look at the representation of women in management and leadership positions across the United States—and the barriers that hold organizations back from achieving full gender and racial equity in leadership.

Comprehensive child care and early learning policy is a “win for all” policy: a pathway to progress on gender, racial, and income equality; healthy child development and family well-being; improved educational outcomes; and economic growth and prosperity.