New Census Data Sobering

Filed under "public policy"
Published Wednesday, February 3, 2016
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New data from the US Census Bureau has some sobering information:

The poverty level among America's children remained the same - 21% - or 1 in 5 children.
African American children (37%) and Latino (32%) children live in poverty at higher rates than Caucasian children (12%).
Over the past 5 years, real household income for the lowest 10% of the population has decreased further, while for other wage earners it has increased.
Women are still more likely to live in poverty.
Women are not projected to reach equal pay status with men until 2059.

Within these numbers is the fact that more women are working in our country - an increase of 800,000 in 2014, and the number of women who are working full-time increased by 1.6 million (vs. 1.2 million for men). Interestingly, women who have never been married earn 95 cents for every dollar earned by a similar man (vs. 79 cents for women vs. men overall), yet the pay gap increases with age - women under 35 are closer to parity than women who are older. You may find it interesting to know the 17 countries where women are the majority of the income-earning labor force:

Guadeloupe, 54%
Latvia, 53%
Lithuania, 53%
Seychelles, 53%
Bahamas, 52%
Barbados, 52%
Cyprus, 52%
Estonia, 52%
Finland, 52%
Ireland, 52%
Antigua and Barbuda, 51%
Belarus, 51%
Martinique, 51%
Moldova, 55%
Iceland, 51%
Israel, 51%
Kazakhstan, 51%

Last fall, Chrysalis Executive Director Terry gave a presentation for the Business and Professional Women of Iowa's 2015 summit entitled STRONG WOMEN: THE PROCESS OF CHANGE. During the presentation, Terry shared some of the statistics reviewed at a Chrysalis' board retreat, and new standards for economic security for women and girls in Iowa.

All of us have opportunities to share information about the concerns and issues addressed in the work of Chrysalis. Here is a Chrysalis snapshot on the status of women and girls living in Iowa.