Dear Friends,

Today, we released a powerful new national poll of women across the country and the message to the new Administration and Congress is very clear: affordable, quality healthcare, getting the economic recession under control, job creation, and raising the minimum wage are top priorities for working women and their families. Paid sick leave is also a critical issue.

Women’s priorities in this moment are shaped by their experiences during the pandemic, and the resulting economic downturn.

It is hard to believe it’s been nearly a year since the first wave of stay-at-home orders were implemented and schools across the country closed their doors. Since the start of the pandemic, more than 11 million women have lost their jobs and another 2.65 million have left the workforce since February due to caretaking demands or an inability to find work.

Our Women’s Priorities & Economic Impact Survey revealed:

One in four women (26.6 percent) report that their families are worse off financially than they were a year ago. Nearly three in ten (29.8 percent) of Latinas report that their family finances are worse off compared with the start of 2020.
Overall, almost one half of women are either “very worried” (23.7 percent) or “somewhat worried” (24.0 percent) about their total family income being enough to pay all their bills. Concern is much higher among Latina women with two out of three (66.6 percent) women reporting worry about having enough income to meet family expenses.
Since the start of the pandemic, 40 percent of women said they stopped working or reduced their hours because of care-taking demands.
Across race and ethnicity, 69 percent of women surveyed support paid sick leave and time away from to work to have a child, recover from serious health conditions, or care for a family member.
The top five priorities for Women for the New Administration and Congress include Healthcare, the Economic Recession, Unemployment, Raising the Minimum Wage, and Taxes.

The bottom line — women and families are hurting, and they’re looking for help and support.

Here at IWPR, we are doing our part by working to understand the experiences of women and families and joining in coalition with organizations and key stakeholders to lift up policies and solutions we know will make the difference.

I invite you to read and share our survey brief and also find ways to connect with us and our partners to move the needle on important policies and legislation that will make the difference—childcare, paid sick leave, and raising the minimum wage, just to name a few.

The end is in sight, but there’s still so much good work to be done.

In Solidarity,