Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/24680
PAYCHECK FEMINISM WITH WOMEN NOW MAKING UP THE BULK OF THE U.S. PAID WORKFORCE, IT’S TIME TO RETHINK GOVERNMENT POLICIES THAT WERE DESIGNED FOR A VERY DIFFERENT TIME. HERE ARE FIVE WAYS TO BETTER VALUE WOMEN’S WORK. BY KAREN KORNBLUH AND RACHEL HOMER labor statisticians are well aware that women’s share of the paid workforce has been swelling for decades, hitting 48 percent at the start of the new millennium. That means that this economy depends on women’s strong participa- tion. Oddly enough, it was the current economic bad times that helped boost women to the halfway point, as men have comprised nearly three-quarters of recent job layoffs. In STATS: THE SOCIAL SECURITY GENDER GAP Since women have long been a near majority of the workforce, our government must have been developing a subtle shift with momentous implications, women are on the verge of becoming more than 50 percent of U.S. paid workers. This landmark should come as no surprise; women-friendly economic policies—right? Wrong. Despite the demographics, the crucial U.S. government policies that provide economic security to American workers and their families were designed ini- tially during the New Deal to fit that very different era. “Social insurance” programs—which today include Social Security, employer-provided (and tax-subsidized) health care and pensions, unemployment insurance and Medicare—as well as the 40-hour workweek were first es- tablished when only 10 percent of married women were in the paid workforce. Fortunately, women are crossing that 50-percent-of- paid-workers threshold at the same time that Washington is recognizing that, rather than privatizing or eliminating $$$ 28 | FALL 2009 Women over 64 receive $10,685 on average annually in Social Security; men, $14,055. SOURCE: Social Security Administration www.feminist.org