OPINION: American women need to stop ‘Backsliding’
We have had several thought-provoking conversations recently about a new and surprising description of women’s status in America. According to the latest Shriver Report, “A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink,” a study by journalist Maria Shriver and the Washington think tank Center for American Progress, American women are at risk of “backsliding” from their achievements in rights and opportunities over the past half-century.
The reason, the report says, is that policymakers have ignored a “seismic shift” in American family life: Three-quarters of all moms are in the U.S. labor force, which is now half women — and half of them are their families’ primary breadwinners. This is especially true for women of color. Yet like women around the world, U.S. women still aren’t equal in the workplace.
Women earn less than men doing the same work, and mothers earn much less. Mothers face so much wage and hiring discrimination that many hide their children’s photos, while proud new dads often get raises. It’s no accident that fewer than 5 percent of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women.