Message from National NOW President Christian F. Nunes
March 29, 2024
Greetings Feminists,
Women and women-owned businesses fuel the American economy, and by 2028, women are projected to control two-thirds of discretionary spending. Yet women are consistently ignored or short-changed by policy-makers and business leaders. As we face the most consequential election in memory, how the economy delivers for women must be front and center.
As this report from the Center for American Progress states,
From their very first day on the job, women are faced with the economic reality of the gender wage gap, meaning they typically earn less than men—a reality that continues, and often compounds, throughout the course of their working lives and retirements. And Black women and Latinas not only tend to experience the largest pay gaps, but also must manage the economic consequences of a racial wealth gap that leaves them and their families facing persistent economic insecurity.
And the attacks on women’s reproductive health, contraceptive access and other essential care are a threat to women’s economic future.
NOW has long been leading the fight for federal and state policies that expand economic opportunities for women. This agenda must include a federal law to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade; ensuring contraception options are accessible and affordable--including the telehealth delivery of medication abortion; affordable, accessible, and high-quality child care; paid family and medical leave; closing the gender pay gap; ending discrimination and harassment at work and other essential elements of an economy that works for women.
That means we need to finally pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and improve enforcement of anti-discrimination laws like the Equal Pay Act. The Biden-Harris Administration has taken strong steps to close gender and racial wage gaps and strengthen women’s economic security, leading to the lowest unemployment rate among women since 1953.
But much more needs to be done. Research published in the 19th shows that women say the American economic model doesn’t work for them, citing inflation, struggling to make ends meet, and housing costs taking too much of their income as reasons, among others.
What’s the answer? How about flexible work schedules, public and employer support to cover housing, energy, health, transportation and food costs, the option to work remotely and raising the minimum wage—for a start.
These issue priorities are key to NOW’s intersectional feminist agenda, and the fight for economic justice has never been more urgent. Let’s work together to build a better economic future.
In solidarity,
Christian
