This article originally appeared in the Institute for Women's Policy Research . Baby Boomers, estimated at nearly 80 million in the United States, began turning 65 in 2011.By 2020, the population of older adults is expected to grow to 55 million from 40.4 million in 2010. As more women enter the labor force and fewer are able to care for older family members, providing in-home care to the growing aging population, as well as the disabled and chronically ill, is becoming more critical to a robust U.S. economy. A new briefing paper by IWPR, “Women and the Care Crisis: Valuing In-Home Care in...

Job growth for women in lower-paying industries leading to lower overall earnings On the eve of International Women’s Day, women workers in the United States are facing a larger wage gap that has grown for women in all major race and ethnic groups, according to analysis by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR). The ratio of women’s to men’s median weekly full-time earnings was 80.9 percent in 2012, a decline of more than one percentage point since 2011 when the ratio was 82.2 percent. Women’s earnings may have been hurt by budget cutbacks and the loss of public sector jobs at the...

By Caroline Dobuzinskis and Mallory Mpare As we head into the elections, and looking forward, what are some of the less-talked about issues that will be important to women after November 6? Women are often those making family decisions on education, child care, and health care. They are also more likely to serve as caregivers for children or older relatives. Perhaps as a result, they tend to be more likely to support providing services for families, children, and the elderly. The wage gap, women in the workplace, and access to reproductive health services have received much of the focus in...

Analysis by the Institute for Women's Policy Research finds that although women make up the majority of community college students, men and women in community college pursue very different degrees, with women generally training for lower-paying careers. Women with associate degrees earn, on average, 75 percent of what their male counterparts earn. Less than 43 percent of fields of study at the associate degree level are gender balanced: in only 14 of 33 fields covered in the analysis were women a proportional number of associate degree recipients. (If all the fields were gender-balanced, 33...

by Amanda Lo The Woodrow Wilson Center and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) brought together a panel of four male leaders to discuss the possible roles men can play in combating gender-based violence. The event, Male Leaders Speak: Critical Strategies for Combatting Gender-Based Violence , launched USAID’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence , that began on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and ends on December 10, the International Human Rights Day. Most of the conversation was focused on the situation of girls...

by Barbara Gault So, the wage gap is still going strong, even though women have surpassed men in terms of number of higher degrees received. Women are now more likely than men to get bachelors’ degrees, master’s degrees, and Ph.D.’s. Is it just a matter of needing time to catch up? According to recent IWPR statistics, at the current rate of change it will take until 2056, or 45 more years, until we see equality. How do we accelerate change? One method is to equalize access to high paying jobs. As IWPR’s new fact sheet , shows, the most common jobs for men and women are quite different. Of the...