Reading Room

The gender pay gap has gotten a lot of attention in recent years, and Senator Charles Schumer wants to end the discrepancy once and for all. The New York political figure said Sunday that he's trying to get Congress “to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, which says something very simple: A man and a woman who do the same job should get the same pay.”

Kimberly Weems has been a home care worker in Atlanta for over 14 years. She first got interested in the field after caring for a blind uncle. “It’s my passion,” she said. “This is just something I’ve always wanted to do, to keep people’s loved ones in their homes.”

Although women have made significant strides over the past several decades in leadership, labor-force participation, and educational advancement, they continue to face a disproportionate number of issues that impede their economic security. The most recent Census Bureau data show that the average woman working full time, year round earns 78 cents for every $1 earned by their male counterparts.

NCPSSM Board Chair, Dr. Catherine Dodd, testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee today on the economic challenges facing America’s older women. 22 million older women receive Social Security benefits yet the inequalities they face threaten their retirement security. The National Committee’s Eleanor’s Hope initiative urges Congress to pass a number of improvements to the program including: providing Social Security credits for caregivers, improving Social Security survivor benefits, equalizing Social Security’s rules for disabled widows, strengthening the Social Security Cost of Living Allowance and boosting the basic Social Security benefit of all current and future beneficiaries.

22 million older women receive Social Security benefits yet the inequalities they face threaten their retirement security. Persistent gender wage discrimination, work gaps taken to care for loved ones, the lack of pensions, and generally longer lives mean women receive a significantly lower Social Security benefit than men.

What if Democrats are about to learn the wrong lesson from the 2014 midterm election? In the initial period after the Democratic Party’s dramatic defeat, there was much criticism about how the party focused too much on “women’s issues,” an emphasis that allegedly cost the party races like Mark Udall’s Colorado Senate seat. Indeed, just days after the election, unnamed Democrats expressed frustration with Nancy Pelosi for “focusing so strongly on women without a broader message that could play to other groups, such as older voters and men.”