A Few Thoughts on Women & The Economy

I've been trying to wrap my thoughts around the effects of the financial fallout and how the stimulus plan will help or hinder women. For now, I don't have many resolutions to offer, but I do have a lot of information.

I decided that instead of waiting until I figure everything out on my own, I might has well share some of the influential articles I've read and see what the readers of Change.org think.

First, Scott Heiferman and Jeremy Heimans, the Co-Founder and advisor of Meetup.com write about how the ruined economy is making us a stronger community in "We Are the Stimulus." And surprisingly, the group that is organizing the best? Women.

While Washington works on policy, citizens have begun self-organizing solutions for themselves. Hundreds of women in DC, for example, have formed a support group called "Girls Just Wanna Have Funds". They gather regularly to hold each other accountable for managing their debt and to share strategies for getting through hard times. It works.

Dana Goldstein, however, paints a painful picture when it comes to how the economic crisis could cripple women in the piece How the Stimulus Sells Women Short:

There are two story lines circulating in the media about the recession's effect on women: The first, more ridiculous one, is that the primary impact of the recession is on women's romantic lives. Laid-off, ego-bruised boyfriends and husbands! No more expensive dinners! At Salon,Rebecca Traister has a good take-down of these faux "trend" pieces.

The second story line is that the recession is actually some sort of feminist watershed, since four out of five laid-off workers are men. "Working women may soon outnumber working men!" theheadlines trumpet. (Currently, women make up 47 percent of the workforce.) And while it will indeed be historic if women soon account for the majority of American workers, the reality is that for many children and women, the loss of a father's or male partner's income is disastrous. Why? Because both the pay gap and occupational gender segregation continue to depress women's incomes.

Nancy Folbre writes the compelling piece Sex and the Stimulus and explains once and for all - why in fact contraception and the economy do go hand in hand:

Increased spending on family planning (including contraceptives) would generate about as many direct and indirect jobs as any other health expenditures, and probably more than an equivalent tax cut. But the short-term effects are less important than benefits down the road.

The long-term benefits include significant reductions in unplanned births and abortions. Teenagers, in particular, would benefit. A research paper by Melissa Kearney and Phillip Levine finds that recent state-level Medicaid policy changes reduced births among teenagers by more than 4 percent. The authors offer estimates of the cost per averted birth, which could be compared with the social costs - to children, parents, and society - of unwanted pregnancies.

So what does it all mean? Right now, my immediate conclusion is that we need to evaluate how the capitalist-political system built by the founding fathers will always leave those with X Chromosomes short changed. Not only do we have physical currency that leaves women out of the picture, but we also live in a society built on the premise that men go to work and women stay at home. Even as this becomes less and less the norm, there are still many structural battles to fight in order to make the economic-political system work for everyone.

At the end of the day, women are resilient. I'd like to believe that the economic crisis will not only discourage them, but rather, make them stronger. But no matter the outcome, it is very clear that as we rebuild our financial system we need to make sure that more women are in charge of the dollars and sense.