Single Mothers, Women of Color Suffer Disproportionately in Recession

Employment rates have been reportedly holding steady, but for sizable groups of women and children, these reports ring a bit hollow. As RH Reality Check's Amie Newman reports, new research from the National Women's Law Center shows that unemployment rates among single mothers and women of color are rising in the recession. Not only that, unemployment for these women is the highest it has been in 25 years.

Job losses have primarily hit female-dominated sectors, and it shows. In July alone, women lost 62% of the non-farm jobs that were cut. Single mothers (or in bureaucracy speak, women as heads of household) currently face their highest unemployment rate since the recession began in December 2007, and black and Hispanic women — whether they are single mothers or not — also face higher-than-average rates of unemployment. Hispanic women fare the worst; their collective unemployment rate in July is the highest it has been since 1986.

We've all known for a long time that when it comes to poverty in the United States, women and children face the biggest obstacles. In particular, women of color face an uphill battle to economic equality. When Congress cut food stamp funding earlier this month, they signaled that women and children living in recession-exacerbated poverty were not their priority. We know that the best way to end poverty is to empower women, and Newman reminds us of the old saying that we are only as strong as our most vulnerable. So what does it say about our nation when women — and their children, mind you — continue to bear the brunt of the economic recession? You can answer that one for yourself.

Photo Credit: Nicholas Kennedy Sitton