Happy belated International Women\u2019s Day, rulers! My name is Catherine Kim, and I\u2019m an assistant editor at POLITICO Magazine. I\u2019ll be subbing in for Katie this week to tell you all about gender inequality in the workplace. Shoot any tips, comments, questions or Oscars predictions to ckim@politico.com or @ck_525.
Despite the major strides women in the U.S. have made in the past century, gaps persist. That\u2019s clearer than ever in this year\u2019s Glass Ceiling Index, an annual assessment of workplace gender equality in high-income countries published by The Economist.
Overall, among the 29 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations surveyed, Sweden, Iceland, Finland and Norway top the list as the best countries for working women; Japan and South Korea rank at the bottom while the U.S. comes in at 19th in the ranking. It\u2019s a low score that has been fairly consistent since the annual index was first launched in 2013 \u2014 a sign that despite the White House\u2019s chest-thumping on gender equality, the federal government has a lot of work to do if it wants to catch up with its peers.
There are some areas to celebrate: This year, for the first time ever, more than 30 percent of women sat on company boards. And 41 percent of managerial positions in the U.S. are held by women, a rate far higher than most of our peers.
And yet the Glass Ceiling Index shows that there\u2019s much left to be desired. The wage gap is one of the worst among OECD countries. Child care costs a fortune. Higher-wage industries are still dominated by men. The situation is even direr for some women of color. The unemployment rate, for example, has remained high for Latinas and Black women ever since the pandemic hit, and they are overrepresented in jobs with low wages and fewer benefits.
Here are the four categories where the U.S. falls behind the OECD average in the index:
Gender Wage Gap
In 2022, U.S. women earned nearly 17 percent less than men. The only countries in the index with higher gaps are Japan, Israel and South Korea. That gap has remained fairly stable for the past two decades, aside from during the pandemic, when the wage gap only worsened.
The usual suspects are behind this gap: Women are overrepresented in lower-paying industries; men still make up the majority of senior positions in the workforce.
Some states have tried to address the issue by requiring pay transparency laws, a move that has proven to effectively reduce the gender pay gap by 20 percent to 40 percent in other countries like Canada. If they want to go one step further though, experts say, they should consider implementing laws that require companies to explicitly reveal the gender pay gap to the public \u2014 measures that have been introduced in Japan and Australia.
Paid Leave
The U.S. is the only OECD country that does not have paid parental leave.
Biden himself has urged Congress on multiple occasions to pass legislation that would guarantee paid leave for all Americans. \u201cIt\u2019s about being a country where women and all people can both work and raise a family,\u201d he said last month. \u201cHow can we compete in a global economy if millions of American parents, especially moms, can\u2019t join the workforce?\u201d
Republicans and even some Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.), however, oppose the idea because they say it would be too costly. That opposition led to last year\u2019s showdown over Biden\u2019s social safety net agenda, which ultimately ended with Democrats caving and slashing paid family leave from the bill. Biden still remains vocal about the issue \u2014 he championed it during his State of the Union speech \u2014 but there\u2019s been little progress in Congress ever since.
Net-child care costs
Americans spend 23 percent of their wages on child care, far more than the OECD average of 15 percent. In contrast, Italians, who have access to child care services funded by taxpayer money, spend 0 percent of their wages on child care.
As we\u2019ve already made clear in previous Women Rule newsletters, affordable child care is an issue that urgently needs to be addressed, and yet often gets swept under the rug. That\u2019s what happens when you don\u2019t have enough mothers in office.
Although the most common argument against better child care policies is the steep price tag, studies show that the economy is losing money without them. Employers are losing nearly $13 billion annually due to productivity issues caused by child care challenges their workers face.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), once a preschool teacher herself and now the issue\u2019s biggest supporter in Congress, laid out what\u2019s at stake in an interview with The New Republic: \u201cIf we want our economy to get back on track, and we want families to be stable again, we have got to make this major investment.\u201d
Women in politics
Women still only hold about 29 percent of seats in the House of Representatives. The 118th has more women than ever before, but there\u2019s still more work to be done, especially when we\u2019ve seen countries like New Zealand achieve an even gender split in its parliament.
The lack of women in the nation\u2019s most powerful positions points to a common problem that is driving gender inequality. Many of these problems \u2014 from a lack of strong child care policies to a stubborn wage gap \u2014 arise because there simply aren\u2019t more women in legislative positions.
\u201cIn the data, there is evidence that tangible changes can come from more women in parliament, more women at the top of boards and corporations,\u201d The Economist researcher Elizabeth Peet told Women Rule, \u201cand how putting women in charge and having more women decision-makers can really affect the other indicators [in the index]\u2026 like the wage gap and parental leave.\u201d
\u201cThe political excitement for pre-K is missing one key ingredient,\u201d by Mackenzie Wilkes for POLITICO: \u201cWhile the child care workforce is rebounding from the lowest points of the pandemic, there were still nearly 58,000 fewer child care workers in January 2023 than February 2020. It\u2019s a lag that tempers governors\u2019 pre-K ambitions and, advocates argue, prevents parents from getting back to work.\u201d
\u201cFlorida Republicans seek ban on abortions after 6 weeks of pregnancy,\u201d by Arek Sarkissian for POLITICO: \u201cThe proposed 6-week ban already has the support from Gov. Ron DeSantis, who said during his Tuesday state of the state speech in Tallahassee that \u2018we are proud to be pro-family and we are proud to be pro-life.\u2019\u201d
\u201cThe abortion proposal is a clear signal that DeSantis will support hard-right conservative priorities ahead of his likely 2024 election bid.\u201d
\u201c\u2018A surreal experience\u2019: Former Biden \u2018disinfo\u2019 chief details harassment,\u201d by Heidi Przybyla for POLITICO
\u201cFCC nominee Gigi Sohn withdraws after more than a year of fighting for post,\u201d John Hendel for POLITICO.
\u201cTexas denied abortions to these women when their lives were in danger. Now they\u2019re suing the state,\u201d by Shefali Luthra for The 19th: \u201cThe five women are suing the state in an effort to seek clarity about what medical exceptions, if any, its three active abortion bans permit.\u201d
\u201cLawyers representing the women acknowledged that the case, filed Monday night in Texas court, is unlikely to result in a restoration of abortion rights in Texas, the largest state in the country to outlaw the procedure. Instead, they are seeking a ruling from the state court system that could allow physicians more latitude in determining when a patient might need an abortion to protect their health.
\u201cThe female mayor in Tokyo fighting Japan\u2019s sexist attitudes,\u201d by Shaimaa Khalil for BBC.
\u201cWhere there\u2019s gender equality, people tend to live longer,\u201d by Rachel Treisman for NPR: \u201cBoth women and men are likely to live longer when a country makes strides towards gender equality, according to a new global study that authors believe to be the first of its kind.\u201d
\u201cIt adds to a growing body of research showing that advances in women\u2019s rights benefit everyone.\u201d
\u201cCooking, cleaning and controversy: The \u2018tradwife\u2019 movement embraces a 1950s housewife ideal,\u201d by Elise Sol\u00e9 for Today.
\u201cSingle women take an outsize role in the workforce \u2014 and the economy,\u201d by Abha Bhattarai for The Washington Post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n