Former President Donald had an all-caps message for girls voters on Friday, claiming that they are worse off financially in contrast with 4 years in the past — and that reelecting him may clear up their issues.
“WOMEN ARE POORER THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE LESS HEALTHY THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE LESS SAFE ON THE STREETS THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE MORE DEPRESSED AND UNHAPPY THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, AND ARE LESS OPTIMISTIC AND CONFIDENT IN THE FUTURE THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO!” he wrote in a Fact Social publish. “I WILL FIX ALL OF THAT, AND FAST, AND AT LONG LAST THIS NATIONAL NIGHTMARE WILL BE OVER.”
Trump did not specify whether or not he was claiming ladies had been worse off primarily based on earnings, wealth or one other metric. In an e mail, Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt wrote that ladies “noticed unprecedented ranges of financial success” throughout his time period, together with a rise in wages and low unemployment charges.
Nevertheless, the information reveals that ladies have continued to make financial progress since then.
Little doubt, ladies have skilled an financial rollercoaster through the previous 4 years. In early 2020, the pandemic shuttered the economic system, and girls had been particularly exhausting hit by job cuts, given they’re extra probably than males to work in service jobs requiring human contact. As a result of individuals wanted to remain distant from one another previous to the COVID-19 vaccines rollout, jobs primarily held by ladies had been hit significantly exhausting.
As soon as the economic system started to recuperate its footing, hundreds of thousands of ladies with youngsters struggled to get again on observe as a result of many colleges and daycare facilities remained shuttered or with restricted operations, hampering working moms’ potential to return to work. That precipitated what some observers termed a “she-cession,” or a downturn that impacted ladies employees greater than males.
However information reveals that ladies have since regained their footing within the workforce, experiencing actual earnings features since 2019. Whereas ladies proceed to face monetary obstacles comparable to incomes decrease wages than males, many have additionally made monetary strides through the previous 4 years, consultants say.
“The information does present us that we’re making features,” Ana Hernández Kent, senior researcher on the Federal Reserve Financial institution of St. Louis’s Institute for Financial Fairness, advised CBS MoneyWatch.
Girls are additionally closing the wealth hole with males.
Households headed by ladies have narrowed the wealth hole with males between 2019 to 2022, in response to Kent’s evaluation of the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Shopper Funds, a knowledge supply revealed each three years. For example, White ladies in 2022 had 66 cents of wealth for each $1 of wealth held by White males, up from 56 cents in 2019, her evaluation discovered.
Black ladies additionally noticed features, albeit from a a lot smaller base, with their wealth rising to eight cents for each $1 owned by White males in 2022, up from 5 cents in 2019. Hispanic ladies noticed a small dip to 9 cents in 2022 from 10 cents in 2019, Kent’s evaluation discovered.
By no means-married ladies, who are likely to have much less wealth general than ladies with companions, additionally noticed massive features between 2019 to 2022, with their wealth leaping 154% to $19,200 in 2022. Taking a look at this group may be illustrative as a result of their monetary outcomes have not been influenced in the identical method as individuals who have been married, divorced or widowed, Kent’s evaluation famous.
“We all know now we have a protracted approach to go,” Kent famous, including that ladies have additionally made financial strides when wanting even long run. “Will probably be 50 years in October since ladies may get credit score on their very own — it looks like ceaselessly in the past, however individuals will come up and share their tales. It is humbling.”
Revenue features for girls
Girls have additionally made earnings features through the previous 4 years, in response to information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Within the fourth quarter of 2023, the median weekly earnings for girls was $1,031, a rise of about 2.5% from 2019, on an inflation-adjusted foundation. By that measure, ladies have stored forward of the post-pandemic worth spike regardless of inflation reaching its highest level in 40 years.
Nevertheless, Trump spokeswoman Leavitt pointed to Census information displaying that ladies who work full time noticed their earnings peak at $57,500 in 2020.
Evaluating pre-pandemic earnings with current information might present a clearer image as a result of earnings in 2020, when the pandemic shuttered the economic system, skewed increased resulting from hundreds of thousands of low-income employees dropping their jobs that 12 months, successfully excluding them from earnings information, in accordance to left-leaning Financial Coverage Institute. Due to that, comparisons between 2020 and different years is probably not apples-to-apples.
In 2023, the newest 12 months accessible, ladies with full-time jobs earned $55,240, or about the identical inflation-adjusted earnings as in 2019, in response to new Census information.
Leavitt additionally pointed to the unemployment charge for girls reaching a document low of 3.1% in September 2019. Unemployment for each women and men spiked in 2020 as a result of pandemic, however dropped sharply below President Biden’s administration, with the jobless charge amongst ladies reaching a post-pandemic low of three.3% in January 2023.
Revenue features are vital as a result of that helps individuals to enhance their lifestyle, whereas additionally having cash to avoid wasting for retirement or purchase a house, which in flip builds wealth.
Economically, ladies are likely to earn lower than males, a so-called gender wage hole. That is brought on by points starting from occupational selections — males have a tendency to select jobs that pay extra, comparable to in STEM or enterprise — in addition to extra ladies than males taking break day for caregiving, which might crimp lifelong earnings and financial savings.
Nonetheless, ladies have made strides within the workforce through the previous 5 a long time partly resulting from their potential to manage their reproductive selections. Girls are actually extra prone to attend faculty than males, and are selecting to have youngsters later in life, serving to them cement their careers earlier than beginning households.
Girls, abortion and monetary misery
In his September 20 publish, Trump additionally vowed that ladies “WILL NO LONGER BE THINKING ABOUT ABORTION, BECAUSE IT IS NOW WHERE IT ALWAYS HAD TO BE, WITH THE STATES, AND A VOTE OF THE PEOPLE.”
Now, two years after the Supreme Courtroom overturned the constitutional proper to abortion that had been assured for practically 5 a long time below Roe v. Wade, practically a 3rd of states have near-total bans on the process in place.
Hampering ladies’s potential to entry abortions may also damage their monetary outcomes, in response to a landmark evaluation referred to as the Turnaway Research, which tracked ladies over a number of years after they sought to terminate a being pregnant.
Girls who had been denied abortions had been extra prone to undergo adversarial monetary conditions, from increased charges of chapter to evictions, the research discovered. They had been additionally extra prone to depend on authorities support applications like meals stamps and welfare due to their monetary pressure.
Trump’s claims about ladies’s well-being
As for Trump’s further claims a few decline in ladies’s well-being in contrast with 4 years in the past, the information is extra blended. For example, the newest FBI information reveals the speed of violent crime offenses — murder, rape, theft and aggravated assault — decreased yearly within the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration in contrast with Trump’s final 12 months in workplace.
However the Division of Justice‘s Nationwide Crime Victimization Survey suggests general violent crime charges, in addition to the charges of rape and sexual assault, had been increased in 2023, in contrast with charges in 2020 and 2019. Nonetheless, these estimates are restricted by the margin of error and the truth that victims of homicide aren’t included.
Girls’s charges of despair have certainly elevated — so have males’s, in response to Gallup’s Nationwide Well being and Effectively Being index. About 24% of ladies mentioned they had been being handled for despair in 2023, in contrast with about 18% in 2017. Males’s charges rose to about 11% from 9% over the identical interval.
Gallup famous that “alarming charges of despair aren’t distinctive to the U.S.,” and added that the rise could possibly be as a result of impacts of the pandemic, from emotions of isolation to disruptions in psychological well being providers brought on by the well being emergency.
Laura Doan
contributed to this report.
