Beyond Abortion and Equal Pay: Survey Highlights Wide Scope of "Women's Issues"
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/08/26/beyond-abortion-and-equal-pay-survey-highlights-wide-scope-womens-issues
Presidential candidates who think "women's issues" are limited to abortion rights and equal pay are sorely mistaken, according to the results of a new survey released Wednesday by the Ms. Foundation for Women.
"This survey tells us that policymakers, community leaders, and movements must change the way we approach problems and issues," said Ms. Foundation president and CEO Teresa C. Younger. "
Women do not lead single-issue lives. For instance, access to birth control and abortion is impacted by income level, racial and cultural bias, gender discrimination and immigrant status. We must implement policies and build movements that address the totality of womens lives, rather than creating a patchwork of silos."
The survey results were publicized Wednesday to coincide with Women's Equality Day, the national holiday commemorating passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
"Theres an awareness that economic issues disproportionately affect women that I did not fully expect," said Tresa Undem, a partner at PerryUndem Research/Communication, which conducted the survey of 1,051 U.S. adults in late May. "How the economy affects women specifically is not something we hear a lot about. But it is clearly something many people recognize firsthand."
To that end, researchers from the non-profit Institute for Womens Policy Research (IWPR) said Wednesday that the pay disparity between men and women is lower among union members than among American workers as a whole but it still exists.