High Rates of Unemployment for Women in Pennsylvania

A paper exploring the impact of the recession in Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh area was released today.

It was produced by the Institute for Women's Research and Women and Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania.

The paper found that more than four out of ten families headed by single mothers in The Pittsburgh region live in poverty. The report found that single mothers have been hit especially hard by the recession, the rate of unemployment for women who maintain households in Pennsylvania has more than doubled since 2007 and 2009.
In addition, women already made less than men do, 75 cents on the dollar. The ratio is even worse for women of color - 64 percent for African-American women and 65 percent for Latina women. The gender wage gap in Pittsburgh is worse than the national gender wage gap.

Suggestions made include increasing investments from the American Recovery and reinvestment act into job opportunities and improving better paid sick and family leave and better access to child care.

Pennsylvania State Treasurer Robert McCord said he is committed to creating more job opportunities for women in the Commonwealth.