Portrait Project

Caution: Lack of affordable child care may result in lack of children.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

A new national poll has found that women are delaying having children because of the high cost of child care and preschool–which can run about $10,000 annually (more than my college tuition not that long ago).

For middle income women ($35-50K), the poll found that one in three said that the cost of child care or preschool made them decide against having a baby or delay having one. Those polled often had to give up buying appliances or other household needs because of the high cost of child care.

Some of the women polled are married and part of dual income households. I can’t help but think then of the burden of child care costs on the women served by The Women’s Foundation, who are primarily single mothers earning less than $35K a year in an economy with a very high cost of living.

i wonder what choices and decisions then face a woman with less earning power, less help and a greater financial burden to assume alone.

Here in Washington, D.C., according to our Portrait Project, 2002 market rates for childcare for a family with an infant and a preschooler was around $22,900 per year–or one third of the salary of a couple earning $77,000.

Now, imagine paying my college tuition four times over each year as a single woman earning less than $35,000 per year–which is what a lot of women in our region are trying to do (as I recall, doing it once over for my single mom wasn’t exactly a cake walk). For a single woman in our region earning $26K per year (not atypical), childcare would consume 70 percent of her earnings.

Forget not buying an allowance at that point. What about food, and clothing?

And it’s not just D.C. Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties have the highest estimated childcare costs of all counties in Maryland, at $15,329 and $11,495 respectively for families with an infant and preschooler.

If you’re earning less than $35K, or even less than $50 or $75, and raising kids, that doesn’t leave a lot of budgetary wiggle room.

As Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham said regarding the poll, “The high cost of child care and preschool are causing women to make agonizing decisions. We need to invest more to ensure access to quality child care and preschool for all American families and cut crime in the process.”

Cutting crime isn’t the only thing that would be reduced were child care to be made more affordable and available in our area–and the nation. Without childcare, people–and particularly single mothers–can’t hold down their jobs.

Our Portrait Project found that there is an estimated 62 percent shortfall in the supply of regulated childcare to meet the potential demand in Washington, D.C.

Affordable child care is such a win-win on so many fronts. It may seem like a women’s issue, but really, it’s everyone’s issue, because it touches every facet of our lives, at pretty much every level of the economic spectrum.

This is why it’s one of the four focal points of Stepping Stones. Because women’s economic security, and the strength of our community, depends on access to such key basic services and needs.

DCWA: Achieving balance difficult if you can't weigh your options.

Posted on by Natasha Pendleton

The following is the fifth post in a series covering aspects and angles on the DC Women’s Agenda’s recent white paper, Voices and Choices for D.C. Women and Girls: Recommendations for City Leaders 2007.  The DC Women’s Agenda promotes the advancement, equality and well-being of women in D.C. This series of blogs is an extension of a very important proposal of recommendations to city leaders to truly make tangible changes in the Washington metropolitan area.

There has always been a conversation around working mothers and the balance between protecting their career growth and being able to spend time with loved ones.

Most of us would prefer more flexibility at work, so that we could go to every one of our daughter’s ballet recitals or our son’s little league games, or heck, even a PTA meeting every once in while.

But when our hands our tied, putting food on the table and a roof over our heads tends to be a higher priority.

If everyone could have it all, I’m sure they would.  For most though–and particularly for low income families–they can’t.   

It is because of this that the Washington Post article, “Part-Time Looks Fine to Working Mothers: 60% Prefer it to Full Time or No Job” falls short in accounting for the true realities of women–and particularly low-income women–to say the least.

The article reviews a recent study that claims that the proportion of working mothers who prefer to work part-time has jumped by 12 percentage points since 1997.  More importantly, despite the fact that 60 percent of working moms find working part-time as the ideal, only 24 percent of them have part-time hours.

The article attributes the cause for these numbers as being due to a differing value system that Generation X possesses over the Baby Boomers.  As Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute, claims, “We found that the younger people are more family-centric than Boomers are.  Most young people have seen someone lose their job, and they have lived through 9/11. It’s not that they don’t want to work. They just want to work more flexibly.”

But what the article nonchalantly sweeps under the rug is that taking part-time hours “has meant some financial cutbacks and compromises,” which most low-income (or even moderate income) mothers can’t afford. The article explains, “Jackie Wyche, a married mother of four in Stafford who took part in the research, said part-time work is best — even though it is simply not possible in her life. ‘I have to pay the bills,’ she said. She wishes it were different.”

So, let’s make a difference and provide job training to mobilize women so that one day they may have the ability to weigh their options–which many cannot do as they work for low, hourly wages, do not have paid sick or vacation time and often, have little to no health insurance. 

Much of today’s workforce–a large proportion of this working mothers–cannot afford to take a day off work sick, much less cut back to part-time. 

Currently, according to the Washington Area Women’s Foundation’s Portrait Project, 65 percent of women in the D.C. area are employed.  Yet, a third of women-headed families who work (which tends to be the trend of low-income mothers) are impoverished and 11 percent of women in D.C. are unemployed.

Many of these working women have dead end jobs that pay low wages and offer no benefits. 

These women are therefore stuck in a vicious cycle of living paycheck to paycheck.  As the DCWA white paper explains, these jobs “keep working poor persons well below the poverty line and just one small step ahead of homelessness.  In fact, 31.6 percent of homeless DC adult residents are employed.” 

They’re holding on by a thread and we need to do something about it.

Funding for job training, particularly for low-income women, would:

  • Provide women, especially mothers, with the skills that they’ll need to advance in a career that provides self-sufficiency and mobility in the company–not just a job;
  • Improve literacy and basic education levels;
  • Help women overcome barriers to living wage employment, such as child care, mental and physical health problems, a lack of a driver’s license, and housing;
  • Assist trainees in developing soft skills such as better communication, team building, self-esteem and better confidence to help them progress and advance in higher paying, more stable careers;
  • Provide job development support to ensure that trainees can search for and obtain a position within their chosen career path in the future; and,  
  • Create networks to link trainees with jobs in high-demand sectors and which pay at least $11.75 per hour ( D.C.’s new living wage) and offer benefits.

Contact your D.C. councilmember and tell them that we value our families and a healthy work-family balance for all of the working mothers in the District of Columbia.  Tell them that one of the best ways of accomplishing that is through job training to mobilize working mothers so that they can afford to scale their options and remain self-sufficient.

For more information on how job training programs funded with support from The Women’s Foundation are making a difference in the lives of women throughout our community: 
Constructing futures, one woman at a time.
Street Sense vendor finds a stepping stone in Goodwill course.
WAWIT: Welding a new world for women.
Women hammering their way to social change, not just another job.

The DC Women’s Agenda, DC Employment Justice Center and Wider Opportunities for Women are all Grantee Partners of The Women’s Foundation. 

About the blogger:
Natasha Pendleton is a summer intern with Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW), a convenor of the DC Women’s Agenda.  She is currently a senior attaining a bachelor of arts degree in sociology with concentrations in law and society and urban and regional planning at Cornell University.  She serves as theatrical director of an anti-oppression theatre troop, which performs for more than 5,000 people nationwide (annually) to promote diversity and racial harmony on college campuses.  A native of Chicago, Natasha was motivated to come to Washington, D.C. this summer to work with WOW by issues of social and economic justice that have pressed upon her heart for some time.  Natasha truly believes that not only is the government accountable, but it is our responsibility to be informed citizens to challenge the state of local policy.  And furthermore, as those informed citizens, it is our responsibility to raise voices and awareness so that all people, especially women and girls, can live in safe, fair, and thriving communities.

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and the realities of our region…

Posted on by nisha

As Asian Pacific American Heritage Month draws to a close, I thought it was worth revisiting a few statistics from The Portrait Project about Asian women in the Washington region.  While these data are a few years old now, they still serve to remind us of the divide that exists in our region within all racial and ethnic groups—and of the need for an organization like The Women’s Foundation, which is attempting to be a bridge across the divide.

When The Portrait Project was released in 2003. . .

  • Asian women’s median annual earnings in each jurisdiction of the Washington metropolitan region exceeded the median annual earnings of $27,194 for women nationally. In the region, Asian women’s median annual earnings ranged from $29,804 to $38,370. In four out of six local jurisdictions, Asian women’s earnings outpaced the national figure for this group by at least $2,773 (Fairfax County), and upwards to $7,321 (District of Columbia).
  • Yet, Asian women had the second highest poverty rates of all women in the region at 8.9 percent.  And, elderly Asian women in Alexandria and Arlington had the highest poverty rates of all women in every jurisdiction at 42.1 percent and 37.4 percent respectively (compared to Montgomery, Prince George’s, Arlington, Fairfax and Alexandria).
  • One of the largest wage gaps existed between Asian women and men’s median annual earnings. Asian women’s earnings in the region ranged from being 68 percent of Asian men’s earnings in Fairfax County ($33,822 for women compared to $49,589 for men) to 88 percent of their earnings in the District of Columbia ($38,370 compared to $43,646 for men).
  • 56 percent of Asian women in the region had some sort of college degree. Yet, 17- 21 percent of Asian women in our region lacked a high school diploma.

Clearly, there is much work to be done in bridging the divide. It is through our existing partnerships with Grantee Partners such as ASHA, Boat People SOS and Chinatown Service Center–and through new partnerships–that we can begin to make progress.

Research Briefing Recap: How a research briefing was born…

Posted on by Peter Tatian

On May 11, The Urban Institute and Washington Area Women’s Foundation hosted the second annual Stepping Stones Research Briefing, an event bringing together researchers, supporters of The Women’s Foundation, Grantee Partners, and members of the community to discuss some of the latest research on issues facing women-headed families in the Washington region.

The idea of holding a research briefing grew out of a challenge from The Women’s Foundation to encourage and promote public policy research with a “gender lens.”

Since the very beginning, The Women’s Foundation has been committed to basing its strategies and grantmaking on solid information. Starting with The Portrait Project: A Portrait of Women and Girls in the Washington Metropolitan Area, and continuing with its commitment to informed grantmaking and results-based evaluation, The Women’s Foundation has sought out and used high quality data and research to inform its actions.

And so, the Stepping Stones Research Briefing was born! 

The first two briefings have been a great opportunity to showcase some of the outstanding research being done on issues of importance to women in the region.  But, doing research with a gender perspective means more than just comparing women with men.  As The Urban Institute’s Margery Turner put it in her welcoming remarks, "We did not want to simple-mindedly run everything separately on the basis of gender, but rather to think about the ways in which taking a gender perspective might generate new insights coming out of research and new ideas on the implications of research for policy and practice."

Over the next few weeks, some of the researchers who participated in the research briefing will be writing their own blog entries, sharing with you additional insights from their work.

Their presentations touched on three policy areas:

  • Financial education and wealth creation – Megan Gallagher and Oramenta F. Newsome discussed the opportunities and challenges for increasing wealth in women-headed families through homeownership.
  • Child care and early education – Jesse Bailey, Elaine Weiss, and Gina Adams presented both local and national perspectives on strategies to increase access to quality child care, a vital support for single women with children in the workforce.
  • Microenterprise development – Nancy M. Pindus, Telaekah Brooks, and Roxana Moayedi described the barriers to women trying to start their own businesses, including perspectives from local women entrepreneurs, and some of the assistance that is available to help them succeed in the business world.

Like you, I will be looking forward to hearing more about the exciting research that was presented at the research briefing. 

But, for those of you who can’t wait, you can listen to the entire set of presentations through a series of audio files available on the Urban Institute Web site.

Peter Tatian is a senior research associate in the Urban Institute’s Center on Metropolitan Housing and Communities.  (The views expressed here are his own and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.)  Peter plays a crucial role in the development and success of the Stepping Stones Research Briefing. 

For an additional perspective on the Stepping Stones Research Briefing, check out Lisa Claudy Fleischman’s post, "Learning Through a Gender Lens."

Anne's legacy of leadership: Inspiring us to work harder, do more!

Posted on by Lori Kaplan

When I first heard that Anne Mosle was leaving her leadership role at the Washington Area Women’s Foundation to go to the Kellogg Foundation, I felt very sad!  As a Grantee Partner, and someone who admires Anne so much, it was, and still is, incredibly challenging to wrap my head around the fact that not only is Anne leaving The Women’s Foundation, but the area as well! 

But, as I thought about it more, I have reluctantly begun to appreciate what a fantastic next step this is for Anne and honestly, for our nation!  So, Washington’s loss is truly, through the impact she will undoubtedly make at the Kellogg Foundation, our nation’s gain!

I first met Anne when she invited me to participate as a community member on an advisory group for The Portrait Project.  I remember my first meeting–walking into a room of diverse, talented women (I think there may have been a few brave men present as well!) who had gathered to focus on the research that eventually became the foundation for The Women’s Foundation’s Stepping Stones initiative. 

From that moment on I was an Anne Mosle fan and donor and supporter of The Women’s Foundation!  Today, we have all witnessed the power of The Portrait Project and what The Women’s Foundation has done to turn research into action! 

As a result of Anne’s relentless ability, energy and compassion, and her capacity to engage so many others to join her, she has turned this research effort–which could have become a document gathering dust like so many other documents sitting on our desks–into a powerful tool that provided the framework and vision for what has today grown into an annual million dollar effort impacting diverse women’s lives throughout our region!

Wow!

It is hard for me to even imagine how she did this–aggressively gathering an army of women and supportive men to bring to life her vision of improving the quality of life for the girls and women in our region. 

It is also important to note that The Portrait Project was one of the first research efforts in our region to ensure that the needs of Latino girls and women were documented.

Today, Anne and her great staff have enlisted an army of regional foot soldiers in nonprofit community organizations to carry out her charge through innovative, respectful programs and initiatives. The Latin American Youth Center has been fortunate to be one of The Women’s Foundation’s Grantee Partners in this work. 

The Women’s Foundation, its community of donors and Stepping Stones have brought a unique philanthropic vision and opportunity to us all!

Anne’s legacy inspires us all to work harder and do more, while generously giving of our time and money to ensure that girls and women have the opportunity to thrive in our region.  Anne has engaged us in her vision and while she tackles her new challenge, The Women’s Foundation’s work and our work is not done.  We must keep her vision in our hearts, minds, and our purses, through continued support of The Women’s Foundation and Stepping Stones.

Our greatest homage to Anne will be to keep The Women’s Foundation strong for years to come!

Anne, thank you for your years of dedication and passion – I will miss you!

Lori Kaplan is executive director of the Latin American Youth Center in Washington, D.C., a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation since 2003. 

2007: Your Year for Helping Women and Girls!

Posted on by Lisa Kays

2006 hasn’t been a bad year for us girls.   

  • The Nobel Prize went to Dr. Muhammed Yunus, father of micro-credit and the Grameen bank, of which 90 percent of small business loans go to women lifting themselves out of poverty and onto the pathway of possibility. 
  • The first vaccine against cervical cancer was approved and made available to young women.  
  • Nancy Pelosi became the first female Speaker of the House.
  • A 2006 report found that women are earning more degrees and credentials than ever! 
But then again, things can always be better.
 
  • Despite all those degrees, the wage gap between men and women is still growing.
  • Attacks on women reminded us that domestic violence is alive, well—and life threatening.  
  • Half of the world’s women continue to give birth without skilled care.
So, since much remains to be done to ensure that countries, communities, schools and families are safe, equitable and empowering for women and girls, Washington Area Women’s Foundation presents you with…
 
Your Calendar for Helping Women and Girls in 2007
 
January: Click to prevent! 
While setting up your annual doctor’s exams, check-ups and monthly reminders to do breast exams, take a moment to visit The Breast Cancer Site and sign up for daily reminders to click to provide a free mammogram to a low-income woman! 
 
February: Teach a girl the power of the purse! 
When reviewing your W-2s and savings strategy with your financial planner, take some time to teach a young woman in your life—a daughter, cousin, niece or neighbor—about the value of saving, investing wisely and planning for her financial future! For resources, click here!     
 
March: Turn celebration into action! 
Celebrate Women’s History Month with your book club by celebrating a female author and turning your collective reading into giving by starting a Giving Circle and investing together in women in your local community!  Read about Giving Circles and then learn how here! 
  
April: Spring clean someone to success! 
Clean out that closet and set up another woman for success through Dress for Success!
 
May: A meaningful Mother’s Day!   
Celebrate the Mom who has it all by supporting a woman who can become it all! Give a gift honoring your mom to the women’s foundation serving your community. Goodsearch your way to it, and catalyze a donation every time you click! 
 
June: Put your money where your values are!   
Invest in or support a woman-owned business! Need to find a new doctor or dentist this year? Narrow your search by supporting women’s practices. For other ways to show off your pro-woman purchasing power, use directory’s like this one showcasing women-owned businesses!
 
July: Patriots practice philanthropy!   
Show your patriotism through the American tradition of generosity! Give a gift on behalf of an important woman in your life—a mentor, teacher, mother, friend, colleague or sister—to your local women’s foundation, a domestic violence shelter or another organization that benefits women.         
 
August: Beat the heat, be a mentor!   
School’s about to be back in session, so get away from the heat by surfing your way to a local mentoring program! Young women everywhere are inspired and encouraged by role models who show them the value of education, encourage their interests and help them build the skills that will make them great students and citizens. Just look at what’s happening in Silver Spring, Maryland!  
 
For resources on mentoring programs in your area, consult Mentor, visit Dollar Philanthropy for an inspirational word on the value of mentoring or check in with your local women’s foundation—which most likely supports excellent mentoring programs for young women in your area! 
 
And remember, mentoring isn’t just for the young!  As women move into non-traditional careers or from low-wage jobs to professional careers—which is happening daily thanks to local women’s foundations—they need mentors and support!  Check in to learn how you can be a part of transforming lives and building futures!  
 
September: Become a political maven!   
School is back in session! Keep learning by studying policy initiatives that empower women and girls, whether on a national or state level. In 2007, likely policy areas to watch are living wage (90 percent of all long-term, minimum wage earners are women!), mandatory paid sick and maternity leave (We are the only country in the world without mandatory paid maternity leave!), the Earned Income Tax Credit, subsidized child care and affordable college education. Choose three issue areas, track them, and be sure to e-mail or call your representatives to let them know where you stand!

October:  Trick or trivia!
Don’t get tricked on your trivia…know your facts!  Check out these little known census facts about women in the U.S.! 
 
November: Put the giving in Thanksgiving!  
Bring the three T’s to the season of Thanksgiving: time, treasure and talent! Create a year-long plan for volunteering time at an organization whose mission you believe in, set up automatic monthly contributions to your local women’s foundation and contribute your talents by helping other women file their tax returns, providing financial training and education, teaching English to recent immigrants or providing career development courses! Get in touch with your local women’s foundation to learn how you can get involved!   
    
December: Create a legacy!   
Never too soon to plan for your legacy. Meet with your attorney about providing for organizations that assist women through a bequest in your will.          

Whew, see how time flies when you’re making a difference and changing lives?