On Sunday, The Women’s Foundation’s president, Phyllis Caldwell, was quoted in Philip Rucker’s Washington Post article, "Mortgage Giants’ Fall May Hurt Nonprofits."  Grantee Partners Doorways for Women and Families and Northern Virginia Family Services were also quoted. 

"There’s tremendous anxiety," Phyllis said.  "The uncertainty around what will happen will just cause things to stand still, and that creates more anxiety."

To read the rest of the article on how the takeover of mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could impact the nonprofit community in the Washington metropolitan area, visit WashingtonPost.com or view the PDF.

Today is Women’s Equality Day – the anniversary of the day that women finally won the right to vote in 1920.  In a year when a woman was a serious contender for the Presidency and another woman is Speaker of the House, we should take a moment to celebrate how much has changed thanks to the work and sacrifices of the suffragettes.

But when that moment is over, we need to start having a serious conversation about how far things still have to go.

Ironically, today is also the day that the Census Bureau releases the annual poverty statistics. It spells out just how unequal things still are for women when it comes to dollars and cents.

Single-women headed families are still far more likely to be in poverty than families headed by married-couples or single men.  More than 28 percent of families headed by a woman live in poverty.  In fact, of the 7.6 million families living in poverty, 4.1 million (well over half) are headed by single-women.

This has consequences not only for the women themselves, but for their children as well.  Between 2006 and 2007, the poverty rate for children increased. And, children living in women-headed families are far more likely to be poor. Forty-three percent of children under 18 living with a single mother were living in poverty and 54 percent of children under six living with a single mother were living in poverty as well.

What is one of the major reasons that women are poorer than men?

The fact is that women still earn less than men. In 2007, women earned 78 cents for every dollar earned by a man. 

This is the smallest the wage gap has ever been in history. So, let’s recognize it for what it is – a small step in the right direction.  But, it is a very small step. The reality is that the wage gap has barely increased in the past 20 years.  In 1983, the wage gap was 19.9 percent.  Today it is 22 cents.

So, to honor Women’s Equality Day, every person reading this blog should go out and demand that all candidates for office champion laws and programs that will assist women to have jobs that pay enough that they can support their families.  We need bold leaders if we are going to address the big issues like the wage gap and the poverty rate for women.

I know that The Women’s Foundation community is filled with the strong, visionary women that we need to get this job done.

Sharon Levin is The Women’s Foundation’s Director of Major Events and Policy Advocacy.

I hope you all have had a chance to read Phyllis’ commentary in the Spotlight on Poverty.

I am one of the staff here at The Women’s Foundation working on the Women’s Economic Security Collaborative (WESC) and I think it is a very exciting project.  We have the opportunity to really help low-income women and their families throughout the country by bringing greater attention to the issue and the policies that affect it.

One of the things that I love about this project is that I get to work with some of the other really incredible women’s foundations from other cities. Our partners are The Women’s Foundation of California, the Chicago Foundation for Women and the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis.

Already, we are learning so much from one and other – and I think the fact that we will be able to meld all of our experience and focus it on one common goal makes the WESC a very powerful group. Also, it gives Washington Area Women’s Foundation the opportunity to take the best of our partners’ work and use it here in the Washington metropolitan area.

I want to share with you just a few of the great projects that our collaborators are working on:

• The Women’s Foundation for Greater Memphis is the only women’s foundation in the nation to lead the fundraising for a Department of Housing and Urban Development HOPE IV project (these projects provide funds to revitalize some of the country’s most distressed housing projects). In Memphis, the women’s foundation has partnered with the Memphis Housing Authority to redevelop two of the largest public housing developments in Memphis and to provide comprehensive community support services.
• In Illinois, the Chicago Women’s Foundation has launched a state-wide public awareness campaign to address domestic violence called “What Will It Take”. Their goal is to end the abuse of women and girls, and they have used a wide-range of tools– including town-hall meetings, PSA’s, an action packet, concerts and more- to educate and involve the people of Illinois.
• The Women’s Foundation of California houses The Women’s Policy Institute – the only project in the nation of its kind. It is a year-long program for community leaders in California that combines advocacy training sessions and actual work to develop and implement policy advocacy projects. Thus, the Institute meets the twin goals of increasing the number of women’s advocates in the state and increasing the number of policies that reflect the needs and realities of low-income women and their families.

And, of course, our partners are learning from us as well. In fact, the Stepping Stones Initiative’s success in helping single-women low-income families increase their financial independence is not only influencing the work of our partners, but of many other women’s foundation around the country as well (including Colorado, Maine and the Nokomis Foundation to name a few).

Over the next year, we will be working locally with Grantee Partners, poverty experts, policymakers, women throughout our region and other key stakeholders to review the local landscape and to discuss ways to improve policies that impact low-income women – including the use of a Poverty Impact Statement.

Then, we will meet with our partners in the WESC so that we can all share what we have learned in our communities and what we have learned nationally. Our goal is that, by working together, we can each exponentially increase our knowledge and our ability so that we can have a deeper impact on the lives of women and girls at home.

I think we will.

Sharon Levin is The Women’s Foundation’s Director of Major Events and Policy Advocacy. 

With only two weeks left in the school year, yesterday my daughter’s third grade class in Fairfax County began week one of their Cities program.  Now, you might be wondering what the Cities program is. 

I asked myself that same question when my daughter began excitedly telling me about it.  The more I learned, the more intrigued I became.

Essentially, each third grade class is turned into a “city” for a few hours a day.  My daughter now resides in “Cougar County” and was both thrilled and concerned to learn that she would receive a 100 Zapper (equivalent to the dollar) loan from the mayor to begin her residency in Cougar County, but would have to pay back the loan at the end of the two weeks.  She received a check book and quickly learned how to write checks, make deposits in the Green Place Bank, and balance her checkbook.

There were many decisions that needed to be made.

First, which job would she apply for? She carefully weighed her options: mayor’s assistant, banker, police officer, maintenance, newspaper editor, government, or private sector. She opted for the private sector and decided she wanted to be an entrepreneur (much to the chagrin of her dad, a lifelong bureaucrat).

Her second decision: how much to charge for her products? As an entrepreneur, she was required to submit a project proposal to be approved by the mayor. She carefully calculated her supply fees (20 Zappers per week) and rental fees (10 Zappers per week) to assist her in determining the price of her products (homemade clay animals and friendship rings—absolutely worth every Zapper if you ask her very unbiased mom).

Third decision: should she purchase the optional health insurance and optional business insurance at 10 Zappers per policy per week? 

This is where she hit her stumbling block.

The mayor informed the citizens that each day a medical disaster or a business disaster would randomly hit one citizen.  The cost if you were not insured—250 Zappers.

Lengthy discussions ensued as she weighed the decision.  What if she couldn’t sell enough of her products to pay for the supply and rental fees?  Would she have any Zappers to shop in Cougar County?  Could she repay the 100 Zapper loan?  How could she afford the insurance if her products didn’t sell?  How could she afford to pay 250 Zappers if she was uninsured and hit by a disaster?

While the scenario my daughter faces in Cougar County is merely a third grade lesson plan, unfortunately, it is a stark reality for thousands of women and their families in the Washington metropolitan area.

According to The Portrait Project, low-income, women-headed families are the most economically vulnerable population in the Washington metropolitan area–57 percent of families living in poverty in the region are women-headed households. 

They are living one paycheck, one car repair, or one medical crisis away from disaster.

A recent report from the Urban Institute stated, “Savings and assets can cushion families against sudden income loss, increase economic independence, and bolster long-term economic gains.”  And yet, 24 percent of low-income families do not hold bank accounts, 35 percent do not own cars, 90 percent have no retirement account, and 60 percent do not own homes, leaving them with nothing to fall back on when hard times hit.

We’ve all seen the recent headlines, “Rising Prices Hit Home for Food Stamp Recipients,” “Jobless Claims Jump 25 Percent from ’07 in N. Va,” “Economic Troubles Multiply Requests for Help in DC Area.”

Gas and food are at record prices. Foreclosures are increasing. Unemployment rates have reached new highs. By all accounts, hard times are here.

So then, what does it mean to be one step away from a financial crisis?

To get a better sense of what it takes to truly survive economically in the Washington metropolitan area, I consulted the Family Economic Self-Sufficiency (FESS) Standard, a tool created by one of our Grantee Partners, Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW).  The standard “estimates the level of income necessary for a given family type—whether working now or making the transition to work—to be independent of welfare and/or other public and private subsidies.”

You might be surprised to learn that according to WOW, the 2005 self-sufficiency standard for a single mother with an infant and a preschooler living in D.C. was $53,634. That’s what it would take to cover the family’s basic needs (housing, child care, transportation, food, health care, miscellaneous expenses, and taxes). 

Compare that to the federal poverty guidelines, which calculate the poverty level for a family of three at $16,090. If that same mother works full-time making minimum wage in Washington, DC, she would earn just $19,322.

If you earn 36 percent of what is necessary to provide for your family’s basic needs, what exactly constitutes “hard times”?  Aren’t you already there?

As my daughter struggled to make her decisions about Cities, I asked her think about this reality.

What would it be like to come home from school to discover she had to move out of the only home she’s ever known and not be sure where she’s going?  What would it be like to live on $1 per meal per day?  What if she had no health insurance and the three trips to the pediatrician that we’ve made in the last two weeks for her bronchitis threw our family into debt?

She had no answers to my questions.

And so when my daughter came home last night, I was anxiously awaiting her final decision. Did she purchase the insurance or did she decide it was simply too expensive?

In the end, she opted to purchase both the health and business insurance.  But, concerned that she wouldn’t be able to pay back her Zappers loan, she stayed up late to make additional clay animals to sell the next morning.

Yes, it’s a simple third grade lesson plan, but imagine if it were real.

Jennifer Lockwood-Shabat is a Program Officer at The Women’s Foundation

As part of our ongoing commitment–in partnership with The Urban Institute–to providing information and resources related to the goals of Stepping Stones, please find below summary of recent research on issues of economic security and financial independence for women and their families.

Financial Education and Wealth Creation News

The Cost of Maintaining Ownership in the Current Crisis: Comparisons in Twenty Cities
By Dean Baker, Danilo Pelletiere and Hye Jin Rho
Center for Economic and Policy Research
April 2008

The collapse of the bubble in the U.S. housing market is creating chaos in financial markets, while throwing the economy into a recession. It is also threatening millions of homeowners and renters with the loss of their homes. This paper compares ownership and rental costs in twenty major metropolitan areas.

Key Findings:

• In many markets, homeownership costs are in line with rental costs. In these areas, it is practical and desirable to focus on policies that keep homeowners in their homes.
• Prices are now falling rapidly in many of these markets; homeowners are unlikely to accumulate equity. In fact, it is likely that many homeowners will end up selling their homes for less than their outstanding mortgage, even if new mortgages are issued with substantial write-downs from the original mortgage.
• In bubble-inflated markets, homeownership is not only a costly and risky proposition, but continuing price declines mean that homeowners will not accrue any equity.
• A policy of ensuring suitable rental options is likely to be more helpful to many current homeowners. This policy can encourage the rapid conversion of vacant and abandoned units to rental properties, as well as policies that facilitate the conversion of ownership units to rental units for the same households.
• Many of the properties facing foreclosure are already rental properties. In these cases, foreclosures often result in the displacement of the current tenants. Congress should recognize this problem and consider policies that provide greater security to tenants in such situations.

Abstract, introduction and key findings
Full text

Jobs and Business Ownership News

Hometown Prosperity: Increasing Opportunity for DC’s Low-Income Working Families
DC Appleseed and DC Fiscal Policy Institute
January 2008 (Released April 14, 2008)

This report describes working poor families with children in the District and the barriers they face to economic advancement, and lays out essential policy changes that could improve their situation.

Key findings and Policy Recommendations:

• Nearly one in three working families in the District was poor in 2005.
• In fact, a higher proportion of working families in the District is poor compared to the proportion of working families in neighboring states or in the nation as a whole.
• Enhance access to community college educational offerings for its residents by encouraging and developing regional partnerships and/or investing in the creation of a local community college as a branch of or separate from the University of DC.
• Make a priority of raising wages in women-dominated sectors and moving women into non-traditional careers.
• Set wage and benefit standards for all economic development programs.
• Implement paid sick leave for all District workers and consider developing a paid disability/family leave program.
• Continue to address the affordable housing crisis in the city, and promote housing for low-income families that takes into account access to transportation, jobs, and educational resources.

Abstract, introduction and key findings
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Human Capital and Women’s Business Ownership
By Darrene Hackler, Ellen Harpel, and Heike Mayer
Small Business Administration- Office of Advocacy
April 2008

This article begins to shed light on the relationship between different elements of human capital and self-employment among women.

Key Findings:

• The study finds that self-employed women have more education and increased their educational attainment at a faster rate compared to other working women.
• The percentage of self-employed women in managerial occupations consistently exceeded the rate for other working women, and self-employed women participated in different industries than other working women.
• More self-employed men hold an advanced degree compared to self-employed women over the study period, but the gap narrowed considerably by 2006.
• Self-employed minorities were slightly more likely than self-employed whites to have a college degree throughout much of the study period.
• Earnings data show that the self-employed were most likely to be either in the first (lowest) or fourth (highest) quartile.
• A lower percentage of self-employed women hold managerial occupations than do self-employed men, and there are lower rates of self-employment in industries where there is less overall female participation (such as communications, transportation, wholesale trade, manufacturing, and construction).

Abstract, introduction and key findings
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Child Care and Early Education News

Planning for Quality Schools: Meeting the Needs of District Families
By David F. Garrison, Marni D. Allen, Margery Austin Turner, Jennifer Comey, Barika X. Williams, Elizabeth Guernsey, Mary Filardo, Nancy Huvendick, and Ping Sung
Brookings Institution, The Urban Institute, and 21st Century School Fund
April 24, 2008

This report is the first phase of a three-part project to help the District of Columbia create a firm analytical basis for planning for quality schools to meet the needs of the city’s families.

Key Findings:

• The District’s population has increased since 2000; the total number of school-age children has declined slightly. Conditions in both the housing market and the public school system contribute to this trend.
• The District’s population is becoming increasingly diverse, with rising numbers of whites and Hispanics and a declining share of blacks. Still, the District remains highly segregated along both racial and income lines. The populations of Wards 7 and 8 are over 90 percent black, while nearly all of the city’s white residents live in Wards 2 and 3. And in 2006, median household income for the city’s white residents was $92,000, almost three times as high as the $34,000 median household income of the city’s blacks.
• Almost half of all white public school students live in Ward 3, and almost none live East of the River. In contrast, more than half of all black public school students live East of the River, while Hispanic students are heavily concentrated in Wards 1 and 4.
• There are 234 public schools and distinct public school programs in the District serving pre-school students through adults without high school diplomas, a significant expansion of supply since 1997.
• In 2006-07, 72, 378 students were enrolled in DCPS and public charter schools, close to the same number as the previous year, but substantially lower than a decade earlier. Since 1997-98, the number of students attending DCPS schools has dropped by almost one-third, while public charter enrollment has grown by over 400 percent.
• In 2006-07, there were 10,857 public special education students in the District, just over 15 percent of all public school students. This is on the high end compared to other high-poverty urban school districts. Special education students, like the general student population, are concentrated East of the River, and a disproportionate share of black public school students are classified as special education students (compared to white and Hispanic public school students).

Abstract, introduction and key findings
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The Impact of the Mortgage Crisis on Children and Their Education
By Julia B. Isaacs and Phillip Lovell
Brookings Institution
April 2008

By examining past research, this article examines the potential impacts of these foreclosures on children are their education, behavior and health.

Key Findings:

• Research shows that children who experience excessive mobility, such as those impacted by the mortgage crisis, will suffer in school.
• The National Assessment of Educational Progress (known as the Nation’s Report Card) has found that students with two or more school changes in the previous year are half as likely to be proficient in reading as their stable peers.
• One study found that frequent movers were 77 percent more likely than children who have not moved to have four or more behavior problems.
• One study found that working families spending more than half of their income on housing have less money available than other families to spend on such crucial items as health care and health insurance
• The mortgage crisis is more than a blow to our economy. It is crippling our children, their education, and as a result, the nation’s future. And while our government is working to alleviate the financial damage caused by this calamity, the impact on the nation’s children is going unnoticed. As economists focus on solving the problem, policy-makers must make an effort to mitigate the damage of this disaster on our young people.

Abstract, introduction and key findings
Full text 

Health and Safety News

Medicaid, SCHIP and Economic Downturn: Policy Challenges and Policy Responses
Kaiser Family Foundation
April, 28 2008

Examines the implications of a downturn for health coverage and state programs and projects the impact of one percentage point rise in the national unemployment rate on Medicaid and SCHIP and the number of uninsured individuals.

Key Findings:

• Economic Downturns Increase Medicaid Enrollment and Spending - This analysis shows that a 1 percentage point rise in the national unemployment rate would increase Medicaid and SCHIP enrollment by 1 million (600,000 children and 400,000 non-elderly adults) and cause the number of uninsured to grow by 1.1 million.
• Economic Downturns Reduce State Revenues - Medicaid and SCHIP are also affected by state revenue declines. Recent Urban Institute research shows that a 1 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate causes state General Fund revenue to drop by 3 to 4 percent below expected levels. 
• State Policy Responses Can Worsen Cyclical Downturns - Unlike the federal government, almost all states are legally required to balance their budgets. To meet this requirement in times of economic stress, states may take such steps as tapping reserves, borrowing from trust funds, securitizing future revenue streams, delaying spending from one fiscal year to the next, etc.
• Congress May Consider Options to Better Target Federal Relief - As states enter a new economic downturn, policymakers could consider three basic options for fiscal relief. One approach would, like JGTRRA, provide a uniform increase in Medicaid matching rates to all states, for a specified time. 
• Federal Fiscal Relief Can Prevent Medicaid Cuts During Economic Downturns - As a new economic downturn unfolds, many states appear headed for serious budget shortfalls. The federal government does not have balanced budget requirements, so it has the flexibility to target supplemental funds to states during an economic downturn, preventing harmful and ill-timed cuts in health coverage.

Abstract, introduction and key findings
Full text

Other News and Research

Women in the Wake of the Storm: Examining the Post-Katrina Realities of the Women of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast
By Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever
Institute for Women’s Policy Research
April 2008

This report tells the stories of women post-Katrina and, in so doing, provides an analysis of women’s increased vulnerability during times of disaster, and discusses how the experiences of women affected by Katrina align with the experiences of women around the world who have experienced other large-scale crises. It also provides a race/class/gendered analysis of women’s post-Katrina experiences, with a special emphasis on what they are doing now to rebuild their lives, reconstruct their homes, restore their families, and reclaim their communities.  It tells the story of Katrina from the eyes of the women who lived through it.

Key findings:

• Most of those with whom the author spoke with seemed relieved that other people wanted to know what they had been through, how they had survived, and what they were doing now to keep on keeping on. Nearly every woman bemoaned the fact that their voices had not been heard and as a result, their stories have been left untold.
• In conversations with women in and around New Orleans, three primary issues remained at the forefront of their concerns: housing, healthcare, and economic well-being. Each of these issues had multiple and often interlocking reverberations on their lives. All of those with whom we spoke expressed a deep commitment to their communities and desire to face any remaining challenges; however, our contacts’ health, sense of security, and for some even that small but persistent kernel of sustaining hope all have been jeopardized by the slow pace of recovery and the prolonged lack of normalcy.

Policy Recommendations:

• Make affordable housing a top priority. The safety of women and girls remain in jeopardy with each day that severe housing shortages go unaddressed.
• Incorporate women in the rebuilding economy through non-traditional training and enforcement of anti-discrimination laws. Women by and large have been shut out of the most lucrative aspects of the rebuilding economy and have suffered as a result.
• Increase the availability and quality of child care and schools. As the population of the region continues to expand, so does the need for child care and educational institutions.
• Address both physical and mental health care needs, especially among the most needy. Health care post-Katrina, for many, has become yet another disaster.

Full text

Last year, a number of staff here at The Women’s Foundation participated in the Food Stamp Challenge–living for a week on the food budget allocated to individuals on food stamps–generally about $1 per meal per person. 

A year ago, our staffers and others participating in the challenge found it extremely, well, challenging.  (For more of our staff blogs on the challenge, click here.)

Almost a full year later, though, the challenge of living on food stamps has become even more difficult, as Chris Jenkins outlines in yesterday’s Washington Post article, "Rising Prices Hit Home for Food Stamp Recipients."

It’s no surprise that the woman interviewed in the article is a working single mother–a divorced mother of two.  She had her salary cut in half when she was laid off as a receptionist and had to take a job as home health aid.  She says in the Post, "Our life has changed…My kids notice the changes, there’s no doubt about it.  There are things I can’t buy anymore, little things like desserts, or if I say we have to be careful how much we eat. It’s not just them; we all feel it. We all notice."

Earlier this month, CNN documented a similar story about another local woman who skimps on her own food to feed her young daughter.

The rising costs are a national issue, but in the Washington metropolitan region, families are feeling it even more than in most places around the country.  The article explains that food prices in this region are eight percent higher than the national average.  For example, a pound of ground beef averaged $3.33 for a Washington area shopper, compared with $2.64 nationally. That’s a difference of 26 percent. A dozen eggs were 10 percent higher, while a 10-pound bag of potatoes cost 40 percent more.

As costs rise and food stamp allocations fail to keep up, more families face the consequences of food insecurity–poor nutrition, a decreasing ability to focus at school, work and other activities, and overall poorer health–not to mention the added mental stress of worrying and calculating to try to get the family food budget to stretch as far as possible. 

And who is affected? 

According to Capital Area Food Bank, half of all households in Washington, D.C. receiving food stamps report at least one working adult in the household.  In 2005, 50 percent of all participants in the food stamp program were children, and 65 percent of them lived in single-parent households.  Thirty-four percent of households with children were headed by a single parent, the overwhelming majority of whom were women.  Forty-six percent of participants were white, 31 percent were African-American and 13 percent were Hispanic.  The average gross monthly income per food stamp household is $648. 

However the stats break down though, the reality remains the same, that food insecurity is becoming an increasing issue in our region and nation as prices climb and families find wages dropping or face job loss. 

Last year, staff member Sherell Fuller took an international lens to her experience on the food stamp challenge. 

An interesting lens when one considers that there are an estimated one in three people in the world living below the poverty line–defined as living on less than $1 a day. 

In the United States currently, one in 11 Americans receives food stamps of about $1 per meal.

In either scenario, that’s a lot to ask of $1. 

In my former life working on USAID projects focused on education for girls, I traveled to a number of African countries.   While each country is unique and different, after enough travel, meetings and jetlag, they can all start to feel the same in many ways.

Until Rwanda.  When I got to Rwanda, it felt different.  It was quiet, first of all.  Much quieter, generally, than most African nations.  The constant bluster of honking, music, yelling and just general noise seemed somehow dampered in Rwanda. 

And then I was struck by the other difference–less obvious, but certainly present.  Through my meetings and visits to schools and teachers and NGOs, it quickly became apparent that there were far more women in power than in most countries I’d been in.  There were more girls in school and gender was far more talked about and discussed than in most other countries I’d visited.  When I was sent to meet with a minister or high government official, I almost came to count on it being a woman. 

Not a common experience in Africa.

The statistics, of course, bore out this trend.  Half of Rwanda’s parliament seats are devoted to women.  They have established a Ministry devoted to family, gender and social affairs.

The only other country I’ve visited that had this same sort of vibe, of women just being more empowered generally–not only in terms of seats of parliament but in terms of their own lives and families–was Uganda. 

Two nations struck by horrible conflict.  Sadly, when such conflict strikes, women are left with terrible consequences, and tremendous opportunity.  For they face terrible violence and crimes against themselves and their children.  They bear the brunt of poverty and of rebuilding homes, towns and countries devastated by the destruction of war.  They are left to care for the sick, the dying and the orphaned.

But they are also left in many cases to run their families, farms, and the nation.  After the Rwandan genocide, 70% of the country was female.  Half of the households were headed by women.  Eighty percent of those were headed by poor widows.

And as the Washington Post documented on Friday in the article, "Women Rise in Rwanda’s Economic Revival," having women running the nation’s businesses hasn’t only been good for women. 

It’s been good for Rwanda.

The article explains, quoting Rwandan officials, "The march of female entrepreneurialism, playing out here and across Rwanda in industries from agribusiness to tourism, has proved to be a windfall for efforts to rebuild the nation and fight poverty. Women more than men invest profits in the family, renovate homes, improve nutrition, increase savings rates and spend on children’s education."

The article goes on to quote Agnes Matilda Kalibata, minister of state in charge of agriculture, saying, "Bringing women out of the home and fields has been essential to our rebuilding. In that process, Rwanda has changed forever. . . . We are becoming a nation that understands that there are huge financial benefits to equality."

As I read this article, I couldn’t help but think back to the brief time I spent in Rwanda, a collection of impressions and memories that are far from expertise, and that as I left Uganda a week later, that I thought about the horrible irony that often the best examples and evidence of the power of investing in women only have a chance to surface following terrible conflict and war. 

That somehow, despite the proven return, investing in women is generally a last resort, rather than a starting place.

Though this weekend, I did hear a story of hope.  A friend from another country in Africa, one also struck by its fair share of conflict and strife–though nothing compared to Rwanda–told me that when her father passed away, he left all of his land to his daughters, instead of his sons.

Almost unheard of in her country–and in most of Africa.  Surely everyone around town must think he was utterly insane, I tell her.

Of course, she says.  And now, the brothers are angry and fighting and furious that they are not in control.  For they want to sell the land and reap the profits.

And I don’t even care, she’s telling me.  What am I going to do with it?  I just have to make sure that my mother and everyone in the family is cared for, and beyond that, what does it all matter?  And my sisters, they don’t care.  We’ll keep it all for the family to use as they need it.  Beyond that, what is the point?

I told her that this, of course, is why her father had left the land to her and her sisters.  Because he knew, I said, that by  giving it to you, the entire family would be cared for in the long run.

Well, of course, she said.  What else would I do?

Today is Equal Pay Day.

This day signifies the fact that it takes women almost 16 months to earn what men earn in 12.  Women still only earn about 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, and the wage gap worsens for women of color.

In fact, the wage gap has remained at basically the same level for the past 20 years.  A large part of the reason for this is that women tend to work in lower paying jobs than men and in lower paying industries.

Every day at The Women’s Foundation, we are fighting these systemic reasons for the differences in men’s and women’s earnings.  Here are just a few examples:

• We support programs that allow women to move Into higher paying jobs.  Through Stepping Stones, we support job-training programs that prepare women to get jobs with salaries that are high enough to support a family. These are often jobs that have traditionally been held by men. For example, Washington Area Women in the Trades provides non-traditional employment training for homeless and low-income women. They estimate that in five years, more than 3,000 women will be provided assistance and more than 400 graduates will be prepared for high-skill/ high-wage jobs in our community.

• We support programs that ensure that women-dominated fields have better salaries and benefits.  Historically, jobs that have been traditionally held by women (like teachers and nurses) have earned lower salaries than jobs held by men. Our Grantee Partners, like CASA of Maryland, work to fight this historical bias and to ensure that jobs that are held primarily by women earn better salaries. For example, CASA of Maryland has a program to get better wages for domestic workers and to make sure that they get employment benefits as well.

• We support efforts that make sure that minimum-wage earners (who are disproportionately women) have a living wage. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women are the majority of minimum wage earners. DC Employment Justice Center, a Grantee Partner, was a core member of the D.C. Living Wage Coalition that successfully advocated for legislation that provided a living wage of $11.75 for workers employed by companies with contracts with the D.C. government.  It is estimated that this change will collectively increase women’s wages in the Washington metropolitan area by $7.5 million.

When you support The Women’s Foundation – by volunteering with us, by making a donation, by being a part of our community – you are supporting our efforts to increase women’s salaries and to take down the barriers that keep women from earning as much as their male colleagues.

Joining us in our efforts is a pretty terrific way to honor Equal Pay Day.

No not Extra-Sensory Perception, I’m talking about the Economic Stimulus Payments.

Beginning in May, the IRS will send Economic Stimulus Payment checks to over 130 million households.  Intended to spur a slowing economy, these payments represent many millions of dollars flowing into our communities. Just imagine what you could do with that money! How about doing something really novel and taking that payment and saving all or part of it for a rainy day?

It’s not like saving is unheard of, or that people don’t also get the message to save. It’s more that when surrounded by many more messages to “buy this new thing,” or “upgrade to this latest thing,” it’s harder to hear the call to save. And those messages to spend and buy are mostly winning.  Recent survey results released by America Saves and the American Savings Educational Council (ASEC) found that only 53 percent of Americans have adequate savings, with just 28 percent saving the recommended 10 percent of their annual income.

It’s not just a message of cutting out the frills and luxuries, either.  Surveys of taxpayers who file at the DC Earned Income Tax Credit (DC EITC) Campaign’s free tax sites have shown that many of them use their refunds for everyday expenses, including paying bills.  If your income isn’t very high to start with, it’s easy to see why saving can be more difficult.  At CAAB, however, we see every day that anyone can save.

National research and our own experience with our matched savings program participants like Christine Walker has shown that even people with low incomes can put money away now as a down payment on a brighter future.

To help get this message out and to provide motivation, information, and resources to help people take positive financial action, DC Saves was started a year ago this month (Financial Literacy Month, a fitting birthday!) to help Washingtonians reduce debt and increase savings. 

This Saturday, April 5, we’ll host our First Anniversary Financial Literacy Fair at THEARC in Ward 8. In addition to useful information and access to savings products and resources, we’ll also provide free tax preparation services, financial education seminars, credit reports and counseling, and mini-sessions with Certified Financial Planners. It’s free to the public and we hope you’ll join us to learn how you, too, can take that first (or second, or third, etc.) step toward reaching your financial goal.

And what about that ESP?

To help more people claim and keep the economic stimulus payment and any other tax benefits they may be owed, the DC EITC Campaign and Community Tax Aid are hosting Super Stimulus Filing Days alongside our regular tax clinics. Community organizations can help their clients access these services by spreading the word about the programs, or sending their own staff to learn how to complete the necessary tax forms to help their clients receive their economic stimulus payments at one of our training sessions.

And if any of those clients want help to make a commitment to saving, tell them about the Fair on April 5. It’s a free, fun way to share the message that “Anyone can save!”

Donna Ortega is director of development and communications at Capital Area Asset Builders, a Stepping Stones Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation.  The Women’s Foundation is a sponsor of the April 5 Financial Literacy Fair. 

Christine Walker came to Washington, D.C. in 2002 from Milwaukee for better professional growth opportunities. Eager to advance her career, she enrolled in public policy courses at George Washington University.

As she accumulated credits toward her degree, unfortunately, she also began accumulating credit card debt.

A lot of it.

Concerned about her financial future, Christine embarked on a journey towards financial literacy. She taught herself everything she could through books. Then she teamed up with Lydia’s House, a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation, and took classes on how to improve her credit and prepare for responsible home ownership.

Lydia’s House set her on a path towards better financial practices, but as a single mom responsible for her four-year old son, Christine still wasn’t earning enough through her job as an executive assistant to save—the true pathway to economic security.

And that’s where The Women’s Foundation’s Stepping Stones initiative came in.

Stepping Stones brought together Lydia’s House and Capital Area Asset Builders (CAAB), providing a grant to CAAB to provide Individual Development Accounts —or IDAs, a special type of savings account—to single mothers in Washington, D.C.’s Ward 8 earning less than $35,000 who completed financial literacy courses at Lydia’s House.

Fueled by the motivation of knowing that she could quadruple her savings, Christine saved $1,000 in six short months. Having completed the required financial education training and met her savings goal, Christine earned a 3-to-1 match on her account from the IDA program–receiving an additional $3,000 from funds provided by The Women’s Foundation and the D.C. government.

The match, she says, made all the difference.

"The match made it seem like it was worthwhile," Christine says. "When you can only save $25 a month, you feel defeated, that you can’t put a dent in your goals. Your only hope is for a better job, or some other fluke. It’s frustrating. With the IDA account, it seemed almost too good to be true. For me, $4,000 is huge. It means not having to use a credit card for school."

Emily Appel, matched savings program director at CAAB, explains that motivation is a significant part of the journey towards saving. “Christine is awesomely motivated, which is what it takes to balance the cost of raising a family in the District and saving for school," Emily says. "We’ve seen time and again that with that motivation to fix one’s finances and start a business, go back to school, or buy a house, even very low-income people can find a way to save and purchase their asset.”

Christine now has $4,000 saved to apply towards her public policy degree. Eventually, she hopes to go to law school. Once she has her undergraduate—and eventually her law school—degrees, her earning potential will significantly increase.

This is the idea behind the IDA accounts, which require that the individual’s savings be put towards an asset that will increase in value over time, such as education, homeownership or small business start-up or expansion.

Programs like these are what make The Women’s Foundation—and its Grantee Partners—so effective. Because we invest in strategies and people, like Christine, that generate an amazing return on investment.

Christine is the first of what will be up to 20 success stories to emerge from the partnership between Lydia’s House and CAAB over the next three years—for a combined savings of up to $80,000, leveraging thousands more in mortgages, scholarships, and student and small business loans.

Stay tuned for even more great results and impact from Stepping Stones—The Women’s Foundation’s long-term initiative focused on helping low-income, single mothers achieve economic security. Evaluation results for the first two and a half years of Stepping Stones will be available in April.

If you are a Grantee Partner and would like to recommend clients for enrollment in the CAAB IDA program, please contact Emily Appel by email or at 202.419.1440 for more information.