The latest news, analysis and opinion on the state of low-income women and their families from Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity. For the week ending 4/1/2011: Women, unions and “the husband issue.”
Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty. Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.
Here’s this week’s news:
• A New York Times op-ed entitled “An Extraordinary Intrusion on Women’s Rights” says that several new state laws limiting women’s access to providers of abortions will especially limit access for low-income women.
• Despite massive state-wide cuts to programs that help illegal immigrants, Washington state is federally mandated to allocate $300 million in funds to services for illegal immigrants, primarily child welfare and health services for seriously ill and pregnant women, according to the Seattle Times.
• In an editorial piece for the New York Times, Natasha Vargas-Cooper discusses how she worked as a union organizer and had to overcome “the husband issue” when convincing low-wage female workers to join the unions; the women always sought approval from their husbands before joining the union, an act that Vargas-Cooper argues would not occur if the same question was posed to men.
To learn more about Spotlight visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org
To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.
The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity team
