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.
This research is summarized and compiled for The Women’s Foundation by Kerstin Gentsch of The Urban Institute, NeighborhoodInfo DC.
Financial Education and Wealth Creation News
Have Middle-Income Parents Improved Their Economic Status?
By Robert I. Lerman
Urban Institute
February 23, 2007
Looks at middle-income married versus unmarried parents’ net worth between 1989 and 2004.
Between 1989 and 2004, middle-income parents experienced moderate income growth, but only married parents have gained net worth—a significant fact given that the share of households headed by an unmarried parent increased from 26 to 33 percent over the same period. Using data from the Federal Reserve Board’s Surveys of Consumer Finances, income measures alone show that middle-income unmarried parents gained some ground relative to married parents. However, trends in net worth—the value of what households own minus the value of what they owe—diverged by marital status, demonstrating the importance of looking beyond income data.
For fact sheet, click here!
Jobs and Business Ownership News
Capital Access for Women: Profile and Analysis of U.S. Best Practice Programs
By Salzman, Harold, S. McKernan, N.M. Pindus, and R.M. Castaneda
Urban Institute
February 26, 2007
Analyses key success factors, barriers, and constraints faced by women entrepreneurs, and provides policy recommendations.
Capital access programs and funds for women starting and expanding their businesses have grown dramatically over the past decade. These programs cover the spectrum from microenterprise to venture capital funds and serve highly diverse populations. Thirteen "best practice" programs and three "promising practices" (new programs that appear innovative but do not yet have a track record) are profiled in this report and are the basis for our analysis of key success factors, barriers, and constraints faced by women entrepreneurs, and our policy recommendations. We profile and analyze the programs to share best practices and lessons learned so that successful programs can be replicated. Our analysis of these best practice programs identifies six areas that can improve the strength of all capital access programs and expand their reach.
For abstract and executive summary, click here!
For full report, click here!
Understanding Low-Wage Work in the United States
By Heather Boushey, Shawn Fremstad, Rachel Gragg, and Margy Waller
March 2007
Center for Economic Policy and Research
Analyzes labor market data to provide a picture of the low-wage labor market.
Over 40 million jobs in the United States — about 1 in 3 — pay low wages ($11.11 per hour or less) and often do not offer employment benefits like health insurance, retirement savings accounts, paid sick days or family leave. These low-wage jobs are replacing jobs that have historically supported a broad middle class. This report provides a clear and sobering picture of the low-wage labor market through analysis of labor market data, including: downward wage trends over time, poor work conditions, largest occupations, and declining mobility. The authors used a social inclusion definition of low-wage work that allows for comparison among jobs in the United States.
An abstract and full report are available.
Child Care and Early Education News
Gender Gaps in Math and Reading Gains During Elementary and High School by Race and Ethnicity
By Laura LoGerfo, Austin Nichols, and Duncan Chaplin
Urban Institute
March 2, 2007
Analyzes gender differences in math and reading tests for four racial and ethnic groups over six time periods.
Gender differences in academic achievement have long fascinated researchers and policy-makers alike. In this paper we analyze differences in math and reading test score growth rates by gender for four different race and ethnic groups—white, black, Hispanic, and Asian students—for six different time periods. Our data cover both the earliest years of education and the crucial years of adolescence. In addition, we have data bracketing one non-schooling period. Together these data enable us to get a very complete picture of how gender gaps evolve over the course of early elementary and high school years and how these trajectories differ by race and ethnicity. While the gender gaps are not always statistically significant, they are for 15 of 48 comparisons made, all during school. In addition, all of the statistically significant results suggest that males learn more math and females more reading during early elementary school and again during high school.
An abstract and introduction and the full report are available.
Early Head Start and Teen Parent Families: Partnerships for Success
Center for Law and Social Policy
February 26, 2007
Focuses on how the services available through Early Head Start can support the special needs of families with teenage parents.
This issue brief focuses on the special needs of teenage parents and their children ("teen parent families") and on how the unique set of services available through Early Head Start (EHS) programs can support them. Teen parent families face multiple risks, risks that may be substantially different from those faced by families with older parents and that may be further complicated by issues involving disability, abuse, or neglect. These issues are interrelated and must be integrated and addressed as programs design services to meet the needs of this population.
For full brief, click here!
Early Child Care Linked to Increases in Vocabulary, Some Problem Behaviors in Fifth and Sixth Grades
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
March 26, 2007
Looks at the link between quality of child care before entering kindergarten and increase in vocabulary and problem behaviors in fifth and sixth grade.
The most recent analysis of a long-term NIH-funded study found that children who received higher quality child care before entering kindergarten had better vocabulary scores in the fifth grade than did children who received lower quality care.
The study authors also found that the more time children spent in center-based care before kindergarten, the more likely their sixth grade teachers were to report such problem behaviors as "gets in many fights," "disobedient at school," and "argues a lot."
However, the researchers cautioned that the increase in vocabulary and problem behaviors was small, and that parenting quality was a much more important predictor of child development than was type, quantity, or quality, of child care.
The study appears in the March/April 2007, issue of Child Development.
For full article, click here!
Other News and Research
Kids’ Share 2007: How Children Fare in the Federal Budget
By Adam Carasso, C. Eugene Steuerle, and Gillian Reynolds
March 15, 2007
March 15, 2007
Urban Institute
Reports on trends in federal spending on children from 1960 to 2017, looking across over 100 major federal programs, including tax credits and exemptions.
This study reports on trends in federal spending on children from 1960 to 2017, looking across over 100 major federal programs, including tax credits and exemptions. Children’s spending increasingly shifted from broad-based programs to programs targeting low-income or special needs children over the 1960 to 2006 period. Thirteen major programs enacted between 1960 and 2006, which include Medicaid, the earned income tax credit, and Food Stamps, comprised 65 percent of federal spending on children in 2006. Overall, federal children’s spending increased in real terms from $53 billion in 1960 to $333 billion in 2006, or from 1.9 to 2.6 percent of GDP. Yet as a share of federal domestic spending, children’s spending declined from 20.1 to 15.4 percent. Meanwhile, spending on the automatically growing, non-child portions of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, nearly quadrupled from 2.0 to 7.6 percent of GDP ($58 billion to $993 billion) over the same time period. Over the next ten years, children’s programs are scheduled to decline both as a share of GDP and domestic spending, because they do not compete on a level playing field with these rapidly growing entitlement programs.
An abstract and a full report are available.
