The American Association of University Women (AAUW) is asking the community at large to join us in advocating for the passage of H.R. 7, the Paycheck Fairness Act on behalf of American working women. For 24 years, AAUW has actively advocated and lobbied for passage of this bill. Now more than ever, American women need to receive equal pay for equal work.
The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated income inequalities as demonstrated by the massive historical unemployment rates affecting American women today. The AAUW 2020 report entitled “The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap” states that “Between February and April 2020, women’s unemployment rate rose by 12.8% compared to 9.9% for men.” This has resulted in a “shecession” (a term coined by C. Nicole Mason, Ph.D. of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research) an economic downturn where 11.5 million women lost their jobs as compared to 9 million men who lost their jobs during the months of February through May 2020. Then