A Timely Reminder This Thanksgiving - Native Women Have to Work 9 Extra Months to Make the Same Salary as White Men Made Last Year Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: There’s a pay gap between women and men, and that gap is even wider for women...
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A Timely Reminder This Thanksgiving - Native Women Have to Work 9 Extra Months to Make the Same Salary as White Men Made Last Year

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: There’s a pay gap between women and men, and that gap is even wider for women of color. But here are a few facts you might not have heard before: American Indian and Alaska Native women are paid just 59 cents for every dollar white men are paid. For Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, that number is 62 cents.

Native women are a notoriously understudied group. According to Catherine Hill, AAUW vice president of research, the relatively small size of their population is at least partially responsible for the lack of information. American Indians and Alaska Natives make up just 2 percent of the U.S. population, about 5.2 million men and women. There are just 1.4 million natives of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands. In contrast, there are 200.9 million people in the white population and 45 million in the black or African American population.

The lack of data means that, for now, we can’t definitively say what is causing this gap, but we can hedge a few guesses. Native people face disproportionate rates of unemployment, poverty, and violence, as well as limited access to education, and women tend to bear the brunt of discrimination. Yes, there’s a pay gap between native men (who are underpaid) and native women.

There is some good news. Native American women are now going to college and holding jobs at higher rates than ever before, and we know that education and good jobs help increase earnings — though they don’t eliminate the wage gap. So for now, we’ll mark September 8, and keep agitating for some real change.

Read more → bit.ly/nativewomenpay 
Help close the gender pay gap→ bit.ly/AAUWgive

Happy 80th Birthday, Social Security!

Can You Pass Our Social Security Quiz?

For 80 years, Social Security has been our nation’s most successful anti-poverty program. Yet few people realize the crucial role that the program plays for women. Test your knowledge! Guess whether each statement below is true or false, and then read our blog to learn the facts.

  • Nearly 60 percent of people receiving Social Security benefits are women. 
  • Social Security is especially critical to women because of the gender pay gap.
  • The program supports millions of older women — more than half of whom would fall into poverty without it.
  • Although Social Security needs reform, the program isn’t broken beyond repair.

Get the answers.