White House Report: Women’s Participation in Education and the Workforce

Today, the Council of Economic Advisers released a report, Women’s Participation in Education and the Workforce, and fact sheet with Eleven Facts about American Families and Work, that highlight the top economic trends facing working families today, and how the administration’s policies would help ensure our long-term economic growth, maintain our economic competitiveness, improve the well-being of Americans and make full use of all of our talented workers.

Later today, the President will visit Rhode Island College in Providence to continue his focus on our economy’s progress and his vision for continuing to build on that foundation by expanding opportunity for women and working families. Yesterday’s new GDP report was the latest indicator of this progress. In fact, in the last two quarters combined the economy grew at a 4.1 percent pace – the fastest six month period of growth in more than 10 years. All told, the U.S. has put more people back to work than Europe, Japan and every other advanced country combined. This broader data shows that our economy is headed in the right direction, but we have more work to do to continue to ensure that all of our workers can fully participate in our economy and continue its growth. That’s why doing everything we can to help women succeed has been a key part of the President’s agenda since day one of his Administration.

This commitment has also been front and center of the President’s Year of Action, during which he has put forth a range of policies that would improve the lives of women and all working families – like raising the minimum wage, because women, who are the majority of low-wage workers, deserve a raise; ensuring equal pay for equal work, because women deserve that basic fairness; increasing access to high-quality child care and paid family leave, because women – and men – deserve to be able to take care of their families; encouraging flexible workplace policies, because they’re good for workers and business; and expanding women’s access to good jobs in technology and other high-growth fields, because women have been underrepresented in those fields for too long.

And because he wants to work with all stakeholders, from lawmakers to companies to advocates, business schools and beyond, in June the President convened the first-ever White House Summit on Working Families to identify innovative solutions that would make today’s workplaces work for everyone. While the President has taken executive action where he is able and made clear his interest in working with Congress to make sure all Americans can benefit from these commonsense proposals, Republicans lawmakers continue to block many of these initiatives from even receiving a vote.

While in Rhode Island, the President will again discuss how these policies could help working families right now and continue to grow our economy. He’ll participate in a roundtable with working parents, small business owners, students and faculty at Rhode Island College and then deliver remarks on campus. Consistent with national trends, Rhode Island College has a higher percentage of female students and is home to the Rhode Island Center of STEM, which supports STEM education for students from across the entire state.