Maria Shriver, journalist and First Lady of California, worked with the Center for American Progress this year to release the Shriver Report, which assesses the situation of American women and families during this economic recession.
The title of the report comes from women being half of the nation’s non-farm workforce for the first time in history, and how this milestone “changes everything.” The findings aren’t very shocking to feminist activists, but bear mentioning anyway:
- Only 20.7% of American families with children fall into the “traditional” category, meaning a married heterosexual couple where the husband works and the wife doesn’t hold a wage-earning job. The majority of families with children are ones where the parents are married and both work (43.5%) or where there is an employed single parent (22.1%).
- 63.3% of American mothers are breadwinners or co-breadwinners.
The report focuses on various factors in women’s lives, from the economy to caregiving to the experiences of immigrant women. Although the report focuses too heavily on married, heterosexual women, it is a good resource for information about women’s experiences at this pivotal point in our nation’s history.
