Gender Disparities

Gender equality in property rights is a critical human rights issue and a key driver of overall economic development. This paper explores three issues in international development which are not often considered together or in terms of how they relate to each other. These issues are: (1) The rights of women to participate in property use and ownership with full legal and societal protection; (2) the importance to economic development of property rights in urban areas; and (3) the role of women in economic development. The final section offers recommendations for more effective development programming and implementation through the integration of these issues.

The Women's Foundation and the Urban Institute co-sponsored a Stepping Stones Research Briefing, featuring two panels touching on issues of affordability, homeownership, and rental assistance through the continuing housing crisis and the role of training, work, earnings and savings in building economic security for low-income, women-headed families.

Richard W. Johnson, director of the Program on Retirement Policy, explains the financial and health challenges women commonly face with age, what retirement looks like for women in the 21st century, and policy recommendations to help women in their golden years.

This brief provides an overview of the evaluation of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) of the National Science Foundation (NSF), focusing on the main conclusions and recommendations arising from the evaluation.

This report presents findings from the process and summative (quasi-experimental) evaluation of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) of the National Science Foundation (NSF). HBCU-UP seeks to enhance the quality of undergraduate education and research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) at HBCUs as a means to broaden participation in the nation’s STEM workforce. Findings suggest that the HBCU-UP program yielded an intervention model characterized by a core set of capacity-building strategies associated with successful student educational and employment outcomes. HBCU-UP graduates (mostly African Americans) outperform a national comparison sample in graduate degree completion and are more likely to be employed in STEM than African American graduates nationally. The report includes recommendations for future funding and dissemination.

African American students at historically black colleges are twice as likely as African American students nationally to complete graduate degrees in science and engineering if their colleges received a capacity-building grant from the National Science Foundation, an evaluation of the HBCU-UP program found.

The best approaches to narrowing racial, ethnic, and gender differentials in retirement wealth are outside the current employer-sponsored pension system, Barbara Butrica and Richard Johnson told the U.S. Department of Labor's ERISA Advisory Council. These tactics include automatic IRAs for employees, efforts to raise wages earned by blacks and Hispanics, more federal funding for training and workforce development, better educational opportunities for future workers, and more financial education for workers and students. Protecting Social Security for low-income seniors is also crucial. Their testimony presents detailed information about differences in pension coverage and wealth.

The nonprofit sector in the Baltimore-Washington region is undergoing a profound, albeit quiet, revolution driven by demographic change. The people and communities that nonprofits serve increasingly reflect a multiracial and multi-ethnic world, and a new generation of leaders will soon emerge as baby boomer executives retire. This report examines whether the Baltimore-Washington region’s nonprofit sector reflects the new demographic realities. The report, based on a representative sample of 501(c)(3) organizations, documents the extent to which the region’s nonprofit boards, staff, and executive leadership are racially and ethnically diverse. It also analyzes diversity by the organization’s size, type, and geographic location, and examines how the sector has been affected by the current economic downturn.