The following is shared from Clackamas Workforce Partnership:
Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day.
Women now make up almost half of the U.S. labor force and prime‑age women’s labor force participation has fully recovered from the pandemic, reaching around 78 percent for ages 25–54. In Oregon, women are also half the population, but they earn just 69 cents for every dollar earned by men across all workers, reflecting a persistent and significant pay gap. When women are pushed out of the workforce or sidelined into lower-paid roles, families lose income, businesses lose talent, and local economies like Clackamas County lose out on growth and innovation.
The Challenges Women Face Today
Even as employment numbers recover, women are carrying a disproportionate share of unpaid caregiving, mental load, and scheduling complexity. Common barriers include:
- Pay inequity and stalled advancement, with Oregon women earning a median income of 69 percent of men’s across all workers and 83 percent in full‑time roles.
- Occupational segregation, where women remain underrepresented in higher‑wage industries like construction and many trades, even as they are nearly half of the overall labor force.
- Unstable, unaffordable child care, which regularly forces mothers to reduce hours, turn down promotions, or leave the labor force altogether when care falls through.
- Pandemic aftershocks, including a 2025 period in which hundreds of thousands of women nationally exited the workforce, followed in late 2025 and early 2026 by jobs reports showing that women made up nearly all job losses in some months.
These pressures don’t affect all women equally; women of color, single mothers, and women in low‑wage or part‑time work are far more likely to be in precarious jobs without benefits, paid leave, or predictable schedules.