How economic policy makes it even harder for women to get ahead

How economic policy makes it even harder for women to get ahead

What you probably already know: While women now make up half the workforce and are on track to control more than $30 trillion in assets by the end of the decade, the economic model that currently exists has a built-in gender bias that makes it harder for women to get ahead. That’s according to Heather McCulloch, entrepreneur in residence at the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program, who spoke at the Investor Capital Expo put on by Keiretsu Forum Northwest & Rockies last week.

Why? McCulloch offered several examples, including the fact that we tie health insurance coverage to full-time employment in the U.S., and the majority of part-time workers are women. Social security benefits, as well, are tied to certain kinds of work and don’t provide coverage for unpaid caregivers, even though the vast majority of them are women. Even the tax system fails to take into account that refundable tax credits overwhelmingly help women because they’re generally paid less than men, but only 3% of our federal tax expenditures are refundable tax credits. Meanwhile, women are starting companies at more than four times the rate of men.

What it means: This, McCulloch said, is part of why it’s so difficult for women to get ahead, and why they’re less likely to rise through the ranks and gain access to high-level positions or grow companies. She warned that, as the Boomer population ages, women will be increasingly called upon to do more unpaid caretaking, putting pressure on them to step away from their careers to care for aging parents. “Building an inclusive economy is no longer just the right thing to do,” McCulloch said, “it’s an economic imperative.”

What happens now? On Oct. 24, 1975, women in Iceland organized and walked off the job — paid or unpaid — on the same day to make a statement about how important women’s roles were in the economy and protest wage discrimination and gender-based violence. A year later, the country passed the world’s most powerful equal pay legislation and five years later, elected its first women president. Iceland is now tied for the fourth best place in the world for women. Perhaps it’s time to schedule a walk-out.

Reporter Martha Daniels contributed to this story.