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Nevertheless, women are still underrepresented in some jobs and are less likely to hold executive positions than are men. Many believe the
glass ceiling , an invisible barrier caused by discrimination, prevents women from rising to the highest levels of American organizations, including corporations, governments, academic institutions, and religious groups. Women earn less money than men for the same work. As of 2014, fully employed women earned seventy-nine cents for every dollar earned by a fully employed man.
“Pay Equity and Discrimination,” http://www.iwpr.org/initiatives/pay-equity-and-discrimination (April 10, 2016). Women are also more likely to be single parents than are men.
Gretchen Livingston. 2 July 2013. “The Rise of Single Fathers,” http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/07/02/the-rise-of-single-fathers/. As a result, more women live below the poverty line than do men, and, as of 2012, households headed by single women are twice as likely to live below the poverty line than those headed by single men.
“Poverty in the U.S.: A Snapshot,” National Center for Law and Economic Justice, http://www.nclej.org/poverty-in-the-us.php. Women remain underrepresented in elective offices. As of April 2016, women held only about 20 percent of seats in Congress and only about 25 percent of seats in state legislatures.
“Current Numbers,” http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/current-numbers (April 10, 2016).
Women remain subject to sexual harassment in the workplace and are more likely than men to be the victims of domestic violence. Approximately one-third of all women have experienced domestic violence; one in five women is assaulted during her college years.
“Statistics,” http://www.ncadv.org/learn/statistics (April 10, 2016); “Statistics About Sexual Violence,” http://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications_nsvrc_factsheet_media-packet_statistics-about-sexual-violence_0.pdf (April 10, 2016).
Many in the United States continue to call for a ban on abortion, and states have attempted to restrict women’s access to the procedure. For example, many states have required abortion clinics to meet the same standards set for hospitals, such as corridor size and parking lot capacity, despite lack of evidence regarding the benefits of such standards. Abortion clinics, which are smaller than hospitals, often cannot meet such standards. Other restrictions include mandated counseling before the procedure and the need for minors to secure parental permission before obtaining abortion services.
Heather D. Boonstra and Elizabeth Nash. 2014. “A Surge of State Abortion Restrictions Puts Providers–and the Women They Serve–in the Crosshairs,”
Guttmacher Policy Review 17, No. 1, https://www.guttmacher.org/about/gpr/2014/03/surge-state-abortion-restrictions-puts-providers-and-women-they-serve-crosshairs.
Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt (2016) cited the lack of evidence for the benefit of larger clinics and further disallowed two Texas laws that imposed special requirements on doctors in order to perform abortions.
Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt , 579 U.S. ___ (2016). Furthermore, the federal government will not pay for abortions for low-income women except in cases of rape or incest or in situations in which carrying the fetus to term would endanger the life of the mother.
Heather D. Boonstra. 2013. “Insurance Coverage of Abortion: Beyond the Exceptions for Life Endangerment, Rape and Incest,”
Guttmacher Policy Review 16, No. 3, https://www.guttmacher.org/about/gpr/2013/09/insurance-coverage-abortion-beyond-exceptions-life-endangerment-rape-and-incest.
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