Women have been regulated to the bottom of the economic pyramid throughout our country's history.  Many believe that women's economic inequality is a misfortune of the past, but the facts tell a different story.  Women continue to experience more economic insecurity than men.  Women's national poverty rates are 13% compared to men's 9.6% and households headed by single females have poverty rates just shy of 39%, over double that of male-headed households.  This disparity largely stems from the fact women, in general, only make 77 cents for every dollar a man is paid.  Women also often deal with additional costs that many men do not, such as childcare.  The average annual cost for full-time childcare for one child between the ages of two and five in California is $7,485.  This cost represents almost 40% of the poverty threshold for a family of four and is much higher for a single mother trying to make ends meet.

 

Similar outcomes appear when examining health insurance.  One in five women in the US do not have health insurance, a fact tied intimately to women's precarious economic status. Of those women, 26% are single mothers. It has been found that one in four women delay or forgo medical care due to costs.  Even women who are employed steadily are not health secure.  Increasingly, jobs and especially lower paying jobs that women often fill, do not offer health insurance.  This explains statistics like 6 out of 10 uninsured women work full or part time.  Another problem is that many women receive their health benefits from a spouse or partner.  This not only leaves out single women, but also means many women lose their health insurance when their partner retires or becomes unemployed.

These health access barriers are devastating to women, especially in terms of reproductive care.  Uninsured women are 40-60% less likely to receive a pap smear or mammography screening.  44% of pregnant women do not receive an HIV test and this comes at a time when women, especially women of color living in economically depressed areas, account for more than one fourth of all new HIV/AIDS diagnoses.  The lack of universal healthcare also means a lack of universal prenatal care, which is a leading reason for the high, increasing infant mortality rates in the US compared to the low, decreasing rates found in countries with universal coverage. Women without health insurance in drug recovery do not receive proper care either, especially if they are pregnant or have children.  In fact, a dismal 3% of drug treatment programs that accept women in the first place offer specific programs for pregnant and postpartum women who require special needs. Women’s reproductive rights not only suffer from underinsurance or lack of insurance but are also under attack politically. Almost half of the states in the US permit health care providers to refuse to provide family planning services under a “moral refusal clause”.   When services are available, they are often not enough, as family planning funding for low-income women continues to be cut.