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United Way of Greater Los Angeles (UWGLA) recently released their 2016 report, The State of Women in Los Angeles County, celebrating the successes of LA’s women while bringing attention to the obstacles the face. UWGLA President and CEO, Elise Buik, affirms in the study’s introduction, “We take for granted that the progress we’ve made is permanent. Each generation has the potential to lose ground, or to continue fighting for all women to have access to the resources and support they need to thrive. The prosperity of our future women leaders depends on our united efforts to address these issues today.”
LA Women Demographics
- 47 percent Latino, 9 percent Black, 14 percent Asian, 27 percent White, 3 percent Multiracial
- 27 percent of LA County’s 923,000 families with children under 18 are headed by a single woman
- 60 percent of women are single
- 40 percent of women are married, a decrease from 1960 when this figure was 63 percent
Education
- 42 percent of Latinas have less than a high school education, and only 12 percent are college graduates
- Asian women lead college graduates with 48 percent, followed by Whites at 46 percent, and Black women at 26 percent
- The pay gap between male and females with less than a high school education is $6,000; this gap increases to $21,000 among people with postgraduate degrees
Economic
- There are 2.3 million women in the county’s labor force and 439,513 women-owned businesses
- Childcare costs $7,312 in LA, unattainable for lower income women
- Female heads of household with less than a high school education experience poverty at a rate of 46 percent, compared to 10 percent of college graduates
The report also reveals that lack of affordable housing for moderate to low-income residents and families is the most prominent hardship women face in Los Angeles, the third most expensive housing market in the country.
- There were 13,643 homeless LA women in 2015, up from 9,348 in 2013
- 187,000 women did not have a place to live or sleep at some point in the last five years
- A person needs to earn $26.88 per hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment in LA, but the average renter wage is just $18.53 per hour, and minimum wage is $10 per hour
Living in poverty prevents women from creating stable lives for themselves and their families. The effects of poverty are far-reaching, from impeding women in being able to obtain higher education to excluding them from homeownership.
Like UWGLA, NAWRB and our Women’s Homeownership Initiative (WHI) works to improve the lives of women. The WHI aims to positively impact the female homeownership rate across the nation, thereby helping cement women’s personal and professional achievements.
Our Women’s Global Resource Center (NWGRC) provides clients and vendors with a depository of women professionals to increase the utilization of and connection to women. The NWGRC is open to women of all professional levels and designations to take advantage of the business opportunities being offered to women in housing. As women progress professionally and become homeowners, their poverty levels will decrease and their personal lives will flourish.