This isn't going to be a really deep diary, unfortunately, since I'm writing it at the very moment it's supposed to go up (and with my dinner almost done cooking). But I wanted to make sure we got a Class and Labor diary up tonight and I was talking about this a little bit earlier today, so I thought it would be a good subject.
Different progressive causes often overlap each other in intricate ways, and economic justice and gender equality are no different.
Wikipedia explains:
The feminization of poverty is a phenomenon that has been observed in the United States since 1970 as female headed households accounted for a growing proportion of those below the poverty line.[1][2][3] A large majority of these women are divorced or never-married mothers. In 2000, 11% of all families in the United States lived in poverty, but 28% of families headed by single mothers did so.[4] The burden of supporting a family is difficult for single mothers because of low salaries relating to the lack of previous work experience and low educational attainment and is often exacerbated by meager or unavailable child supports. In the United States, divorce is a primary factor leading to the filing for economic bankruptcy.[5]
It also links to a more thorough article on the subject.
According to the UN Division for the Advancement of Women, this is a worldwide issue.
At the same time, the reality is that men's wages have decreased somewhat in the past 30-something years (sorry, I don't have a cite for this, but I've seen it several times in several different places).
This diary isn't as informative or complete as I would have liked for this subject, but I'll just give you guys the floor now.
Issues of class and labor seem to pop up quite a bit on Daily Kos as sidebars or as impacting other topics in important ways, but they don't get their own diaries as often as they perhaps should. Yet work and class have enormous relevance in American life. Almost all of us must work for a living. Most of us who work owe a great debt to organized labor - even if we are not ourselves members of unions, we benefit from the advances unions have made over the years, in safety conditions, limited hours and overtime pay, benefits, child labor laws. And while a shrinking percentage of American workers are represented by unions, not only do union members earn more than their nonunion counterparts, but nonunion workers in highly unionized industries and areas benefit from employer competition for workers, leading to better pay and conditions. Class issues, too, apart from the question of organized labor, are central in many of the political struggles of the day. From bankruptcy legislation to the minimum wage to student loans, legislation affects people differently based on how much they make, what kind of access to power and support they have.
With this series we aim to develop an ongoing discussion around class and labor issues. Such ongoing discussions have emerged in the Feminisms and Kossacks Under 35 series, and, given the frequent requests for more (and more commented-in) diaries on these issues, we hope this series will accomplish the same. Entries will be posted every Tuesday night between 8 and 9pm eastern (about). If you are interested in a writing a diary for this series (and we really need people to write diaries for it!), please email Elise or MissLaura or tryptamine and we will arrange for you to be put on the schedule.