There are myriad reasons why women should be wary of conservative politicians. On average, conservatives are against a woman’s right to choose what she can and cannot do with her body. They support federal funding for all kinds of things but frequently attack funding for basic services that can specifically help ease the burden of women, both physically and economically. One such place is the true lack of a plan on the part of the Trump administration and Republican legislators, to address the student loan crisis. With over $1.5 trillion in collective debt, and so much of that debt being created by an unregulated—and arguably criminal—loan system, people across the gender spectrum are affected. However, according to the American Association of University Women, women end up shouldering the majority of the country’s debt.
Now, women graduate at a higher rate with a college bachelor’s degree than anyone else—57%. But, according to the AAUW, women end up with considerably more debt, on average, than men. Women make up more than $929 billion of the just over $1.5 trillion in student debt. This is closer to two-thirds the debt. Women not only take on larger loan debt than men, averaging $2,700 more upon leaving college, but with the very real gender pay gap, women’s abilities to repay those loans are slower in relation to their male counterparts.
As Daily Kos’s Laura Clawson explained, the pay gap between women and men increases over time, and the results are larger and larger debt burdens. This debt is also compounded by the fact that paid family leave policies across the country are not uniform and most are not particularly robust. This is yet another area where Republicans fight against what is best for their female constituents. Paid family leave affects women in the workforce disproportionately compared to men, and not simply in regards to infants.
The least our country can do is attempt to safeguard Pell grants and other student financial aid monies. But under this current administration, Pell grants are having federal money syphoned off, and forget about Trump’s Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos using her department to block student loan relief—ordered by the courts. And remember, those things are the least our country can do to try and ameliorate the student loan crisis. Most of the front-running Democratic 2020 presidential candidates have supported legislation that would free up college debt burdens going forward, and many candidates like Elizabeth Warren have offered other policy ideas for how to deal with helping Americans currently underwater with debt.