I was part of a diverse group of about 20 women business leaders who participated in a roundtable discussion of women's economic empowerment with the United States Senate Democratic Steering and Oversight Committee on March 21. Following is an excerpt from my statement:
Education is the essential foundation for women's economic empowerment. Unfortunately, too many girls and women in the United States, as well as globally, remain under-served educationally. While some indicators do point to women's advancement educationally (particularly in higher education enrollment and degree attainment where women now outpace men in every degree level overall) other indicators continue to underscore the need for serious and prolonged attention to the educational agenda for women:
- For too many children in our cities, particularly among urban African-American and Hispanic children, the burdens of poverty, parental illiteracy and inadequate access to good healthcare impede educational progress and contribute to unacceptable high school dropout rates. In particular, mothers who cannot read, who are single parents struggling with poverty and often domestic violence, who suffer chronic untreated health problems, have a serious negative impact on the educational attainment of their children. Improving K-12 education is a women's issue; supporting and strengthening programs that boost adult literacy, improve enrollment of women in GED and post-secondary education, provide improved childcare support as well as adequate health care coverage for women will be a powerful factor in improving educational outcomes for the most at-risk children in our cities.
Congress, of all places, should be a bulwark against those forces that would turn back the clock on women's progress. The United States continues to lag behind many other nations when it comes to the official roles of women in lawmaking and politics. On the Global Gender Gap Index for 2011, the United States ranks 39th among world nations for women's political empowerment, behind such noteworthy havens of women's power like Cuba, Bangladesh, Uganda and other nations we often dismiss as less progressive.
When more women are at the tables where policy issues are negotiated, the outcomes will be more supportive of and sensitive to the critical issues facing women today and in the future. Getting women to sit at those tables, and ultimately, to chair the meetings, requires a relentless emphasis on continuing improvement in women's educational opportunities.