Women and Long-term Unemployment - March 13, 2014

Mr. Speaker, this Women's History Month, we learned that women continue to struggle with long-term unemployment. In fact, long-term unemployment among women increased from 34.8 percent in January to 37.7 percent in February. According to a recent Pew Research Center study, women are the sole or primary breadwinner in 4 in every 10 American households with children. When women who have jobs only receive 77 cents to every dollar a man makes, when 70 percent of Americans in poverty are women and children, in a country where women, out of the gate, start out behind, refusing to extend long-term unemployment compensation to those who have looked for a job but cannot find one is particularly hurtful. For all these reasons, we must renew emergency unemployment compensation--because when women succeed, then Ventura County succeeds; and when Ventura County succeeds, America succeeds.

Speech courtesy of http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2014-03-13/pdf/CREC-2014-03-13-house.pdf