Women today are more likely to be the sole, primary, or co-breadwinners of their families more than ever before. While advocates have succeeded in recent years in advancing women’s economic security through critical policy wins like lifting the minimum wage, pay equity, and workplace-based family supports, most of us don’t realize that the pay gap pales in comparison to the gender wealth gap. We know that women earn only 79 cents on the dollar compared to men, but most don’t realize that single women earn only 32 cents on the dollar; and women of color earn pennies on the dollar compared to both white men and white women.

This article was published in Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity and was shared as part of the 2017 AFN Grantmaker Conference which framed key issues, and elevated promising approaches and timely, relevant research to support strategic and impactful investments. This conference aimed to foster peer-to-peer conversations to help grantmakers bring the desired short and long-term outcomes as reflected in the theme Accelerating Ideas into Action. View all 2017 conference resources.