Progressivism & Unmarried Women

Progressivism is a political attitude which encourages and promotes change and reform. The goal of political progressives is to improve the standard of living (end child labor, better wages, insurance, social security systems etc) by giving more power to the municipal and federal government. These ideologies have started to emerge since the late 19th century however there are modern progressives who try to follow on their ancestor’s footsteps. One major problem these people are trying to combat in America is to advocate the rights and life of unmarried women. Unmarried women represent 63% of unemployed women and 60% without health insurance. There are many reasons behind these inequalities. One is that they face discrimination because they are usually hired for lower paying jobs and have lower wages than men. Furthermore these jobs frequently do not include health insurance, sick time off and other basic needs. These single mothers have to take care of their children but child care is very expensive and most women cannot afford it. In addition things such as health insurance and retirement plans have been designed for marries couples. All of these have contributed to the low standard of living of unmarried women. The Center for American Progress and other Progressives has proposed some solutions to these problems.
1. They would like the Health care system that was proposed by President Obama to be instated because it would make health care affordable and available.
2. The government should expand Child care so it could provide funding to low income families such as unmarried women.
3. The government should pass acts that give single women job and training opportunities for “good” jobs.
4. Enforce the Paycheck Fairness Act which would strengthen the stop of women discrimination when it came to wages.
Progressive thinkers really believe that these changes and reforms would solve this problem and improve the country’s economy as a whole because unmarried women make up a fifth of the US workers and they are growing as a consumer group which is essential for a successful economy.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/03/pdf/unmarried_women_exec_sum.pdf