The Shriver Report — A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back From The Brink
A Women’s Nation releases, “The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink,” a groundbreaking look into the lives of millions of women in the United States.
We blog a lot about women’s living conditions in countries where too many mothers die from pregnancy and childbirth related conditions. We see stories in the media about places like Haiti and parts of Africa, India, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, where women face almost insurmountable challenges. We know these challenges keep them mired in poverty and put their health and wellbeing at risk. We shake our heads and wonder how they make it and what extremes they must go to raise their children, but what about women and mothers in the United States? Maria Shriver is asking us to take a good hard look at what life is really like for women and mothers right here at home.
Video — She’s the One, Narrated by Maria Shriver
A Woman’s Nation has released “The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink” in partnership with Center for American Progress. It’s a groundbreaking investigation into the millions of women who are doing it all and barely scraping by, struggling to provide and parent in a nation that hasn’t kept pace with the modern realities of their lives. This comprehensive report includes documentaries, chapters and essays that cover real-life issues American women face every day. Here’s a sneak peak at some of the issues the report covers and contributors adding their voices to this essential conversation:
Power
Powerful and Powerless By Maria Shriver
Gender Equality is a Myth! By Beyoncé Knowles-Carter
Are Women Devalued by Religions? By Sister Joan Chittister
The Workplace
Empowering Latinas By Eva Langoria
The Family
Marriage, Motherhood, and Men By Ann O’LearyAmerica’s Working Single Mothers: An Appreciation By LeBron James
The most common shared story in our country today is the financial insecurity of American families. Today, more than one in three Americans — more than 100 million people — live in poverty or on the edge of it. Half of all Americans will spend at least a few months churning into and out of poverty during their lifetimes. This economic immobility and inequality is a systemic and pervasive problem that President Barack Obama recently described as “the defining challenge of our time.”
The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink reveals this national crisis through the eyes of women. In an era when women have solidified their position as half of the U.S. workforce and a whopping two-thirds of the primary or co-breadwinners in American families, the reality is that a third of all American women are living at or near a space we call “the brink of poverty.” We define this as less than 200 percent of the federal poverty line, or about $47,000 per year for a family of four.
Forty-two million women, and the 28 million children who depend on them, are living one single incident — a doctor’s bill, a late paycheck, or a broken-down car — away from economic ruin. Women make up nearly two-thirds of minimum-wage workers, the vast majority of whom receive no paid sick days. This is at a time when women earn most of the college and advanced degrees in this country, make most of the consumer spending decisions by far, and are more than half of the nation’s voters.
Photo — The Shriver Report
While Every Mother Counts’ primary focus is on maternal health, we know that poverty is a major player in women’s ability to access respectful, high-quality healthcare before, during and after they become mothers. We know that a woman’s ability to earn a decent living makes all the difference in how she and her family eat, the housing they live in, their education levels, and the amount of stress they endure and all that adds up to affect women’s overall health. What we love about this Shriver Report is that it not only explores why so many women struggle to rise out of poverty and why so many are powerless to change their lives, but why some women are powerful and able to achieve great success. We invite you to download the complete free report here, and to read some of the essays and watch documentaries here. Then join us to watch: The Shriver Report, Live.
Photo Above- The Shriver Report, America’as Working Single Mothers: An Appreciation
