Report from the 5th Congressional District: Part One

By Natasha L. Foreman, MBA

Saturday I had the honor and pleasure of sitting in on an amazing conversation at Georgia State University's Rialto Center that included Congressman John Lewis, Dr. Beverly Tatum, Dr. Cynthia Pierre, Dr. Julie Hotchkiss, State Representative Stacey Abrams, and Portia Wu. 

I took plenty of notes and pictures, so I will try to share highlights of the discussion here but in a two-series post starting with the information shared by Dr. Cynthia Pierre, the Regional Director for Department of Education Office of Civil Rights. Dr. Pierre said that:

- More women now than in the past have never had child; almost double the rate than before. 
- Women are having fewer children now and at an older age. 
- Single mom households outnumber single father households
- Women more likely to end up in poverty than men
- Women outpaced men educationally in past 5 decades
- Women ages 25-34 more likely to hold degrees than men
- More HS diplomas held by women than men
- Women earn the majority of degrees including doctoral than men but less in science, tech, math, engineering
- Females ages 12+ report experiencing depression 
- Women ages 20+ being labeled as obese
- Women don't receive recommended preventive health screenings
- 2010 reports show that nearly 4,000 females have reported sexual battery and 800 reported rapes in high school alone 
- More than 1 in 10 high school girls have been forced to have sex by the time they get to college 
-Victims of sexual assault suffer from depression, post traumatic stress disorder, and oftentimes attempt suicide

After Dr. Pierre spoke the "baton" was passed on to Dr. Julie Hotchkiss; Federal Reserve Bank Economist and Adjunct Professor at Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. Dr. Hotchkiss discussed the impact of the economy and how it affected and still affects women. She noted that:

- Many of women's labor market decisions are impacted on the fact that we still have to factor in having children
-Women lost more than 500,000 jobs
- Men still down 4 million jobs since before recession; women down only half that amount 
-Women underrepresented in unemployment numbers
- Only 60 percent of women in labor force