ABSTRACT
Chapter 3, “Women’s Political Voice and Economic Inequality,” integrates the quest for equal rights and a greater political voice on the part of women that has characterized the last half-century with the age of rising inequality that has defined the economic life of the nation since the 1970s. It describes the economic trends representing the age of inequality and presents a gender focus to highlight their distinctive effect on women’s economic position and efforts to pursue political equality. Women have made remarkable gains within the workforce over this time frame, but they have also disproportionately been hurt by economic changes that, among other things, resulted in the “feminization of poverty.” The chapter lays out what constitutes the age of inequality generally, explains how it specifically has affected women, and explores how trends in women’s participation in the workforce have affected economic inequality. The chapter also examines the Great Recession" of recent years from a gendered lens and the collective responses of women to its impact on their economic lives within the public realm.
