WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP & ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

The YWCA was established in 1858 as a voice for women’s issues, but that was only the beginning of more than 150 years of active advocacy and programming for women’s economic empowerment. The YWCA was the first to pioneer employment bureaus and child care centers for women. We also led the push for the eight-hour workday, the elimination of child labor, and creation of a minimum wage.

Welfare Reform

The YWCA supports an anti-poverty approach to welfare reform that increases education and training opportunities, opposes marriage promotion/incentives, restores benefits to legal immigrants, addresses barriers to self-sufficiency and provides affordable and accessible child care.

Increasing Women’s Income

The YWCA supports initiatives to increase the income of women, including policies that raise the minimum wage, protect overtime, strengthen equal pay, maintain the earned income tax credit, oppose the privatization of social security, and expand non-traditional trainings for women of all socioeconomic and racial backgrounds.