In an unprecedented move, the Obama White House is holding a summit on improving the conditions of a group that contributes much to this nation and yet is vulnerable and deserves our attention. What’s more, 24 academic institutions have pledged $18 million to research this demographic of young women about whom so little is actually known.
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The White House has launched a new program focusing on improving the lives of an oft-overlooked community: women and girls of color.
“Knowing what is necessary to create pathways for women and girls of color and their peers to achieve success is only strengthened when the proper research and data is available”, according to the release.
During today’s summit, White House officials announced a $100 million grant over the next five years that will go toward providing funding and resources to low-income women. The council, along with Wake Forest University’s Anna Julia Cooper Center, unveiled a series of plans to resolve them. More than 250 black men even signed an open letter to the president calling for the inclusion of women and girls into “My Brothers Keeper”.
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“We’ve made great strides to protect the middle class (from) poverty since the president has been elected, but too often, women and girls of color face limited opportunities”, said senior adviser to the president and chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls, Valerie Jarrett. “There’s also one partner whose research is primarily around mental health, and around the connections between a variety of different issues of mental health and women’s health outcomes, particularly for women and girls of color in the South”. In spite of representing a smaller percentage of the overall USA population than do their white counterparts, black and Native American girls are overrepresented in the juvenile justice system. The topics they discussed ran the gamut from increased role models of women of color in government to police violence and the plight of domestic workers. “However African-American women earn 60 cents and Latina women earn 55 cents of what a white, non-Hispanic male makes”, she said. “Prosperity Together is committed to giving women the opportunity and support to create the change and solutions they need”.
