WRDI Watch

As April turned into May, I had a bit of a visceral reaction to a few of the headlines, including the latest Supreme Court ruling. But more on that later.

The one I kept coming back to was about the job market—how women are gaining jobs and, in some cases, are now outnumbering men in the workforce. On the surface, that sounds like progress. (And it is!)

But I also know how easy it is for that kind of headline to turn into something else entirely—that women are “taking” jobs, or that this is a problem we should be solving for men.

That doesn’t mean the challenges men are facing aren’t real. But it does miss the ongoing headwinds women are still dealing with.

Some of what we’re seeing is the result of long-term shifts—more women working, more women earning degrees, and a gradual rebalancing of who holds jobs. But at the same time, there are new pressures building that could make it harder for women to enter certain fields, afford the education those careers require, or move into leadership roles once they’re there.

So both things can be true at once: women can be gaining jobs and still facing new barriers that shape what those jobs lead to over time.

I guess there's some truth to the "headlines are like appetizers, but stories are the whole meal" idea.

Thanks for reading.

— Julie

P.S. We’ve added three new states to our website: Florida, Illinois, and Alaska. If you live there, or know someone who does, you can now see how the state compares across rights categories, including a current snapshot of the policy landscape.

In Brief

This week’s developments point in different directions, but together, they highlight how much is still in motion.