Philadelphia Commission for Women Releases ‘State of Women and Girls of Philadelphia’

PHILADELPHIA- Today, the Philadelphia Commission for Women (PCW) released the “The State of Women and Girls of Philadelphia”.  The PCW submitted a copy of the report to Mayor Kenney during their public meeting September 20.   Covering five broad areas – health and wellness, economic empowerment, leadership and civic engagement and education – the report is intended to establish the questions needed to grapple with and inform solutions to improve the quality of life for the Philadelphia’s women and girls.

“I’m excited to present this report to Mayor Kenney and I look forward to working with the PCW on providing future policy recommendations to the Mayor and the administration,” said PCW Executive Director Jovida Hill.

Highlights from the report include:

• Philadelphia is the only city among the nation’s 10 largest where women comprise more of the external workforce than men.
• Women hold 57.5 percent of the jobs in education and medicine in the city.
• The median wage for women in Philadelphia is $29,816, trailing $35,599 for men.
• Domestic violence remains a growing challenge for women. In 2015, women were the victims of 19 homicides due to intimate partner violence.  Domestic violence is so prevalent, Women Against Abuse was forced to turn away over 15,000 requests for shelter.
• According to the CDC, 14 percent of 9^th to 12^th graders in Philadelphia attempted suicide in 2015, with the rate of increase greatest for girls 10 to 14 years old.
• The City of Philadelphia has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the nation at almost nine infant deaths for every 1,000 births.

Over the next year, the commission will focus on issues of “Economic Empowerment.” The city’s persistent poverty rate, and the fact that 60% of all children under 18 years old live in homes headed by a single parent, informs this focus for the Commission and its work for the upcoming year.

“We have our work cut out for us to change the national statistic that women contribute only 4% of the nation’s business revenues, a share that has not changed over the past 20 years,” said Dr. Nina Ahmad, Deputy Mayor for Public Engagement and contributor to the report. “This underscores that our country has a very large untapped resource for generating jobs and high growth businesses, and we intend to discover opportunities for women workers and business owners to thrive here in Philadelphia.”

Contributors to the report include academics, civic and political leaders, executives and entrepreneurs.  The State of Women and Girls of Philadelphia is available HERE.

More information about the PCW can be found on their new website.