As part of the WCC’s efforts to ensure equality and opportunities for women, Marge Ives, Chair of the WCC’s Women’s Issues Committee, testified before City Council in support of a NYC Young Women’s Initiative.
While the WCC applauds the recently announced Young Men’s Initiative that will implement criminal justice reforms as well as provide education, employment and mentoring opportunities for young black and Latino men, we urge that young women be included in this initiative with the same emphasis as young men. 
Except for the criminal justice statistics, the numbers of young women who are ending up in poverty and violence are more than those for young men. The Mayor cites poverty rates, graduation rates and employment rates as an indication that young men are trapped in circumstances that are difficult to escape. Young women are also trapped and need the same kind of help these young men are going to get.
More than 17 million women lived in poverty in 2010 and nearly 44 percent of these women (7.5 million) lived in extreme poverty with incomes less than half of the federal poverty level. The employment outlook in 2010 was even bleaker for some groups of women. For example, the annual average unemployment rate for women who head families grew from 11.5 percent in 2009 to 12.3 percent in 2010 while the rate for black women increased from 11.5 percent in 2009 to 12.8 percent in 2010 and the rate for Hispanic women increased from 10.6 percent in 2009 to 11.4 percent in 2010.
As the Women’s City Club pointed out to Mayor Bloomberg in a letter dated August 8, 2011, recent statistics show that rapes are up 16% in New York City through June, incidents of domestic violence are up 12.3%, with attacks against wives, girlfriends or ex-partners even higher – 17.3%. Women are still paid 77 cents to every dollar earned by men and most women are in low-paying dead-end jobs. Young women are still rarely encouraged to step outside the socialized roles their mothers faced. In New York City, as elsewhere, the vast majority of single heads of households are women. In New York City, prostituted women, many of whom are trafficking victims, are still the only ones being arrested instead of targeting the men buying their services and the people profiting from them. Many women are denied access to reproductive health services and teenage pregnancy remains an enormous problem. The list goes on and on.
The City should not leave girls behind especially when statistics show that the status of young women in this City is often much worse than the status of young men. All children and young people need this City’s help and support.
