Do cuts in President Donald Trump’s proposed budget hurt women more than men? Advocates for women’s issues say yes.
Trump released a “blueprint” for the country’s 2018 budget on Thursday, which includes large increases in defense spending and immigration enforcement and cuts to programs including the Labor Department’s Senior Community Service Employment Program, and cuts in funding for National Historic Sites and the Department of Housing and Urban Development affordable housing programs. If the budget eventually passes, some of the cuts will disproportionately affect women, advocates have said. Here are a few ways:
-Women still face more discrimination in the workplace: The reduction in resources for the Labor and Justice Departments could lead to less enforcement of equal pay laws and progress toward family leave, said Debra Ness, the president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. “This should be a time when we’re trying to improve opportunities for women in the workplace, making it more family-friendly, eradicating pay discrimination and sexual assault and harassment,” she said. Trump’s proposed budget includes a 4% reduction in the budget of the Justice Department to $27.7 billion. It also includes a 21% decrease in the budget of the Labor Department to $9.6 billion.
Another concern: The proposed budget would cut some job training programs, including grants that fund safety and health training for nonprofit groups and public agencies. “Women are sorely under-represented in some of the higher-paying fields for which we really need training to access,” said Anna Chu, the vice president for income security and education at the National Women’s Law Center, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. It also proposes to eliminate the Senior Community Service Employment Program, which helps low-income senior citizens find jobs. (Trump’s administration in its budget blueprint calls that program “ineffective.”) The administration sees it differently: The proposed budget does expand the Reemployment and Eligibility Assessments, another program designed to help the unemployed find work; that program saves $536 per claimant, according to the administration’s budget.
-Cuts in women’s health care: Women are particularly impacted by changes in health care, she said, since they often have more complicated reproductive health needs and they also make many decisions about health care for children. “The last thing we need to do is cut the resources of the department that’s going to be in charge of reshaping our health-care system,” Ness said. Trump’s budget blueprint suggests reducing the budget for the Department of Health and Human Services by nearly 18% to $69 billion. Separately, Trump has made it clear he wants to strip Planned Parenthood of federal funds. However, the administration is also investing in some health-related line items: Trump has proposed a 6% increase in spending for the Department of Veterans Affairs, to $78.9 billion from $74.5 billion, adding health services and promising to improve the VA’s benefit claims system. That could help not only women who are veterans, but those who are responsible for caring for veterans. And as the budget has not yet been passed by Congress, it may change before it is passed in its final form.
-Caretaking duties may increase: Trump’s proposed budget eliminates some programs that help to take care of children, senior citizens and people with disabilities. Eric Johnson, a professor at Columbia Business School, who studies consumer behavior, says i’s likely that women fill in those gaps. Indeed, the amount of unpaid, informal care women give to spouses, parents, in-laws and other family members and friends is estimated at between $148 billion and $188 billion annually. Women are more likely to take time off from paid careers to take care of children and other family members (42% for mothers versus 28% for fathers), according to the Pew Research Center, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C. And women spend two hours and 15 minutes a day on chores like cleaning and household management, versus one hour and 25 minutes for men, according to the Bureau of Labor statistics.
Working women with children may also feel the heat from Trump’s budget. As part of the overall $9 billion reduction in the Department of Education’s budget, the administration has proposed cutting the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which provides funds for summer and before- and after-school programs. Trump has proposed cuts to the Department of Agriculture’s budget, including reducing the funds allocated to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children to $6.2 billion from $6.4 billion. It does not, however, cut any money for those who participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) because that program is not part of the “discretionary” spending this budget addresses.
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