Goal 05: Gender Equality

Video Transcript:

Roslyn Dawson Thompson, Texas Women’s Foundation

Roslyn Dawson Thompson: Hello, I'm Roslyn Dawson Thompson, and at Texas Women's Foundation we work to advance opportunities for women and girls to prosper and to participate fully in society. That means we work for gender equality, and for us gender equality is not about women, it is about allowing families across the state of Texas to thrive.

We are very challenged in our community with the poverty rate of women. Currently the wage gap between women and men in comparable positions, women are at .80 cents to every $1 that a man earns. That 20% differential means a lot when it comes to families. Two thirds of Texas families depend on a woman's income. For a single mom with two children, she needs to make $23.35 an hour. The median salary in the Dallas Fort Worth area is about $18 an hour, and the sheer fact is that 60% of the minimum wage jobs in our community are held by women.

If we don't have more women taking leadership roles we might not reach the kind of stability economically that we want in rectifying the wage gap, in changing some policies that oftentimes disproportionately affect women and girls. So our leadership initiative is aimed at advancing opportunities for women and girls to lead, to truly understand leadership and to truly take leadership roles whether it's from the classroom all the way to the boardroom.

Childcare is one of the critical work supports for any family, and particularly if you're a single mom it is the one critical work support that allows you to get up and go to work every day. So far in three years we have helped 469 children and 247 families have access to quality childcare.

The best part of that whole story is that for every dollar that we've invested in that program, the benefit back to the family has been $4.39, that's a return on investment. At Texas Women's Foundation we're working to transform Texas for women and girls and we need all of you to help us.

It's really a role every one of us can take in helping rebalance our world through gender equality. When you invest in a woman or a girl you not only transform her life, but you transform the community's life and ultimately our country. We have as our motto strong women, better world, and we know that better world is for everyone.