WGC Announces "The State of Women and Girls in Howard County"

March 8  - The Women's Giving Circle of Howard County has released The State of Women and Girls in Howard County on Tuesday, March 8 - International Women's Day - as part of the organization's 20th Anniversary Year in 2022.

The WGC has embarked on a journey to further understand the challenges and needs of women and girls in Howard County to better inform the organization’s grantmaking for the future.

Under the direction of Women’s Giving Circle of Howard County Advisory Board Chair Barb Van Winkle, Vice Chair Jennifer Bodensiek, Grants Committee co-Chair Candace Dodson-Reed, and Executive Director Buffy Beaudoin-Schwartz, Sabina Taj and Shaista Keating were selected as the principal researchers for this project.

The State of Women and Girls in Howard County is a baseline compilation of data and a resource about women from statistics published by a range of federal, state, and county agencies as well as public, private, and nonprofit organizations. ​In particular, we are pleased to leverage and utilize information from the recently released Maryland Women: A Status Report by the Maryland Commission for Women.

The compilation of data highlights that, while women have been shattering glass ceilings, many disparities remain, including:
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• On average, women who work full time, year-round are paid only 82 cents for every dollar paid to men — and for women of color, the wage gap is even larger.
• Women are struggling to get back to work and the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated long-simmering issues that women in particular face when it comes to managing work and family.
• While there have been gains, women still hold less than a fifth of all corporate board seats in Maryland, and women of color represent only 2.8 percent of all corporate board seats across the state.
• Women are more likely than men to live in poverty at all adult ages and female-lead households are at particular risk for poverty.
• Working mothers require childcare for children of all ages and childcare costs represent a significant percent of working mothers' incomes. 

This baseline data is designed as a central resource that positions our community to effectively advocate on behalf of women and girls and positively impact legislation, policy, and countywide programming.  

“Our hope is that The State of Women and Girls in Howard County is a catalyst for a more focused effort to identify and close gaps in gender data in Howard County,” said Barb Van Winkle, WGC Advisory Board Chair. “And, that other giving circles and counties in Maryland may see an opportunity to utilize the important statewide data from the 2021 Maryland Women: A Status Report and compile baseline information on the status of women and girls per county throughout the state.​”

Further research is needed, especially with regard to how these disparities may have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Women’s Giving Circle of Howard County plans to update this baseline data with new information as it becomes available. 

The State of Women and Girls in Howard County can be found at: www.wgcstateofwomenandgirlsinhoco.org
The WGC extends its gratitude to our funders, collaborators, and partners.

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The Women’s Giving Circle is building a community of philanthropists and creating a permanent legacy to address the needs of women and girls in Howard County. We bring women together to learn about issues impacting women and girls in our community, and pool our dollars to fund programs that address those issues so we can have a greater impact together than we might otherwise have alone www.womensgivingcircle.org

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