"The entrepreneurial spirit of women has ignited innovation, fostered economic growth and paved the way for future generations," Sen.
Jeanne Shaheen writes in a op-ed in the New Hampshire Union Leader, and she wants to "shine a light on the contributions of women across our economy and call on my colleagues in the U.S.
Senate to help us fully unlock their economic potential by addressing access to and affordability of quality child care."
Shaheen, chair of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, notes that women are "significantly more likely than men to drop out of the labor market" to care for their families and that quality child care "impacts the nation's economic bottom line," adding that 40% of small businesses report that workers' child care needs "negatively affect their ability to fulfill the requirements of their job."
In New Hampshire, for example, nearly 1,500 child care slots have been lost since 2019 after dozens of child care centers closed during and after the pandemic, per Shaheen.
"Like many families across the state, Michael and his wife were left to do their best to keep their jobs without local and reliable child care," she writes.
"Fortunately, thanks to advocacy on their behalf, they now have child care, but it should not have been this hard
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Ashoka, a global platform for social innovation, introduced the Arab World Social Entrepreneurship Programme (ASEP) to support local social entrepreneurs in scaling up their operations in three key areas – healthcare, environment and women participation for inclusive growth.