Intersectional feminism statistics show that gender inequality is not one uniform experience. In the United States, 2024 median weekly earnings for full-time women workers were $1,043, compared with $1,261 for men, while poverty, maternal health, and representation varied sharply across racial and family groups. Global violence data adds another dimension: about 30% of women have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.
Contents
- Earnings differ by race and age
- Labor-force participation is not uniform
- Entrepreneurship and ownership
- Poverty at the intersections of gender and identity
- Maternal health and treatment
- Violence against women worldwide
- Political representation
Earnings differ by race and age
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that women’s median usual weekly earnings were 82.7% of men’s in 2024. That ratio was down from 83.6% in 2023 but up from 62.3% in 1979. The comparison covers full-time wage and salary workers and describes a national median, not the experience of every worker.
The 2024 median was $1,043 for women and $1,261 for men. Looking at age groups shows that the earnings gap appears across working life, with different dollar amounts at different stages:
| Age group | Women’s median weekly earnings | Men’s median weekly earnings |
|---|---|---|
| 16–24 | $709 | $778 |
| 25–34 | $1,023 | $1,158 |
| 35–44 | $1,147 | $1,414 |
| 45–54 | $1,166 | $1,467 |
| 55–64 | $1,088 | $1,421 |
| 65 and older | $1,005 | $1,300 |
Source: BLS, Highlights of women’s earnings in 2024.
Race changes the picture further. In 2024, Asian women had the highest listed median weekly earnings at $1,365, followed by White women at $1,061, Black women at $922, and Hispanic women at $832. The same BLS report measured women’s earnings as a share of men’s earnings within each racial group: 82% for White women, 79% for Asian women, 68% for Black women, and 61% for Hispanic women.
These figures matter for intersectional analysis because an overall women-to-men ratio can conceal differences among women. A single gender average does not describe how race and gender combine in pay outcomes, and age adds another measurable dimension.
Labor-force participation is not uniform
BLS labor-force characteristics for 2023 show different participation rates among adult women. Participation was 63.2% for Black women, 61.3% for Hispanic women, 59.9% for Asian women, and 57.6% for White women. These figures describe the share participating in the labor force, rather than the share who were employed at a particular moment.
Adult men had higher participation rates in each listed racial group: 79.2% for Hispanic men, 75.8% for Asian men, 70.1% for White men, and 68.6% for Black men. The comparison illustrates why intersectional feminism looks beyond a single gender average: the distance between women and men differs by racial group, and participation itself is not the same as pay, job quality, or economic security.
Age also matters before adulthood. Among teenagers ages 16 to 19 in 2023, labor-force participation was 39.2% for White teens, 34.1% for Hispanic teens, 30.3% for Black teens, and 23.1% for Asian teens. Those figures describe teenagers by race, not girls alone, so they should not be treated as gender-specific measurements.
The composition of the Hispanic labor force adds another layer. In 2023, Hispanic people made up 19% of the total labor force. Within the Hispanic labor force, 89% were identified as White, 5% as Black, and 1% as Asian. By origin group, 59% were Mexican, 12% Central American, 9% South American, 8% Puerto Rican, 4% Cuban, 4% Dominican, and 4% another Hispanic group, according to BLS, Labor force characteristics by race and ethnicity, 2023. These categories describe overlapping aspects of identity and should not be read as interchangeable.
Entrepreneurship and ownership
Business ownership statistics show both scale and concentration. Census data for 2024 counted approximately 5.9 million U.S. employer firms. About 1.3 million were minority-owned, equal to 22.6% of all employer firms. Around 1.3 million were women-owned, equal to 22.3%, while 273,542 were veteran-owned, equal to 4.7%.
Nonemployer businesses provide a different view because they do not have paid employees. In 2020, women owned 11.2 million nonemployer businesses, or 41.1% of all nonemployer businesses. Those women-owned businesses generated $307.9 billion in receipts. Minority-owned nonemployer businesses generated $345.1 billion in receipts in the same Census data.
Ownership structure also varied by gender and race. Among minority-owned businesses, 75.8% of women-owned businesses had one owner on average, compared with 73.1% of businesses owned by men. Among non-Hispanic women-owned businesses, 73.0% had a sole owner from 2018 to 2021, compared with 70.1% of male-owned businesses.
For context, Census, Most U.S. Businesses Have Only One Owner, reported that from 2017 to 2021, businesses with a single owner averaged 59.2% of all respondent firms. Businesses with two to four owners averaged 36.3%; firms with five to 10 owners consistently remained under 2%, and firms with 11 or more owners accounted for about 1%.
Poverty at the intersections of gender and identity
The Census Bureau reported an official U.S. poverty rate of 10.6% in 2024, representing 35.9 million people. The Supplemental Poverty Measure, which uses additional resources and expenses, was 12.9%. Social Security moved 28.7 million people out of SPM poverty. In 2023, the official poverty rate was 11.1%, representing 36.8 million people. These are different annual measurements and should not be treated as a single trend without noting the measure used.
The 2024 official poverty rates varied by race: 7.5% for Asian individuals, 9.2% for White individuals, 15.0% for Hispanic individuals, 18.4% for Black individuals, and 19.3% for American Indian and Alaska Native individuals. Under the SPM, the rates were 8.7% for White, not Hispanic individuals, 20.3% for Hispanic individuals, 20.7% for Black individuals, and 19.8% for American Indian and Alaska Native individuals.
Children’s SPM rates also differed: 3.7% for White, not Hispanic children, 10.4% for Black children, 18.0% for Hispanic children, and 15.2% for children with Two or More Races. These figures demonstrate why an intersectional account needs to identify both the population and the poverty measure.
Gender and family structure were associated with additional differences. Women’s poverty rate fell by 0.6 percentage points from 2023 to 2024, according to the Census poverty report. In 2024, women not in families had a poverty rate of 20.7%, compared with 16.6% for men not in families. The rate for people in female-householder families with no spouse present was 24.6%, compared with 14.9% for people in male-householder families with no spouse present.
Education and work status were also strongly differentiated. The poverty rate was 23.1% for people with no high school diploma and 3.3% for people with a bachelor’s degree or higher. It was 2.4% for people who worked full-time, year-round, compared with 23.5% for people who did not work. Source: Census, Poverty in the United States: 2024.
Maternal health and treatment
Maternal mortality figures show one of the starkest racial intersections in the data. In 2023, the maternal mortality rate was 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births for Black women, compared with 14.5 for White women, 12.4 for Hispanic women, and 10.7 for Asian women. By age, the rate was 59.8 for women age 40 and older, 18.1 for women ages 25 to 39, and 12.5 for women younger than 25.
The CDC’s provisional 2024 figures recorded 44.8 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births for Black non-Hispanic women and 14.2 for White non-Hispanic women. Because these are provisional figures, they should be distinguished from the final 2023 rates. Sources: CDC, Maternal Mortality Rates in the United States, 2023 and CDC NCHS, final 2024 maternal mortality blog.
Experience of care also differed. In a CDC maternity care survey, 29% of women reported discrimination during maternity care. The reported figures were 40% for Black women, 39% for multiracial women, and 37% for Hispanic women. In the same survey, 45% of women reported holding back from asking questions or discussing concerns with their provider. Source: CDC, One in 5 Women Reported Mistreatment While Receiving Maternity Care.
Violence against women worldwide
The World Health Organization estimates that about 30% of women globally have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate-partner violence or non-partner sexual violence during their lifetime. Among women ages 15 to 49 who have been in a relationship, 27% report physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner. About 38% of all murders of women are committed by intimate partners, while 6% of women report sexual assault by someone other than a partner.
The reported consequences include injury and reproductive health risks. Forty-two percent of women who experience intimate-partner violence report an injury. Women exposed to intimate-partner violence were 1.5 times more likely to have a sexually transmitted infection, including HIV in some regions, 16% more likely to suffer a miscarriage, and 41% more likely to have a pre-term birth. Source: WHO, Violence against women.
Political representation
Representation is another measurable dimension of whose experiences enter public decision-making. In the 119th Congress, women were 28% of voting members: 29% of the House and 25% of the Senate. The number of women lawmakers increased from 149 to 150 compared with the previous Congress’s first day.
The 119th Congress included 139 voting members who identified as Black, Hispanic, Asian American, or Native American. Non-White members represented 26% of Congress. Hispanic lawmakers were 11% of Congress, while Hispanic people were 20% of the U.S. population. The median age was 57.5 years in the House and 64.7 years in the Senate.
For comparison, in the 118th Congress, women accounted for 153 of 540 voting and nonvoting members. Women were 29% of the House and 25% of the Senate. On the first day, 26 voting representatives were Black women, 18 were Hispanic women, seven were Asian American women, two were Native American women, and one was multiracial. Sources: Pew Research Center, 119th Congress demographic profile, Pew Research Center, 118th Congress has a record number of women, and Pew Research Center, Data on women leaders in the U.S..