The American Rescue Plan (ARP)’s Impact on Women: 15 Highlights by the Numbers

1. Led a Historically Strong Labor Market Recovery with Women’s Unemployment Matching Lowest Annual Average in 70 Years:
   • Record drop in Women’s unemployment: When President Biden took office in January 2021, women’s unemployment was 6.3%. That year, it had its fastest calendar year drop on record – by far – and was down to 3.5% in February 2023—matching the lowest annual average since 1953.
2. Impacted Historic Recovery of Women Participating in the Labor Force That Exceeded Pre-Pandemic Levels:
   • Historic women’s labor force recovery: Thanks to the strong labor market recovery that the American Rescue Plan powered, the share of women ages 25-54 in the labor force is higher than it was pre-pandemic. In fact, at 77.2% in February 2023, the share of 25-54-year-old women in the workforce was at its second highest rate in history.
3. Led a Historically Equitable Recovery for Women of Color: ARP led to a reduction in women’s unemployment overall and in Black and Latina women’s unemployment:
   • The unemployment rate for Hispanic women is down from 8.7% to 4.8%. The number of employed Hispanic women increased by 1.8 million since January 2021 and there are now well over 600,000 more employed Hispanic women than in February 2020, before the pandemic.
   • The unemployment rate for Black women had one of its fastest drops on record from 8.7% to 5.6%. The number of employed Black women increased by over 1 million from January 2021. Now, there are over 100,000 more employed Black women than pre-pandemic.
4. Helped Keep 220,000 Child Care Programs Open – Over 90% Women-Owned: The American Rescue Plan’s Child Care Stabilization Assistance program has been critical to helping child care centers and family child care providers, which are mostly very small businesses, remain open or reopen and keep the child care workforce, disproportionately women of color, on the payroll. Investing in child care fuels women-owned businesses and ensures more women can join and stay in the labor force.
   • American Rescue Plan Stabilization Assistance has reached 220,000 Child Care Providers that employ 1 million child care workers – and have the capacity to serve 9.6 million children. Over 90% of the child care programs that have received assistance are women-owned.
   • 90% of child care programs reported that American Rescue Plan funds helped them stay open, according to survey data from the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
   • Another survey found that one third of child care providers who received stabilization funds would have closed permanently without American Rescue Plan funds.
   • 94% of workers in child care centers are women.
   • More than 8 in 10 licensed child care centers nationwide have received ARP assistance.
   • This funding has helped parents – particularly working mothers – get back to work. In March 2021, the employment rate for mothers with children under age six was nearly four percentage points below the level from two years prior. By the fall of 2022, with support from the American Recue Plan, the employment rate for mothers with children under age six returned to pre-pandemic levels.
   • Benefited 30,000 rural child care programs. In most states, over 97% of rural counties received aid.
5. Supported Over 8 Million Renters and Their Families Stay in Their Homes – Particularly Helping Women-Headed Households:
   • Emergency Rental Assistance – the first national eviction prevention policy in history – was the main American Rescue Plan source of multi-month assistance and helped over 8 million hard-pressed renters stay in their homes without sacrificing other basic needs. 
   • These funds have particularly helped to women-headed households: Women-headed households are nearly 70% of Emergency Rental Assistance recipients. 
   • Emergency Rental Assistance and other ARP housing policies led eviction filings to stay 20% below historic averages in the year and a half after the eviction moratorium ended.
   • HUD Emergency Housing Vouchers have already helped 47,500 households at risk of homelessness and fleeing domestic violence lease their own rental housing. These ARP-funded vouchers support those at risk of or experiencing homelessness or housing instability, and those fleeing domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, or human trafficking.
6. Expanded Child Tax Credit for 40 million families with 65 million children:
   • Helped tens of millions of working mothers: The American Rescue Plan’s expanded Child Tax Credit reached 40 million families with 65 million children.
   • Ensured 12 million mothers and families received the full Child Tax Credit for the first time. Before the American Rescue Plan, 12 million mothers caring for one third of all children were left behind from the full credit. And half of children in single-parent households and half of Black children received less than the full credit.
   • Led to the lowest child poverty rate in American history: The American Rescue Plan’s expanded monthly Child Tax Credit:
     • Cut child poverty nearly in half to the lowest rate – 5.2% – ever.
     • Cut Black child poverty by 52%, Hispanic child poverty by 43%, Native American child poverty by 51%, and led to dramatic drops in white and Asian child poverty – all record lows.
     • Benefited ~9 million children in rural areas.
     • Benefited 5 million children in veteran and Active-Duty families.
     • Child Tax Credit payments were delivered reliably with the first ever monthly payment – on the 15^th of each month with 90% using direct deposit.
     • Reached over 230,000 Puerto Rico families. Recent data shows that over 230,000 Puerto Rico households will get the expanded Child Tax Credit – 8X the number from the previous year.
7. Provided Major Funding to Address Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, Including an Additional $1 Billion Distributed through HHS’s Family Violence Prevention & Services Act Program to increase immediate crisis intervention, health supports, and safety. This includes:
   • $198 million to help sexual assault crisis centers and sexual assault programs continue to meet the emergency needs of sexual assault survivors.
   • $798 million for services to support survivors of domestic violence and their children. Funds also covered COVID-19 testing, vaccines, mobile health units, and other support for domestic violence services programs, as well as increased support for Tribal communities and culturally-specific services.
8. Provided $28 Billion to Expand Access to Home and Community Based-Care through American Rescue Plan funding for Home and Community Based Services (HCBS), which was utilized by all 50 states. These funds strengthen the HCBS systems that provide help for family caregivers (who are disproportionately women) taking care of a relative. And these services help 8 million Americans receive services in their own home or community rather than institutions or other isolated settings.
9. Delivered a Major Expansion of Medicaid Postpartum Coverage:
   • The American Rescue Plan gave states an option to extend postpartum coverage in their Medicaid and CHIP programs from just 60 days to 12 months. Congress and President Biden recently made this option permanent for states.
   • More than half of all states have already used this new pathway to ensure access to critical care for over 438,000 women nationwide.
   • This policy is critical to advancing maternal health equity – with research showing that many deaths and complications occur more than 60 days following delivery.
10. Lowered Health Care Premiums by $800 for over 13 Million Americans: The American Rescue Plan lowered health care premiums and increased eligibility to middle-income families – savings that were extended by the Inflation Reduction Act. The law also provided strong incentives for states to expand Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act and made significant investments to expand access to quality care. As a result:
    • An estimated 4.1 million uninsured women ages 15 to 44 were eligible for subsidized Marketplace coverage under the tax credit provisions of the American Rescue Plan.
    • Prevented 1.3 million total women from becoming uninsured: The Urban Institute estimates that without the American Rescue Plan’s health care savings, 850,000 more women ages 19 to 44, and 414,000 women ages 45 to 65 would be uninsured.
    • Missouri, Oklahoma, and South Dakota received an extra $1.5 billion in Medicaid funding for Medicaid expansion coverage to over half a million people.
11. Helped Over 9 Million Women College Students Stay in School During the Pandemic:
    • Colleges have reached an estimated 18 million students with direct financial aid through the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) since the beginning of 2021. This aid helped them stay in school and cover basic needs during the pandemic, like food, housing, and child care.
    • An estimated 6 million community college students received direct financial assistance.
    • 80% of Pell Grant recipients received direct financial relief in 2021.
    • An estimated 450,000 students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) received direct financial aid Further, in 2021, 77% of HBCUs used HEERF funds to discharge unpaid student balances.
    • Nine in 10 institutions reported that HEERF funds enabled them to keep students who were at risk of dropping out due to pandemic-related factors enrolled.
12.  Provided Major Investment in Workforce Training and Connecting Women to Good Jobs – Including a Significant Investment in Our Health Care Workforce:
    • Over $40 billion from the American Rescue Plan has gone to workforce training efforts, including over $10 billion from ARP’s State and Local Fund invested in over 3,500 workforce projects across the country, including pre-apprenticeships and programs to prepare for new infrastructure, health care and care jobs.
    • Historic Investment in Expanding and Supporting our Health Care Workforce, including:
      • A $1.1 Billion investment in the Community Health Workforce, including increasing the mental health workforce.
      • Well over $10 Billion of American Rescue Plan Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) funds used for workforce efforts.
      • The rapid deployment of over 14,000 community outreach workers from over 150 national and local organizations.
      • The establishment of the first-of-its-kind Public Health AmeriCorps to build and train the next generation of public health leaders, which is already serving 82 organizations across the country and supporting more than 3,000 AmeriCorps members.
      • Supporting the largest field strength in history (over 22,700 providers) for the National Health Service Corps, Nurse Corps, and Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery programs, treating more than 23.6 million patients in underserved communities.
13.  Powered a Small Business Boom that Led to the Substantial Growth of Women-Owned Small Businesses in 2021:
    • Restaurant Revitalization Funds opened the doors for women-owned restaurants: Altogether $7.5 billion in relief to thousands of women-owned restaurants.
    • Invested a historic $10 billion in the State Small Business Credit Initiative – expanding access to capital for women-owned small businesses in all 50 states.
    • Reformed PPP to more equitably distribute funds to the smallest businesses.
    • Increased COVID Emergency Injury Disaster Loans to $2 million, while increasing anti-fraud controls.
    • Shuttered Venues Program provided relief to 13,000 venues.
    • A record 10.5 million new small business applications over the past 2 years.
    • Recent surveys reflect that the share of women-owned businesses increased in 2021 and that women-owned small businesses have seen strong earnings growth.
14. First-Ever Summer Nutrition Benefit for Students with Nationwide Reach – Extended Permanently:
    • Created the first-ever Summer Nutrition Benefit with nationwide reach that helped families of 30 million students across the country.
    • Extending the program permanently: Congress extended this innovative program permanently in last year’s Omnibus spending bill, making it the first major new permanent food assistance program in nearly five decades.
15. Funded School Districts Across the Nation – Enabling Them to Reopen K-12 Schools, Supporting Academic Recovery, and Investing in Student Mental Health:
    • ARP provided critical relief to 16,000 school districts to reopen safely, support academic recovery, and invest in student mental health.
    • Data from School District Plans show how schools are using these funds:
      1. Nearly 60% of funds are committed to investments like staffing, tutoring, after-school and summer learning, new textbooks and learning materials, and mental and physical health supports.
      1. Another 23% is going to keep schools operating safely, including providing PPE and updating school facilities. This includes investments in lead abatement and nearly $10 billion for HVAC.

This has led to:

• Safely opening schools to full-time in-person teaching to 100%: In January 2021, CDC data showed that just 46% of schools were open full-time in-person. Today, all schools are open.
• An increase in staffing and investments to address student mental health. Schools now employ 36% more school social workers, 11% more school counselors, and 28% more school nurses than pre-pandemic.