“If you looked at female coaches, scouts or female officials, there were basically zeros across the board,” explains Sam Rapoport, who now serves as the NFL’s senior director of diversity, equity and inclusion. “Now, when you look at the landscape of the NFL this season, we have 12 female coaches and over 12 female scouts. We have two female officials and we have female presidents. We have females at almost every level, except for that top head coach and GM spot, which will come soon.”

Wharton’s historic enrollment of 52% women is a direct result of the school’s numerous efforts to increase gender representation. “This landmark achievement demonstrates Wharton’s commitment to providing a diverse and representative community for our students,” Dean Erika James said in a statement.

59% of older millennials — those born between 1981 and 1988 — say the pandemic has affected their income in some way. For older millennial women who will be turning 40 this year, experts worry the pandemic will alter their long-term earning potential.

Biden said that a full passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act by Congress would address the wage gap by “closing loopholes that have allowed employers to justify gender pay disparities, strengthening provisions for holding employers accountable for systemic pay discrimination, and helping level the playing field for women and people of color by making it easier for workers to challenge pay disparities as a group.”

In January, another 275,000 women dropped out of the labor force, accounting for nearly 80% of all workers over the age 20 who left the workforce last month, according to a National Women’s Law Center analysis of the latest jobs report.

“I realize that with this job, my performance in this role and the way that I lead, will kind of set the precedent and set the tone for all of the minorities and all the girls who are coming after me,” she says. “There are a lot of eyes on me right now and it opens the door for them to kind of sense that they can pursue anything they want to do as well.”

Data shows that an increase in pay for low-wage workers could have a significant impact on the gender and racial pay gap.

“Kamala’s win further shows women and girls of color that there is both space for them in elected office — and more, that their voice is needed to better our democracy.”

“Many people ask, ‘Well, why in the 21st century have we never seen a Native American woman like yourself in the Senate,’” she says. “And I remind them that we not only went through this mass genocide that the country still hides, but a lot of our education, you know from the relationship between the first peoples of this land to what is now the United States, is not taught in our history books. It’s not taught in the public education system.”