Beyond Bootstraps: Lifting Up Young Women's Voices About How to Build an Economy That Works for Them

The notion of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps,” deeply embedded in the American psyche, belies the fact that it is physically impossible to achieve. What if we flipped the script for young women? What if we focused on supporting them in doing what is achievable ? What if we broke down barriers and built systems designed to maximize their capacity to thrive? The majority of young women preparing to enter or entering the workforce today will be working much or most of their adult lives.1 They will be key contributors to the economic security of their families—as co-, primary, or sole breadwinners—and the strength of our national economy. Yet they will face more barriers than on-ramps to economic security because our systems were never designed to support them to succeed.