Women’s History Month is a time to reflect on both women’s contributions to society and the struggles for equality and social justice. American women make up nearly 47% of the U.S. labor force, with a participation rate of 57.3% last reported in 2023 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yet the gender wage gap has widened for the second consecutive year – the first time this has happened since the 1960s.

Women working full-time in 2024 earned roughly 81 cents for every dollar earned by men, a drop from 83 - 84 cents in previous years. This reversal is reportedly driven by stagnant wage growth for women alongside rising salaries for men. AP News reports, “Economists trying to make sense of the data say it captures a complicated moment during the disjointed post-pandemic labor market recovery when many women finally returned to work full-time, especially in hard-hit low-wage industries where they are overrepresented like hospitality, social work and caretaking.” 

That is why female labor leaders are all the more important to have a strong say based on firsthand experience when making demands in the workforce. SEIU 1021 President Theresa Rutherford is one such pillar. Before being becoming president of SEIU 1021, Theresa served our union as vice president of San Francisco and as vice president of representation before that. Theresa would tell you that the fighting spirit that has prepared her so thoroughly for this new responsibility has been with her for her entire life from the time she was born and raised in Jamaica.

Theresa moved to the United States with her family, including her two sons, in 1998. She worked as an insurance agent as she finished a bachelor’s degree in business administration before completing a master’s degree. She decided to apply for a job with the City and County of San Francisco, hoping to find a job that would allow her more time to be at home with her children. Eventually, she was hired as a nurse assistant at Laguna Honda Hospital.

It was at Laguna Honda that Theresa first became an activist in our union.

“Women are the pillars of the labor movement. We represent nearly 50% of union members and about the same in the labor force. Women have made major strides in the labor market and have contributed significantly to America’s prosperity,” said Rutherford. 

“Despite our progress and contributions, we continue to experience disparities in earnings and promotional opportunities, as well as sexism and racism. Black and brown women bear the brunt of these ills. In the last 12 months, over 300,000 Black women have lost their jobs under the Trump regime. We also continue to see the deliberate erosion of women’s rights in our society. However, we must not allow these obstacles to deter us from standing up, taking leadership, and succeeding.” 

She went on to quote the writer Maya Angelou: “Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.”

On the national level, SEIU International President April Verrett is a fighter for working people building a modern-day labor movement that is anti-racist at its core. Having dedicated most of her career to helping workers build power through their unions, Verrett is driven by the conviction that unions give workers a platform to fight for more than wages, benefits, and working conditions. She believes unions for all can help eradicate generational poverty, dismantle structural racism, strengthen our democracy, and generally improve workers’ lives and communities.

Originally from the South Side of Chicago, Verrett was raised by her grandmother, a union steward for SEIU Local 46, who taught her the values of perseverance, collective action, and community. 

Verrett served as secretary-treasurer of SEIU International for two years, leading the union’s strategic planning process to develop its plan for the future. As president of SEIU Local 2015, California’s largest local union and the nation’s largest long-term care union, she fought on behalf of more than 400,000 long-term care providers working in both nursing homes and private homes throughout California. She has also served as executive vice president of SEIU Healthcare Illinois and Indiana (HCII), where she played an instrumental role in holding corporations accountable and advocating for them to pay their fair share in taxes. At SEIU Verrett has also chaired the union’s National Home Care Council, co-chaired the National Organizing Committee, and served as a member of the Finance Committee.

Elizabeth H. Shuler is president of the AFL-CIO, the democratic federation of 65 national and international unions (including SEIU) that represent nearly 15 million working people. Shuler is the first woman leader of America’s labor movement. A longtime trade unionist, Shuler believes the labor movement is the single most powerful vehicle for progress and that unions are a central force in leading lasting societal transformations. She is committed to busting myths about labor, leveraging the labor movement’s diversity for innovative approaches to social justice and making the benefits of a union voice on the job available to working people everywhere.