have the highest labor force participation rate of any group of women. Also, she says black women tend to be clustered in very low wage jobs with little access to health benefits.
Ashley Stewart Stores is one corporation that is ahead in the game on this issue, says Mary Kay Devine, director of work force development policy, at Women Employed, an organization that helps to remove barriers to economic equity for working women. With a workforce that is made up of 98% blacks and 97% women, Ashley Stewart offers full-time associates paid, short-term disability and six to eight weeks of maternity leave.