Document 51: "Plank 24: Statistics," from National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year, The Spirit of Houston: The First National Women's Conference (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1978), p. 92.

p. 92

PLANK 24

STATISTICS

The Office of Management and Budget should require all departments and agencies to collect, tabulate, and analyze data relating to persons on the basis of sex in order to assess the impact of their programs on women.

   The U.S. Bureau of the Census should aggressively pursue its efforts to reduce the undercounts of minority Americans, including blacks, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and American Indians. The Department of Health, Education and Welfare should continue its efforts to implement the usage of special group identifiers in all vital statistics recordkeeping. These statistics should be recorded and reported by sex and subgroup.

Background:

"Undercounts of minorities deprive them of Federal funds
designed especially to help the disadvantaged."

Federal statistics of all kinds have not identified women and minorities well enough to show exactly how they are disadvantaged. And when they are counted, the count is frequently inaccurate or absorbed into data that report on such ambiguous units as "households" or families.

Head of household   One of the longstanding problems for women has been the concept of "head of household." In the Bureau of Census statistics, the husband was always considered the "head" no matter how much the wife earned. And the average family was described as consisting of a breadwinning father, homemaking mother, and two school-age children, even though, according to the Bureau's own figures, only a small percentage of all families have been at this lifestage in recent years—six percent in 1976, for example.

   Many of these defects are being remedied. The 1980 census will drop the word "head," and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has already begun to analyze data on individual persons in the family and their relationship to other family members. This will make it possible to compare the unemployment rate of wives with employed husband with the rate for wives whose husbands are also unemployed.

   Once statistics begin to accumulate on this basis, those who make policy will have to recognize that social and family programs must be addressed to women in a great variety of family situations: single parents, childless women, women living alone or with unrelated persons, and others.

Employment statistics   When employment figures are not collected by sex, it is difficult to assess the progress or lack of progress women are making in specific areas. This is particularly true in agencies. In the civil service, for example, reports of the number of persons promoted from one grade to the next do not identify them by sex—virtually eliminating an easy way to find out how many women are gaining access to the higher level grades from which they have been almost entirely excluded.

   Statistical breakdowns by sex are necessary in many other areas. Inequities cannot be corrected unless accurate counts are kept.

Minority undercounts   Members of minority groups are often left our of statistics entirely. They are undercounted as individuals and in their communities, making it more difficult to asses—and meet—their needs.

   The Bureau of the Census estimates that 2.5 percent of the population, or 5.3 million people, were not counted in the 1970 census. They believe that 7.7 percent of all blacks were left out, compared with only 1.9 percent of whites.

   They have not been able to identify the undercount as accurately for other minorities. Hispanics, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans have frequently been placed in the "other" category in statistical counts, which can obscure the specific needs of these large ethnic groups.

   With the help of citizens advisory councils representing the Hispanic, Asian, and Pacific Island communities, the Nation center of Health Statistics is asking States to add special identifiers to birth and death certificates. More than a dozen States with high minority populations have already agreed to provide more information, but it will be a time-consuming process to calculate the undercounting by comparing birth, death, and immigration records with the decennial counts.

   Undercounts of communities in which minorities are concentrated deprive them of Federal funds designed especially to help the most disadvantaged. These communities are underrepresented politically and are short-changed in all programs for which Federal and State money is allocated on the basis of population, such as women's programs, health care facilities, vocational education, bilingual education, veterans' education, public works, and community development projects for bringing housing up to standard.

   Action to eliminate some of these problems in data-gathering and analysis is the responsibility of both the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and the Secretary of Commerce. The OMB director provides departments and agencies with the instructions for submission of all types of data essential to the review of budgetary and legislative proposals, management and reduction of paperwork. In the fall of 1977, the responsibility for establishing policies and standards for Federal statistics was transferred from the OMB head to the Secretary of Commerce. Coordination between these two officials is necessary to get more accurate and detailed data that will be used to assess the impact of programs on women.

   

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