The Insight Center for Community Economic Development is hiring a research assistant to work on our Let Us Exhale project on a part-time, short-term basis. Let Us Exhale is a project that seeks to improve labor market outcomes for Black women by connecting research to advocacy and organizing to address structural inequities. Let Us Exhale centers the lived experiences of Black women to offer narrative and systems solutions to create a more equitable economy in the wake of the pandemic and related economic crisis. This project builds on Insight’s previous occupational crowding analyses in Mississippi and New Orleans to increase our understanding of how power and control over Black women’s labor and earnings has been maintained, uplifting the local context and policy landscape.
The research assistant will contribute to the occupational and industry crowding analysis of the Let Us Exhale project. Hourly rate for this position is $25.
Responsibilities will include:
● Working closely with the economist who is leading the project to review methodology and data
● Reproduce analysis of Census data (such as the American Community Survey and Household Pulse Survey) using SPSS, SAS, or R programming
● Document steps taken to prepare and analyze data
● Meet on a bi-weekly basis with the Insight team to discuss process and findings
● Prepare findings for inclusion in written reports
● Review language in reports and media to ensure it accurately reflects study findings
About the Insight Center
A national economic justice organization, the Insight Center is working to build inclusion and equity for people of color, women, immigrants, and low-income families. Through research and advocacy, narrative change, and thought leadership, Insight aims to ensure that all people become, and remain, economically secure. Led by a Black woman, we intentionally center race, gender, and place in the pursuit of progressive economic change.
For over 50 years, the Insight Center’s work has been driven by and for leaders and communities of color. From grassroots partnership building to grasstops debate, we are pushing the progressive movement to build new policies—and promote new politics—that prioritize the most excluded and disadvantaged groups. In the end, we intend to achieve economic security and race and gender justice for all people, in all places. Learn more about our work and our history.
About Let Us Exhale
This mixed-methods research project will include the following:
● Occupational and industry crowding analyses in each city with a breakdown by race, gender, and ethnicity to better understand who is most impacted by the economic changes of the last year and to chart future possibilities.
● Conducting focus groups and interviews to gain a nuanced understating of the working lives of Black women to better inform policy solutions.
● Policy landscape to identify policy interventions for recovery efforts at the various levels of government, as well as chart long term strategies to economic security for Black women.
● Historical analysis to understand the federal, state, and local policies, laws, and practices that have driven racial and gender inequities.
● Narrative change by partnering with Black leaders to craft narratives that tell the truth about Black women’s labor market opportunities and outcomes.
● Convening with equity minded worker rights organizations, labor leaders and workforce development leaders to share our research findings and begin to craft structural solutions that disrupt occupational crowding trends.
We expect Let Us Exhale will lead to the following outcomes:
● Broaden reach and support for strategies and policies that effectively address long-standing occupational segregation
● Increase understanding of the drivers of inequity by showcasing how historical and current laws, policies and practices contribute to the economic exclusion and racial inequities.
● Gain insight into the challenges, hopes and needs of working Black women to inform policy development.
● Equip worker rights and economic and racial justice advocates with research and narratives to advocate for policy reforms that address Black working people, especially women.
● Inform and bolster local campaigns and movements.
The Insight Center is an equal opportunity employer and, as affirms in policy and practice to consider all applications in all job classifications, without regard to race, color, creed, national origin, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, familial status, military status, height and weight, genetic predisposition or carrier status, arrest record, or other legally protected status. We strongly encourage people of color, people with disabilities, women, and LGBTQ candidates to
apply.
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