Latina Futures 2050 Lab
The Latina Futures 2050 Lab seeks to increase knowledge and insight through applied policy research on the contours of the economic, political, and social lives of Latinas living in California and across the United States over the next several decades. One of the goals of the initiative, spearheaded by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC), is to increase Latinas’ power of influence across important democratic institutions and accelerate their full inclusion through rigorous research, community partnerships, and leadership development.
Funded by a $15 million California state budget allocation and in collaboration with the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute, in 2022 the CSRC launched Latina Futures to investigate Latinas’ experiences in the labor market, their access to education, their participation in civic leadership, and their overall well-being. Latina Futures recruited emerging and mid-career scholars to advance cutting-edge scholarship on the cultural, social, and economic contours of Latina life in the U.S. In response to a persistent wage gap facing Latinas in California, we initiated a multi-year partnership with researchers and advocates to tackle the economic inequities stifling Latina workers’ full earning and purchasing potential. In California, Latinas make up a growing number of K-12 teachers and administrators, are the majority of child-care workers, and are the mothers of over half the children in the state.
Latina Futures’ intersectional research engages diverse partners and seeks to create lasting impacts for Latinas, women of color more broadly, and all children and youth. The Lab supports policy research, leadership programs, and civic engagement with a Latina lens, and emphasizes the rights and leadership of Latinas in civil society and the workplace. As part of this project, a Latina Futures Librarian and Archivist is overseeing the processing, description, and collection management of CSRC’s Mujeres, LGBTQ+, and other collections featuring women, femmes, and feminine-presenting persons in the Chicanx, Central American, and U.S. Latina/o/x communities.
Access Latina Futures 2050 Lab reports: https://www.chicano.ucla.edu/publications/report-brief
Keep up with Latina Futures news: https://www.chicano.ucla.edu/about/news
Follow us on Instagram: @latinafutures
Download the 2024 Latina Futures Annual Report:
