AUGUSTA – Women are a growing economic force in Maine. There are more women in the workforce than ever before; more Maine women have college degrees than men; and women own one in four Maine businesses.

We make up 30 percent of the Maine Legislature and 53 percent of registered voters. Yet public policy choices often prevent women from meeting our full potential.

For this reason, an Oct. 1 summit will examine state and federal policies that affect women’s economic security.

Too many women of all ages live in poverty in Maine. Maine’s poverty level for seniors exceeds the national average, and 59 percent of them are women. They are our friends, our family and our neighbors.

The overwhelming majority of poor women are single moms, whose children are also poor. Shamefully, more than one in four Maine children now lives in poverty.

These children may be underfed, do poorly in school, and grow up with fewer opportunities.

Sixty percent of Maine women work outside the home. For many, a job provides fulfillment, but most of us work to support ourselves and our families.

That basic goal is harder for many of us to realize than it is for men.

In Maine today, more women than men are in part-time jobs, and more women than men earn minimum wage.

These low-wage jobs offer no benefits and certainly are not sufficient to support a family. Many offer not even a single paid sick day, forcing workers to choose between caring for a sick child and losing wages or perhaps the job.

A woman working full-time at Maine’s $7.50-per-hour minimum wage earns $15,600 per year, barely more than the federal poverty level for an adult with one child. If she has two children, she must earn $19,530 to edge above the poverty line.

Other studies show that a single mom with two children needs to earn $25 per hour just to pay for food, child care, medical care, housing, transportation, and taxes.

Yet the Maine Legislature rejected a bill in 2013 to raise the minimum wage by $1.50 to $9 an hour and tie it to inflation.

The most common reason women work part time is so they can care for children and aging parents. Thus, when our elected leaders cut Head Start and child care programs or community-based services for the elderly, women bear the brunt in unpaid labor and lost wages.

Higher education is more necessary than ever for good jobs. But the state recently cut the Competitive Skills Scholarship Program that helps low-income women pay tuition, child care and other costs that so often discourage women from starting (and finishing) their degrees.

Women live longer than men, and those lost hours and years of unpaid work add up. Reduced contributions to Social Security and pension plans lower their retirement income.

The average annual Social Security benefit for a Maine woman is $11,000, compared to $15,000 for men. More than 12,000 Maine women over 65 live in poverty and suffer disproportionately from cuts to Social Security, prescription drug benefits and food stamps.

Women and their children do not have to live in poverty. Policymakers can act to increase education and training opportunities and to ensure more Mainers have health care and sick leave benefits.

We can increase the minimum wage; improve workplace policies to allow workers to meet their responsibilities at work and at home, and fully fund investments in early childhood education. Congress must fully fund food benefits and strengthen Social Security.

When women thrive, our state and our nation thrive. Our state and federal leaders must recognize that better jobs, education, health care and economic security for Maine and America’s women is good policy for all of us.

We women must insist on it.

Eliza Townsend is executive director of the Maine Women’s Policy Center. Jody Harris is a policy analyst at the Maine Center for Economic Policy.