While tens of thousands of employees have lost their jobs in Mr. Trump's slash-and-burn approach to shrinking the federal work force, experts say the cuts disproportionately affect Black employees " and Black women in particular. Black women make up 12 percent of the federal work force, nearly double their share of the labor force overall. For generations, the federal government has served as a ladder to the middle class for Black Americans who were shut out of jobs because of discrimination. The federal government has historically offered the population more job stability, pay equity and career advancement than the private sector. Following the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal government aggressively enforced affirmative action in hiring and anti-discrimination rules that Mr. Trump has sought to roll back. The most recent labor statistics show that nationwide, Black women lost 319,000 jobs in the public and private sectors between February and July