More Than A Magazine, A Movement
We are learning just how deeply offended powerful men are by the idea that any limits might be placed on them. Faced with the most basic oversight, they have lashed out and are now determined to take bodily and economic autonomy away from the rest of us.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new law ending permanent alimony sends the message that in order to be eligible for any financial support after marriage—whether that is support in service of eventual independence, or compensation for years spent supporting the other spouses’ career—women must choose to stay single. And, it gives their exes permission to monitor their behavior.
It’s not surprising that a governor who has been gleefully taking away women’s autonomy would sign this law. Women continue to have fewer and fewer choices in Florida.
The United States has significantly fewer supports for caregivers than our peer countries. We lack paid family leave and public childcare. Our long-term care infrastructure is a mix of private and public, means-tested programs. Persistent low wages across the care industries have ensured that supply is unstable and insufficient.
If the U.S. is serious about bringing women into the workforce permanently, we need a robust suite of care policies—including fully public childcare, reentry programs for women who have taken time out of the workforce for childcare, and more robust long-term care options.
As has been well-documented during this pandemic, women and men interact with the economy differently. Because of occupational segregation and caregiving obligations, women have been forced out of the workforce at a higher rate than men. For new full-employment policies to serve women, they must proactively address these and other obstacles.
The pandemic is undoing decades of progress, reinforcing a breadwinner/homemaker division of labor for all too many women. When rising divorce rates get added to the mix, history teaches us the combination can be volatile.
Women’s labor force participation rate has dropped during the pandemic, driven both by disproportionate layoffs and quits. Many women are foregoing career advancement opportunities because there are no childcare options.
We have to start planning now to help women reenter the workforce and pickup their careers when the pandemic ends.