More Than A Magazine, A Movement
September is Women in Medicine Month, when we celebrate formidable and inspiring female physicians. But each year, one group is largely neglected: the women who help us to succeed.
Raising the status of the domestic and childcare workers who help us is critical to the next generation of women pursuing careers in medicine.
For every dollar a white man makes, a Black woman earns 63 cents.
Along with severe wage inequality, Black women continue to be disproportionately overrepresented in low-paying, service-oriented jobs. More than one-third of the essential workers—many of them the people who have powered our country throughout the pandemic—are Black women. COVID-19, inflation and stagnant wages have laid bare how necessary it is for our elected representatives to act by voting to increase the minimum wage and creating a robust paid family and medical leave package accessible to all.
Mothers are the essential workers for our families and communities—so this Labor Day, we are compelled to think about the many ways our leaders and policies are currently failing this country’s mothers.
With climate disasters increasing drastically, disaster resilience efforts have to adapt. Resilience Force is a new initiative working on providing disaster relief to the most vulnerable—an effort led by women of color.
The parade of Equal Pay Days kicked off recently. The dates mark wage gaps for all women, Black women, Latina women—each one more disheartening than the last. According to the latest data, in most states, over 50 percent of women of color earn earn less than $15, and in some states, it soars to 70 percent.
The solution to closing these gender and racial wage gaps is simple: Raise the federal minimum wage. So why is the Senate blocking the Raise the Wage Act, a piece of legislation that would have a transformative impact on wages and well-being of people in this country?
While the unemployment rates for men declined in February, the jobless rates for women showed little or no change over the month. And while the statistic for the entire female population lumped together basically stayed even with the month before, Black women lost ground.
Maybe the real headline should have been: The higher job growth goes, the more behind women get.
At our current pace, we won’t close the wage gap between men and women until 2157—nearly 136 years from now, with 36 of those added to make up for pandemic setbacks. We can’t hand off this injustice to our great-great granddaughters. So how can public policymakers, philanthropy and private businesses come together to accelerate the process?
There are solutions for narrowing the wage gap between men and women—let’s start by raising the federal minimum wage to $15; providing paid leave to all employees; and changing hiring practices.
Biden’s demands to create a more equitable economy for women, which reflect decades of activism and leadership on the part of racial and gender justice advocates, aren’t simply bullet points on a progressive wish list. They aren’t “nice-to-haves.” They are fundamental building blocks of an economy and society that values women and families, which explains why the United States doesn’t have them.
Caregiving is an essential and difficult profession, yet it is written off as “women’s work” and severely undervalued.
This Women’s History Month, let’s break gender-based economic barriers with the same enthusiasm with which we cheer for women who’ve broken glass ceilings. Let’s demand a federal economic policy that centers women—and honors the work of the unknown women of history whose caregiving labor was ignored and nearly forgotten.
Virtually hidden in last week’s job numbers hype was some terrible news for women: 27 times more men than women joined the labor force last month.
As the pandemic (hopefully) continues to wane and jobs come back, we need to look deeper and think long-term about fixes for women that won’t disappear when the next superbug comes along—systemic fixes like establishing a robust care infrastructure, raising the minimum wage, and strengthening workplace protections.
