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.
Tag: Motherhood
The Stimulus Package is a Huge Win for Working Parents—and an Opportunity to Rebuild Our Child Care System
We should take this opportunity to not just help early childhood care and education programs get through this current crisis—though that is critical—but to rethink our whole system and build one that works better for everyone.
We cannot achieve gender equality or economic recovery until our child care system is rebuilt from the ground up.
Child Care Must Be a Public Good, Not a Privilege for Few
Decades of underinvestment has exposed the fragility of the market-based child care industry—and the pandemic may have dealt the final blow. To solve our country’s child care crisis, we need an expansive approach that fundamentally shifts the narrative about child care from a privilege for few to a public good for all.
Mothers Need the Equal Rights Amendment
What this pandemic has shown us is that our nation treats its mothers as its social safety net, and it has set us back decades in our fight for equality.
Self-Care Won’t Heal America
Stop telling me to take a bath to relax.
Self-care puts the solution on the individual rather than the people, the systems, and the reasons the January 6 insurrection, for example, was allowed to happen in the first place.
From the Vault: “Click! The Housewife’s Moment of Truth” (Spring 1972)
In honor of Women’s History Month and to pay tribute to five decades of reporting, rebelling and truth-telling, Ms. is launching a new series: From the Vault. Tune in every #ThrowbackThursday for some of our favorite feminist classics from the last 50 years of Ms.
“The women looked at each other, and click! The shock of recognition… One little click turns on a thousand others. … In the end, we are all housewives, the natural people to turn to when there is something unpleasant, inconvenient or inconclusive to be done.”
How Georgia’s Women’s CARE Act Addresses Incarcerated Pregnant People
Incarcerated pregnant women are often subjected to unacceptable dangers. And during the COVID-19 pandemic, safety during birth is an even more urgent issue.
Georgia’s Women’s CARE Act (HB 377) is a bipartisan effort to restore the safety and dignity of expecting mothers and unborn babies who have been swept up in the criminal legal system.
Other Countries Have Safety Nets. The U.S. Has Mothers
Like the original Marshall Plan of 1948 that rebuilt Europe post WWII, supporters of the Marshall Plan for Mom are calling for a financial investment in rebuilding women’s lives.
The Inhibition Myth: What ‘Losing Alice’ Gets Wrong About Older Women
“Losing Alice”‘s implicit message is that younger women are intrinsically freer, more uninhibited, than older ones. But today, as a middle-aged wife and mother, I feel much freer in every way that matters.
Among other things, I no longer feel I have to perform for a male gaze: Only now do I understand how exhausting such performance was.
Supporting Working Parents Could Accelerate Recovery
Since the COVID-19 recession started, almost 3 million women have left the labor force. Will they go back to work? Several policies—none of which are in widespread use in the U.S.—could help.