COVID-19 has been a disaster. Communities across the country, from Columbus, Georgia, to Costa Mesa, California, have mourned the loss of over half a million loved ones. Our economy shed millions of jobs, and families’ budgets have been stretched thin. While Americans from every walk of life have had to grapple with these stresses, the data show that the economic burden of the pandemic has fallen hardest on women of color.
The combination of an unstable job market and restricted child care options has been a one-two punch, primarily for women, and especially for women of color. The December 2020 jobs report revealed that Black and Latina women accounted for all of the net jobs lost that month. The industries hit hardest by the pandemic, such as food service and retail, have more women of color working in them. Many were laid off, while others were forced out by school closures and a lack of child care. Indeed, millions of women left the workforce during the pandemic because they had to care for their kids. Millions more considered leaving, with many citing the lack of child care options due to the pandemic as the reason.
At the same time, moms who couldn’t afford to quit were disproportionately Black and brown low-wage workers in jobs that require in-person labor. In the transition to remote schooling, these women faced the impossible choice of either going to work to put food on the table or staying home to take care of their kids.
This turns back the tide of progress that swelled before 2020; before the pandemic, more women were in the workforce than ever before. Yet, women were still responsible for most of the physical and emotional labor involved in running a home. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that working women averaged more than 3 hours per day of household work and child care—more than the 2.5 hours per day unemployed men spend on the same activities. Single parents, 81% of whom are women and 66% of whom are Black, often have to shoulder this entire burden by themselves.
The pandemic’s harm on women of color is putting decades of progress at risk; and the consequences will be felt for decades to come. Discrepancies that have long existed between men and women — for example, gaps in pay, wealth, retirement savings, homeownership, and the time it takes to pay off student loans — are likely to widen if we don’t take meaningful action to help women reenter the workforce. This burden will largely fall on those already underserved: families of color.
I’ve seen the system fail families of color time and again throughout my career. Before Congress, I helped California families losing their homes in the foreclosure crisis; and as a law professor, I studied families in bankruptcy. I’ve seen how job interruptions can cause long-term financial harm. Someone who hasn’t been working will likely rejoin the job market at a lower wage, leading to less wealth accumulation over their lifetime. Black families already hurt by this pandemic will feel this more acutely, with the average Black family having 10 times less wealth than their white counterpart. And of course, a lost job doesn’t just restrict career mobility and economic opportunity. It can also mean the loss of health insurance, which is especially devastating in a country where health care costs are astronomical, during a pandemic in which Black and brown Americans are more likely to get the virus and die.
Every year, our politicians (who are more likely to be old, male, and white than the population) try to sell the story that the solution for working families is for individual households to step up.
The reality is that America has never prioritized families like other developed countries have. Our lack of investments in child care and paid leave aren’t new. They’re decades-old problems that the pandemic has intensified — and this negligence is rapidly catching up to us.
No amount of color-coded spreadsheets, meal prep, or leaning on our “support” networks will be enough for working women — pandemic or not. Our country’s failure to meaningfully invest in families is a systemic problem that demands comprehensive, aggressive solutions.
First and foremost, we need to recognize that strong family policy is strong economic policy. Child care doesn’t just help women or people with kids; it helps our entire economy by making it easier for people to go to work. Similarly, paid leave doesn’t just support individual families; it makes our workforce more globally competitive because workers can take the time they need to care for a sick child or themselves without disrupting their careers. Every member of Congress — not just Democratic women or members of color — should be pushing for these policy solutions.
How we recover economically from the COVID-19 crisis will largely depend on whether we finally invest in women and families. In Congress, I’m backing legislation that makes child care cheaper and easier to get. The Child Care is Essential Act would provide grants to child care providers to help them safely reopen and operate, and the Child Care for Working Families Act would prevent low-income families from spending more than 7% of their income on childcare. I also wrote legislation, the Support Working Families Act, that would help parents take paid time off to care for loved ones. Importantly, all these bills recognize that bringing affordability to child care cannot come at the expense of the caregivers who do the work, more than half of whom are women of color.
Any working mom can tell you that life was hard enough before the pandemic. As the coronavirus continues to attack the physical and financial health of the American people, it also serves as an unfortunate reminder of the devastation that happens when we fail to support working parents — and how it’s historically marginalized groups who are hit the hardest and left the farthest behind.
It’s long past time for policymakers to take meaningful action to support women. Our country will not fully heal from the pandemic if families don’t get dedicated help in our economic recovery.
