By Melissa Murray

Dear Listener, 

Over the last fifteen months, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted existing inequalities in American society, from disparities in healthcare quality and coverage to housing and employment insecurity. But critically, the pandemic has also exacerbated inequalities, particularly those that exist within the family. As work and school activities have shifted from the physical domain of the public sphere to the home, and employment has become more precarious, more and more Americans have found themselves struggling to reconcile the demands of the workplace with household responsibilities and their new roles shepherding children through the travails of remote education. Not surprisingly, the onus of this new normal has fallen on women.

Forced to bear the brunt of these expanded caregiving responsibilities without the network of schools, daycare centers, and childcare providers that once was available to help shoulder the burden, women have left the workforce in record numbers. And the women who once provided caregiving support as nannies and daycare workers have watched their livelihoods wither as parents weighed the risk of disease transmission against the need for these crucial services. The consequences of the exodus of women from the workforce, and the cratering of industries like hospitality and retail, where women were overrepresented, cannot be understated. As some have argued, this “she-cession” could erase decades of hard-won progress for working women.