So hard to see the multiple headlines echoing the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on women.
Some recent headlines highlighting the issues:
This pandemic threatens to undo what generations of feminists have fought for
Pandemic Makes Evident ‘Grotesque’ Gender Inequality In Household Work
The coronavirus pandemic is creating a ‘double double shift’ for women. Employers must help
A few snippets from these articles that resonate.
“The old model of our education system where everyone sits in a classroom is not going to work in the new normal,” Cuomo argued. What he did not mention is that remote schooling still requires children to be supervised. The result is that parents – overwhelmingly, mothers – will effectively be deputized as teachers, without training or pay, and required to stay home with their kids. Cuomo’s decision is premised on the sexist assumption that women are perpetually available for more and more unpaid domestic work. In fact, it elevates that attitude from a cultural and marital injustice to a pillar of public policy.
I realize no parent signed up for this. Sure, some have always home schooled, and kudos to them! The rest of us were wholly unprepared to teach our kids.
The state is retreating from its obligation to provide an education for children, and the childcare that that education represents. Women are inevitably tasked with compensating for the state’s failures. With the state rolling back services, private companies making few concessions to women workers’ domestic needs, and men not picking up the slack, the post-pandemic world could mean smaller, more claustrophobic and more constrained lives for women.
I don’t know that women are inevitably tasked, but certainly women are inequitably tasked with compensating for the absence of state provided education. And it absolutely disproportionately impacts women’s lives.
On why she advises against picking up the slack on housework that a partner does sloppily Through the years, we would have these agreements — you do this and I do this — and then typically [my husband] would always just slack off and wouldn’t do it, and then I would always pick it up. And then that would just increase my sense of anger, because it would feel so unfair. And that’s actually a phenomenon. It’s called “learned helplessness.” …
Valuable insight.
On how women often assume the responsibility for “invisible work,” such as maintaining schedules and maintaining family ties There’s a whole body of research around what’s called “the mental load.” It’s something that women also disproportionately bear. … It’s all of the stuff that you have to keep in your mind. It’s just an explosion of details and logistics and planning and organizing and making appointments and remembering the appointments and getting people to the appointments, remembering birthdays, doing the “kinwork” … keeping the ties, the family and bonds of friends, keeping those strong. …
I personally like to make a list, and show off what I have done. Quantifies it and ensures I talk about it so it doesn’t go unrecognized.
This is the time for managers to become leaders by giving their teams much-needed emotional support. Fewer than a third of employees—and fewer than a quarter of essential workers—say someone from their company checks in on their well-being these days. If employees are homeschooling kids or worrying about a parent in the hospital, their managers should know that and adjust work plans accordingly.
This is great advice. If you are in a leadership position, please do this. Support your teams, both by checking in, and by adjusting expectations.
We need to come out of this pandemic stronger, and the best way to do this, don’t give up progress, yes, nurture and love your families, but expect that everyone in your family will also nurture and love you.
