Pandemic’s burden even greater for women of color
On this Valentine’s Day, is it rude to suggest you can keep your flowers and candy? Women need more.
From the beginning, the coronavirus pandemic has landed squarely on the backs of women – and most particularly on women of color. In Connecticut, women are contracting and dying of COVID-19 more than men. They’re filing more unemployment claims. Nearly 1 in 3 families can’t find adequate childcare. And because the bulk of childcare responsibilities still falls to women, nationally, women are leaving the workforce at four times the rate of men. Seventy-six percent of parents who have stayed home are female, according to a new report, “Essential Equity.”
Released in late January, the report is a collaboration between the Connecticut Data Collaborative and the Connecticut Collective for Women and Girls, with input from organizations such as the Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund and United Way 211, among others. The numbers paint a stark picture of struggling women and girls, for whom this pandemic could have life-long effects.
A special section in the Feb. 7 New York Times examined how the coronavirus has affected American mothers. One writer called it a “betrayal,” the direct result of placing bigger profits above mental health, realistic division of labor in homes, and the amount of support a mother needs to be an effective parent. Mothers have always had to make impossible decisions (“Do I work late on this project? Or go home to have dinner with the kids?”), and as with so many other societal issues, the pandemic has only made things worse.
Candice Dormon worked for a year to open her New Haven home-based child care center. Three weeks into the pandemic, three members of one client’s family tested positive for the coronavirus. One of Dormon’s young sons has asthma, and she closed her center in mid-March, with the optimistic intention of opening again in a few weeks. By April, Dormon knew she wouldn’t reopen soon. In May, she told her families she would close for good.
“I felt like a failure,” said Dormon. “But what happens when the job you need to take care of your family is the exact job you need to quit to take care of your family? It was a really tough decision, and I was holding out, maybe for the summer.”
It also seems unfair when it took women so long to get into the job market.
“It took forever to get us into the workforce, and as soon as something goes wrong, we’re the ones who have to leave,” said Dormon. “We were expected to go home but we still need money. Women of color are taking on the burden. We are all of a sudden essential, but before, women were unseen. Nobody was paying attention to childcare. You don’t see things when they’re working, you only care about day care when it’s closed because people who were doing it are the unseen people.”
Recovery can only come if public policies focus on women and girls. Our child care system is broken. The report said the state is expected to lose almost half -- more than 46,000 -- of its licensed child care slots because of the pandemic. Because of our shift to online and remote education, the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood says Connecticut needs twice as much quality child care as before the pandemic. Also according to the early childhood office, prepandemic, there were already more than two children for every available slot.
Advocates and activists for women and girls already knew systemic sexism and racism existed, and they “braced” for how “COVID would further harm them,” said Jenny Steadman, executive director of Aurora Women and Girls Foundation, which was also involved in the report.
Dormon said she has been able to develop what she calls her “pandemic skills” – talents she didn’t realize she had, and that could earn her an income. She is the CEO of Emlin Group Productions, a digital production agency. She’s produced commercials, webinars and video content for clients. She’s also coached entrepreneurs to look for skills they may not realize they can monetize. Don’t muzzle your magic, she tells women who are struggling to see the value of their work.
What women do is magical, but just this once, wouldn’t it be great if women could be human, and that we could implement some childcare/ employment/caretaker policies that would prop them up?