Coronavirus lockdowns are taking a visceral toll on families and, in particular, working women, with C. Nicole Mason, the chief executive officer of the Institute for Women's Policy Research, dubbing it the first-ever "she-session."
By RYAN FAIRCLOTH | Star Tribune | Published: February 17, 2021
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See more staff and wire stories here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. MINNEAPOLIS (Tribune News Service) Ever since the pandemic began, Amanda Schermerhorn has put her children s schooling before her own. Managing her four kids ever-changing remote and in-person class schedules is often a full day s work. So Schermerhorn, a full-time student at Minnesota State Community and Technical College in Detroit Lakes, works around the clock, carving out time to complete her online classwork late at night and early in the morning.
SALT LAKE CITY Lisa Sledge earned a law degree, in her telling, by the grace of God and a support network that spanned from kind professors to anonymous donors leaving cash in her mailbox.
Newly divorced and with two young children, the legal assistant woke up between 2 and 4 a.m. for a second job tutoring children online. She often toted her daughter, then 4, and son, 6, to her classes at the University of Utah’s law school. She sold her dining table to make rent.
When she passed the bar exam in 2019, Sledge wept with relief.
A year later, when schools shuttered in the pandemic, her mind turned to other single mothers, especially to those pursuing degrees to better support their children.