One key to getting women back to work post-pandemic: Childcare
By Jonnelle Marte
Reuters
(Reuters) - Wendy Niculescu is ready to get back to work after nearly a year and a half of being a stay-at-home mom.
She is seeing more job openings in her field of nonprofit fundraising after hiring dried up last year. Niculescu and her husband also feel comfortable sending their children back to in-person day care now that they have both been vaccinated against the coronavirus.
But one major issue threatens to complicate her return to the workforce: It could take months for the couple to find a childcare provider in Portland, Oregon, with enough space for their two children, ages two and five.
All Things Considered.
Hsu first joined NPR and
All Things Considered in 2002. Through interviews and in-depth series, she s covered topics ranging from America s opioid epidemic to emerging research at the intersection of music and the brain. She led the award-winning NPR team that happened to be in Sichuan Province, China, when a massive earthquake struck in 2008. Andrea came to NPR via
National Geographic, the BBC, and the long-shuttered Jumping Cow Coffee House.
An Unequal Burden: Women, Work, Care and Covid-19
Covid-19 has dealt a major blow to working women as household work, child care and the care of older adults have disproportionately fallen on them. A recent report found that 1 in 4 women were considering cutting back on their jobs or dropping out of the workforce, citing increased household and child care responsibilities during the pandemic as a main reason. Women of color tend to be most affected since they often shoulder the burden of family caregiving. Although white-collar workers have had the option to work from home or call in sick during the pandemic, those working in service industry jobs without sick leave or paid family and medical leave benefits haven t had the same option.
POLITICO
Join the Women Rule community
Email
Sign Up
By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or updates from POLITICO and you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service. You can unsubscribe at any time and you can contact us here. This sign-up form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
RULING THE WEEK
This week, we spoke with the new White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, about how she got to her position at the podium. She talked about the sharp elbows she dealt with during her career, what
What Biden’s First Year Might Mean for Job Creation
It may not be enough.
Only slightly more than half of the 22 million jobs lost in the pandemic were regained by the end of last year. Even if 2021 hiring shatters the post-World War Two record of 4.27 million jobs created in 1984, roughly a quarter of those who lost work could still be on the sidelines, with bleak prospects for regaining their vocations in an economy reshaped by the pandemic.
As Biden takes the oath of office on Wednesday, the job market awaiting him presents a monumental challenge.
Just a year ago, a record-long expansion was creating more opportunities and higher pay for women, minorities and other workers on the margins. These same groups – key to his election victory – were disproportionately harmed by pandemic job losses in service-sector jobs that face the longest road to recovery.