In Her Words: ‘A refreshing departure’
Connecting the Dots – #YesThisIsAnArtsStory Repost from the New York Times
Alisha Haridasani Gupta | 18 January 2021
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Thursday unveiled an economic stimulus package that has been praised — even by conservative-leaning businesses, lobbying groups and analysts — for its size and scope, matching the current economic crisis with a historically unique response.
“Not since the New Deal during the Great Depression have we seen such an ambitious economic stimulus plan,” said C. Nicole Mason, president and chief executive of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. “What that signals to me is that the new administration understands the magnitude of the problem.”
From the get go, this economic crisis has been markedly different from previous ones: It wasn’t caused by geopolitical or financial forces, and it disproportionately affected women.
A bulk of the jobs that vanished at the start of the coronavirus pandemic were held by women — particularly women of color — who worked in service industries like hospitality, travel, retail and entertainment.
The downward trend held through the year, with more than 800,000 women dropping out of the work force completely in September (no longer looking for work), and at the end of 2020, when there was a resurgence of the virus, 156,000 jobs were lost in December by women, predominantly women of color. According to the National Women’s Law Center, “there were nearly 2.1 million fewer women in the labor force in December than there were in February, before the pandemic started.”
