Caregiving Crisis: It's Been Another Damn Year đ¤Śââď¸
Meet the CareForce. What to keep from the pandemic? (Besides sweat pants.) This is the RuPaul issue. Work! Sashay. Shante.
This issue is sponsored by CareForce: the driving force in reimagining how we care. Bringing together builders, storytellers, funders and leaders to create the infrastructure of care we all need for the 21st century. Learn more here.
Was Caregiving Crisis forwarded to you? Subscribe for free here.
Hey everyone,
Can you believe itâs the one-year anniversary of that very special Caregiving Crisis issue when we marked the one-year anniversary of the pandemic? đ
Of how we shook our heads and sighed, recalling with queasiness how the very fine thread that had been holding our caregiving infrastructure in place crumpled, exposing frailties that we didnât think could get any worse?
Of how we thought âsurely weâll get some policies to helpâ in the face of millions of women still out of the workforce as they cobble together childcare?
Time sure does fly when you feel like youâre being constantly gaslit by society!
They say they value kids and families, but whereâs Paid Leave? Whereâs affordable childcare? Whereâs livable wages for caregivers?
Time is flying. Weâre two years into this mess and, while the policies are slow to get enacted, we are making progress.
Weâre angry, weâre motivated and we are coming together not just to scream, but to act. Iâm beyond thrilled to share that my humble newsletter (aka my way to deal with my dual obsessions: gifs1 and news) is partnering more closely with the CareForce.
When I first heard there was a group of dozens of activists, policy experts, academics, founders and more, called the CareForce â well you know my borderline Gen X/Millennial mind went straight to this:
And TBH, theyâre just as awesome. They meet regularly, Slack it up, and support each other â while coordinating to advance the national conversation around improving our care infrastructure. Itâs inspiring to know this movement is afoot and Iâm excited to peel back the curtain each issue to bring you their stories and show you how to get involved (no presh). And of course, there will be our regular news roundups and occasional links to absurd YouTube videos.2
To mark the second anniversary of the pandemic, and to start introducing you to the CareForce, while tapping into their collective knowledge, I posed two questions to some members. What have you learned from the pandemic and what do you want to keep?
My answer is the same to both questions: sweat pants and sweat pants.
Iâm sure they also all agree with me. But hereâs what else the CareForce members said:
What is something you've learned in the two years of the pandemic?
âWhat I have learned is that unless we channel our lessons and rage into political power nothing will change â And I believe this CareForce is the beginning of channeling that rage to political power â the same way the AARP became a political force we need to become the AACP (American Association of Caring Persons).â â Eve Rodsky, author of the New York Times Best Selling âFair Playâ and her most recent release, âUnicorn Space.â Read more about Eve and follow her on Instagram and LinkedIn.
âAlthough I began researching the pandemic in March 2020, two years later, parents and particularly Mothers still need the same things for their wellbeing and productivity. Itâs childcare, mental health care and flexibility at work. And because meeting these foundational needs has been so hard, itâs helped reshape their overall relationship to work. Iâve seen people fundamentally reset their priorities. And adjust what theyâre willing to tolerate.â â Leslie Forde, CEO and Founder of Momâs Hierarchy of Needs, which studies what parents need and works with corporate clients to ensure those needs are met. Follow her on LinkedIn.
âOver two years ago, I didnât fully appreciate how much we rely on teachers and how integral they are to our caregiving infrastructure. I write this after my sonâs fourth class shutdown of *this* school year. Weâve seen how our economy rests on the strength of our education system and teachers are truly among the heroes of this pandemic.â â Julianna Goldman, founder of MamaDen, a community to connect and empower mothers. Read her recent op-ed in The Hill calling for employers to âstep up.â Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
What is something you'd like to keep that developed out of the pandemic?
âWell, in 2020 I finally got off the waitlist and into the Rancho Gordo Bean Club and I'd like to keep getting a quarterly shipment of delicious legumes. But on a more serious note, I'd like to keep the sense of urgency and outrage around care issues that the pandemic sparked for me and so many others, women especially. As the day-to-day pressures of having both kids at home all the time recede in the distance (thank goodness), it would be all too easy for me to let the care crisis fade from view a little bitâespecially as with so many other crises affecting so many. But the pandemic really highlighted so starkly our need for more structural support for care of all kinds: child care, care for the ill and elderly. Our lack of a social safety net and basic supports like paid family leave make care an issue that is coming for us all, and one that I want to continue to focus on and advocate around.â â Kate Washington, author of âAlready Toast: Caregiving and Burnout in Americaâ now out in paperback. Hereâs her website and (very funny) Twitter.
Addendum (sent less than 48 hours later): âJoke's on me â I said having kids at home full time was receding in the distance...but our school district's teachers went out on strike today and now the kids are home indefinitely. Again. Argh, at least they're older and I don't have to make them do Zoom school?â
âHistorically, there have been many barriers to psychosocial service use among caregivers, including the time and financial cost associated with traveling to and from treatment centers and engaging in care. The pandemic forced mental health professionals to rely on telepsychiatry and we saw that as a result, more caregivers than ever before received much needed support. Given the mental health crisis our country is facingâa crisis that is amplified among caregiversâthe ability to continue to provide high quality care over telepsychiatry will allow us to continue to reach those caregivers in greatest need of support and who have, to date, remained underserved.â â Allison J. Applebaum, director of the Caregivers Clinic at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and author of a forthcoming book on caregiving to be published by Simon Element, a division of Simon & Schuster. Read her recent editorial on caregiving: "I was never 'just' a visitorâ and follow her on Twitter.
âI didnât realize life did not have to be the rat race I was living with a 2+ hour commute to and from work each day. The pandemic taught me there is a bigger, better balance out there and that it is, in fact, reachable. I can still be professionally productive and spend more time with family in a world where work space and time are more flexible, understandable.â â Misty Heggeness, Principal Economist at the U.S. Census Bureau, who is passionate about informing policy with real data. Read more on her thoughts of the âperks of the new normalâ here, and follow her on Twitter.
Bottom line: Iâm so excited to be working more closely with CareForce. And to have the creative license (Unicorn Space! as Eve Rodsky says!) to do things like announce that this is an all RuPaul issue. I donât choose the gifs. They choose me. Looking forward to sashaying and shante-ing our way to progress.3
Thanks, as always, for being here. Please message me with what youâd like to keep from the pandemic, or the biggest lessons youâve learned. Our next monthly installment will drop April 29th. Hang in there and see you soon.
What To Know About the Caregiving Crisis This Week
KETANJI APPRECIATION SECTION â The first Black woman nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court has had quite a week of confirmation hearings. (SMDH, Republicans.) Cutting through all the grandstanding, themes of working and being a mom emerged:
Goosebumps for this now viral photo of Ketanjiâs daughter, Leila Jackson, beaming at her mother at her confirmation hearing.4 âIt gave me chills when I saw this look that her daughter gave her. It was just this look of such pride and admiration,â said Sarahbeth Maney, the photography fellow with the New York Times and young Black woman, who made the photo. Bask in the feels. Read more here.
Sen. Cory Bookerâs exchange with Ketanji about motherhood. She said in opening remarks that she didnât always âget the balance rightâ of family and career. It was a moment that Ms. Magazine said working moms will recognize as âmore bitter than sweet.â Booker asked her to explain it and tell him what it means to her to be a mom of two young women growing up today. This three minute video is worth a watch. What does she want to tell her daughters? âIf you do your best and you love your children that things will turn out ok.â đ
NEWS WATCH: ROUNDUP â Keeping tabs on legislation, regulation and conversation:
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT â First of her name. Sad news at her passing this week. Thereâs a lot of good stuff to read out there. This nugget has propelled my awe of her even more â her twin daughters were born prematurely and spent time in the NICU. She couldnât hold them but wanted to sit with them. So what did she do? Learn Russian. Great convo with her and daughter Alison from March 2020.
WOMEN TOO đĽ OUT TO PRIORITIZE POLITICS â This has to be one of the most exhausting and self-defeating catch-22s around: A new poll says women don't have the energy to care about politics this upcoming midterm. In other words, the lack of policies helping us has us too burned out to participate and enact more policies that could help us.
The 19th says finances are the top concern for women heading into the midterm, per a new poll from the Women & Politics Institute at American University and the Barbara Lee Family Foundation (WPIAUBLFF, NBD). Not surprising given rising inflation and sagging employment by women. And 41% of women say they're "more tuned out from politics" this year, a 12-point increase vs. the prior year. Women of color (49%) and women under 40 (55%) were the most likely to report not paying attention. Amanda Hunter, executive director of the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, said overall, women have a âbandwidth issue.â
âAnd they may be deeply concerned about the election, but theyâre also just trying to stay on track at their jobs and make sure that their kids do their homework and all of those other responsibilities that even in the most progressive families, it usually turns out to be the woman that worries about those details,â she said. âAnd that was all amplified during COVID.â
Women are at historic numbers in U.S. government. And we know from groups like the UN that having more women in power means governments are likelier to consider women's rights and healthcare legislation. Women also tend to sponsor more legislation, pass twice as many bills and send more money back home. But if we donât have the bandwidth, how do we get there?!đĽPAY GAP BOT CALLS OUT COMPANIES ON IWD đĽ â Moment of respect for the @PayGapApp bot, which on International Womenâs Day churned out sick burn after sick burn â pointing out gender pay disparities in response to company tweets lauding women. UK companies with over 250 employees submit data each year on pay gaps, and the app was able to match up company tweets with company data. Brilliant.
In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 17.4% lower than men's.When we spoke to leaders from around our organization about what #InternationalWomensDay meant to them, three male allies shared five habits they practice to consciously help contribute to a more gender equal world. #IWD https://t.co/fk0owPqYBr https://t.co/gCFdQxyARqState Street @StateStreetBot co-founder Francesca Lawson told the Washington Post consumers want transparency and that includes calling companies out when their numbers donât back up their statements supporting equality.
âWe donât want to see nice headshots of your female employees. We donât want to see panel discussions that youâre running. We want you to tell us how youâve identified your problems, what youâre doing to fix them, and if you have something to shout about, if youâre doing really well â well, show us the data.â
And hey, happy Motherâs Day in the UK this weekend to all. May you get some equal rest.
MORE WOMEN, MORE MONEY â The U.S. could boost domestic product by almost $1 trillion in the next decade by increasing female labor-force participation rates to the levels of other developed economies, according to new analysis by Moodyâs. The participation rate relative other economies was already hobbled before the pandemic spurred women and caregivers to drop out.
The credit ratings agency said data also showed economies did better when companies had more gender diversity on boards, Reuters reports. Moody's said it expected debt issuers to pay more attention to issues like gender, and the market for so-called green, social, sustainability and sustainability-linked (GSSS) bonds (can we get better acronyms?) will reach $1.35 trillion this year.
RESHMA SAUJANI ROUNDUP â The Girls Who Code founder and Marshall Plan for Moms leader has a new book out: "Pay Up: The Future of Women and Work (And Why It's Different Than You Think.â She has been getting a LOT of coverage and attention. Of note:
We need a new definition of working motherhood because mainstream feminism still hasn't given us a workplace that works for women. In an excerpt published in Fortune's The Broadsheet, she calls for systemic changes and fast work by women, families, employers and policymakers to improve conditions for working women.
Employers have far more to do with "perpetuating gendered dynamics in the home" than we may think, she writes in an excerpt published in The Cut under the headline "Men Should Be Forced to Take Parental Leave." Companies must go beyond merely offering paid leave and start building cultures to encourage dads to take it without professional consequences. She says that is the best way "to truly change the tide and make a powerful statement about the value of home labor and caregiving."
Bottom line: Gee, if only we could invest money to create policies that would enable women to work and help create $1 trillion worth of value in the next decade. If only we knew about paid family and medical leave, affordable child care, free, universal pre-K, child subsidies and other things that other countries have been doing for decades.
U.S. GOVERNMENT TO EMPLOYERS: HEY! BE COOL TO CAREGIVERS â As whatever new normal begins to take shape in the workplace, women and caregivers cannot be discriminated against by employers, according to updated guidance by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Moves by the EEOC, which is charged with enforcing civil rights for workers, are a warning, as Axios puts it, that "discrimination against caregivers, including mothers, may be unlawful â and something to watch out for as more women return to work."
The EEOC first came out with its caregiving guidance in 2007, and this type of discrimination has worsened with the pandemic. COVID-related complaints across the board are rising, EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows told Axios. The new guidance has the long-term in mind, she said.
"We really want to make sure that the pandemic does not lead to a long-term widening of gender and racial pay gaps," Burrows said.
Caregivers are not considered a protected class by civil rights laws, but the guidance says discrimination against applicants or employees could violate federal laws, particularly if it involves protected classes like gender, race, color, or religion â and intersections of those classes with caregiving responsibilities. TLDR - Donât stereotype a caregiverâs responsibilities based on gender etc and how they may affect employment. Hereâs full guidance. (And in other discrimination news, the House has passed the CROWN bill, which would ban discrimination against Black hairstyles in the workplace, academia and elsewhere. It goes to the Senate next.)
The Society of Human Resource Management, a publication geared toward HR professionals, offers examples of potentially unlawful conduct related to caregivers in the workplace, including:
Declining to assign high-profile or demanding projects to a female caregiver based on gender stereotypes that "the female caregiver cannot, should not or would not want to work extra hours or be away from her family if a relative contracted COVID-19.
Denying a male co-worker the option to telework to care for a child or parent would be unlawful if such requests were approved for female employees.
The EEOC also offers suggestions for ways employers can incorporate caregiving issues into their policies. Here's SHRM's take:
Ensure all policies/employment decisions related to caregiving do not unlawfully take into account an employeeâs protected characteristics.
Train managers and HR reps on guidelines and keep an open-door policy because leadership from the top is important, said Katie Bayt, an Indianapolis attorney.
Bottom line: Employers must acknowledge caregiving for their workers and that these responsibilities are here to stay, Bayt told SHRM.
"Caregiving responsibilities have been front and center during the pandemic, and even as we navigate a new normal, these responsibilities and their impact are not likely to fade away anytime soon," she said.
HALF OF U.S. WORKERS WHO QUIT FAULT CHILDCARE â One in five non-retired U.S. adults said they quit a job last year, and a new Pew survey shows childcare issues were major reason to leave. Some 48% of respondents with kids under 18 cited it as a major or minor issue. Similarly, a lack of flexibility was cited by 45%.
Parents of kids under 12 were more likely to be out of work due to childcare, according to further analysis by Pew's Stateline of federal labor data. Overall, parents of kids ages 5-12 held 6% fewer jobs vs. the same period in 2019. That compares to other prime-age workers being just 1% short of pre-pandemic job levels.
Many of those who quit want to work, researchers say. And there are plenty of opportunities if the infrastructure were to improve. Right now there are over 11 million open jobs in America, per CNBC. Companies need to turn the Great Resignation into the "Great Reset," write researchers for Harvard Business Review in an article called "Women Can't Go Back to the Pre-Pandemic Status Quo." Well-being at work has been suffering long before the pandemic, with women, particularly women of color, experiencing higher rates of burnout and adverse health impacts before the pandemic. What can companies do? Researchers advise companies to:
Update their processes to mitigate/prevent gender and racial inequalities
Eliminate bias from people management systems
Critically evaluate how managers assess workers to minimize how bias, unconscious or explicit, can affect ratings and feedback.
Bottom line: Companies, you know the pain points, you know the talent is there. All eyes are on you.
Signing off
Why thank you, RuPaul. Thanks, as always, for reading. Please send feedback, favorite RuPaul moments, and your ways of making đŚ space. If you found value in Caregiving Crisis, please share with a friend. See you soon.
Thank you to our sponsors, CareForce: the driving force in reimagining how we care. Bringing together builders, storytellers, funders and leaders to create the infrastructure of care we all need for the 21st century. Learn more here.
Caregiving Crisis is a newsletter written by Emily Fredrix Goodman. We aim to publish monthly but other things may get in the way.
News came out this week that the creator of the gif has died. Stephen Wilhite also said a few years ago it is indeed pronounced 'jif' but I will continue to call it with a hard g. I will, however, salute you for the incredible gift of tiny blips of visual communication.
Two words. Treadmill kittens.
âSupermodelâ will be 30 years old next year. Holy what. Hadnât watched the video in decades. Delicious.
Pretty much the exact opposite way my son looks at me when I arrive to get him from aftercare wearing tie-dye socks and neoprene mint green Tevas. IYKYK.