Caregiving Crisis: Minimum pieces of flair š
Big ups, Congress. You gave us things we should have had years ago. This newsletter was delayed by my reading of 'The Handmaid's Tale' and that seems right.
Hey everyone,
Well, I went away. Like, really away. Thousands of miles and so far away I completely missed a Saturday.
I was fortunate enough over my Holiday Hiatus to go to India for a friend's wedding (calling it a wedding seems like an understatement! It was an EVENT.)
When I was away, I got more than a few alerts on my phone about some U.S. lawmakers passing a historic bill protecting women. I tried hard to be present in the culture, the people, the moment and limited my connections to home1. I didn't click on any links, making a mental note to check in later.
Instead I immersed myself in Indiaās gorgeous culture, so colorful and lively. Meaningful events that date back thousands of years, bringing family and community together to celebrate the newlyweds and their new life together. The sense of love and community during the wedding festivities was so strong. Parents and loved ones performing dances, āpaintingā the bride and groom with tumeric paste, dancing in a parade to bring the groom to the bride, and surrounding the bride and groom, and the pundit, as they performed the āpheras.ā At the end of the ceremony, one of the brideās grandmothers told me that I was HER granddaughter now. š I barely kept it together. I lost my last grandparent over 20 years ago. I was so touched and honored to be part of this family and community as it came together for love.
On the ride to the airport, I reflected on how life in India is so communal, such a contrast to our individualistic existence in the U.S. Some 1.4 billion people ā 17.7% of the worldās population ā manage to co-exist there each day. Even the dizzying roadways convey community. Vehicles honk as they pass others as a courtesy. (And to let me know when to clutch my seatbelt.)
Trying to stay awake for my 4 am flight home, sucking down chai and spending the last of my rupees, I dived back into the news that I missed. First up, the historic bill protecting women, some headlines called it. Great! Letās see some progress!
::open links, sighs::
Ermm. What I read wasā¦ meh? Lawmakers passed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act in the year-end spending bill, requiring U.S. employers to offer "reasonable accommodation to pregnant workers," just as they had been required for years for workers or job candidates with disabilities. The PWFA has been introduced...wait for it... in every Congress since 2011. Congress also passed the PUMP Act, which guarantees space/time/privacy for nursing workers in all jobs. Yay for all of this but also ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ?
This isnāt so much historic as it is commonsense and long overdue. We need these protectionsā¦ but arenāt theyā¦ obvious? Did we really need to consider for over a DECADE whether to allow pregnant people accommodations likeā¦ sitting? And donāt we need so much more? ::cough:: Nationally mandated paid leave. Vicki Shabo, senior fellow at New America, flagged to me an opinion article she wrote for CNN that nails it. Yes, these acts will help women but alsoā¦ really?
"This is literally the least Congress can do to support healthy pregnancies and babies," Shabo writes.
Shades of āminimum pieces of flairā from Office Space, amirite?
This is the least they can do. Because they still havenāt grasped the fact that we all have a stake in the safety and health of the next generation. Wouldnāt we all benefit if caregivers were supported with things like ::cough:: national paid leave? Indiaās is 26 weeks for women.
Weāre a young nation and we donāt have the history of an ancient culture like Indiaās. Ours is a society that needs to recognize the value of community. We are too entrenched in our individualistic ways of thinking ā to the detriment of all. Too much fighting. Too much hate. Too many guns.
In the weeks since Iāve been home, Iāve watched the glorious henna on my hands slowly fade and with it the feeling of community. Weāve seen six mass shootings in 13 days in California, including two against Asian Americans, that have been ājarring and triggering.ā And in Memphis, police murdered a 29-year-old Black man during a traffic stop. Tyre Nichols called out for his mom. Antisemitism continues to rise. A Molotov cocktail was hurled at a synagogue in New Jersey not far from my house2. Lawmakers around the U.S. have already introduced more than 180 anti-LGBTQ bills this session. The Republican National Committee passed a resolution urging the party to "go on offense" on abortion and "pass the strongest pro-life legislation possible."
We have so far to go to care for our people ā ALL our people. The lack of caregiving infrastructure is one significant symptom of these deep problems.
This has been a hard few weeks. On top of many more. Thanks for being here. PleaseĀ message with your thoughts for future issues. Our next monthly3 issue is February 24th.4 See you soon.
What To Know About the Caregiving Crisis This Week
NEWS WATCH: ROUNDUP āĀ Keeping tabs on legislation, regulation and conversation:
LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE BOYS! DAD CAUCUS FORMS ā After the country witnessed several men actively dad-ing during the House Speaker drama, including California Rep. Jimmy Gomez, who wore his infant son Hodge - well the time for dads has come. Enter the Congressional Dads Caucus, whose handful of members ā all Democrats ā promise to help fight for expanding the child tax credit, paid national family leave and child care program funding. It will partner with the Congressional Mamas' Caucus, and its founder Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) Slate says it best:
JACINDA ARDERN RESIGNS, GETS BLAMED FOR NOT HAVING IT ALL š¤® ā Her resignation as New Zealand prime minister shocked many but was considered "strategic and selfless" (NPR). Simply put, she couldn't do it anymore.
"I'm leaving, because with such a privileged role comes responsibility," the 42-year-old Ardern said. "The responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead and also when you are not. I know what this job takes. And I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It's that simple."
Among her accomplishments: She served in the office for more than five years, helped her country contain the Covid-19 outbreak, promoted unity and compassion in the wake of deadly mosque terror attacks and moved quickly to tighten gun laws. And she was the first sitting world leader to give birth in nearly three decades. Buuuuuuuut, the BBC wondered in a headline and tweet, is she a sign that women can't have it all?
The BBC took down its tweet and changed the headline, but not before it was widely rebuked for sexism and misogyny. The BBC later apologized. Neela Janakiramanan, a surgeon, writer and advocate, reflected that the whole episode "calls for a conversation" with not young women, who know about the tradeoffs they'll face, but with men. "So it is to the men I say: how will you balance all your obligations? Oh, youāre rarely thought about this? Come, sit down, letās talk about it.ā
MOM ATHLETES TALK SPORTS MISTREATMENT ā Athletes who ALSO happen to be moms are speaking out:
The WNBA's Dearica Hamby has accused the Las Vegas Aces of pregnancy discrimination. In an Instagram post, she takes issue with how her trade to the Los Angeles Sparks transpired, alleging the Aces' front office ālied to, bullied, manipulated, and discriminatedā against her because of her pregnancy. She said management accused her of signing a contract extension while she knew she was pregnant. Deadspin reports she isn't the first WNBA player to "claim untoward treatment during pregnany or motherhood."
Icelandic soccer player Sara Bjƶrk GunnarsdĆ³ttir has won her maternity pay case against former club Olympique Lyonnais. FIFA's Football Tribunal Dispute Resolution Center ordered Lyon to pay her salary plus interest based on rules that players get 14 weeks of maternity leave and "proper support from their clubs," per Bleacher Report. Sara wrote about her own experience essentially being cut off from her team and trying to get them to follow FIFA's guidelines. Her piece āWhat Happened When I Got Pregnantā published in The Players Tribune is worth a read.
All I wanted was to enjoy my pregnancy, and work my ass off to come back to help the team and the club. But instead I felt confused, stressed, and betrayed.
āFAIR PLAYā MOVES INTO CURRICULUM TO HELP "CLOSE THE CHORE GAP" ā Eve Rodsky's 'Fair Play' movement, along with Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine and in partnership with P&G are launching Home Eq[uity], a school curriculum with discussion guides and "homework" to teach "the next generation how to distribute household work fairly across all family members." This sounds way more informative and useful than learning to make Orange Julius and balloon biscuits5, and begging my mom to sew my pillow. Learn more.
CALLS FOR CAREGIVER IMAGERY TO BETTER REFLECT SCOPE OF WORK ā Few people see their caregiving experience represented in stock imagery and marketing campaigns "because most images are dated and unrealistic," a Shutterstock blog post says. Caregiving for adults is more than pushing "a gray-haired person around in a wheelchair." It includes meal preparation, grocery shopping or medical transportation, said Lydia Storie, with national group Caring Across Generations. "These are little things that we just assume are the ordinary responsibilities of life, but they're actually care." My hot take: This type of focus is especially important now with the proliferation of AI apps ā which use stock images to "learn" ā that produce images based on text prompts.
Bottom line: I played with some AI apps recently and Jacinda Ardern was on my mind. I wanted to see what the phrase āHave it allā would inspire6. Most of them immediately turned out images of women and children. Below is the cutest thing I got. I donāt know how it fits with āhave it allā but it is cute and perhaps it can be the mascot for the Congressional Dads Caucus?
THE UPSIDE DOWN OR MORE ON āHISTORICā GOVERNMENT PROTECTIONS FOR PREGNANT WORKERS ā U.S. employers of 15 or more people must start offering "reasonable accommodation to pregnant workers" in June, allowing workers seeking accommodations to do things like sit, hold a water bottle or not lift heavy things. Congress also passed the PUMP Act, which affects some 13 million women of working age who had been excluded from previous working mothers' provisions. And the PWFA affects an estimated 2.8 million women who become pregnant each year. Pregnant people had already been protected from discrimination, and 30 states + DC already had some sort of pregnancy accommodation law. So you couldnāt discriminate against them, but you didnāt have to help them. Now you have to help them WHEN theyāre pregnant, but as far as supporting them and the baby when the time comes in terms of paid leave AND ongoing care and support to ensure they continue working? Nope.
Bottom line: Vicki Shabo writes in CNN that we are living in the āupside down.ā
Until now, matters related to work, family and care have been largely treated as private by some policymakers, despite overwhelming public support and the multiple types of value brought by public investments in policies like paid leave, child and elder care and family economic security. Caregiving is treated as a private responsibility, but lack of investment has major public consequences. ā¦
Weāre in an upside-down world where whatās now public should be private, and whatās long been seen as āpull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstrapsā private must be seen as matters of public concern and investment for women, families and the country to thrive.
::Knock knock:: Oh no, I smell Aquanetā¦
Oh hi, Foremost Economist Blanche Devereaux, lover of drama and data. Itās never good when she shows up. What have you got for us, Blanche?
CHILDCARE COSTS > MOST EVERYTHING ā Here's new data to drown (I accidentally typed 'frown' and that works too) in: a National Database of Childcare Prices. The database from the Department of Labor shows prices across provider type and children's ages in nearly 2,400 counties in 47 states. It's a first-of-its kind look at this local level, with data on in-home vs center-based care, and related data such as maternal employment. The findings are not surprising to those who are living it.
āAs a share of family income, the NDCP shows that childcare prices are untenable for families across all care types, age groups, and county population sizes," according to a report examining the data by the U.S. Department of Labor's Women's Bureau.
More insights from the Womenās Bureau, which I had never heard of and dates to 1920 and is āthe only federal agency mandated to represent the needs of wage-earning women in the public policy process.ā Boom.
Childcare prices for a single child ranged from $5,357 to $17,171 (in real 2022 dollars), with infants the most expensive.
Estimates are for the average amount for one child. Some 29% of families with kids under 6 have two or more children.
Families pay anywhere from 8% of their income (for school-age, home-based care in small counties) to 19.3% (for center-based, infant care in large counties).
Families in the Bronx, NY, using infant, center-based care, paid the highest percentage of their median income: a whopping 47%.
Counties with higher childcare prices had lower rates of maternal employment, although higher childcare prices are a barrier to maternal employment even in high-wage areas.
A 10% increase in median childcare prices was correlated with a 1 percentage-point decrease at county-level maternal employment rates.
Bottom Line: The more data the better in telling this story to an audience of largely older, white, male lawmakers who arenāt living this crisis. Solutions are complex. The goal should be to reduce expenses for families but "reducing childcare providers' prices is not a feasible solution," the Women's Bureau warns. That population is already suffering with low wages AND thin operating margins. Lawmakers should look to New Mexico, which is on the cusp of approving an amendment to use some of its oil and gas profits to bolster its childcare industry. It is the first state to āenshrine child care funding in its constitution, effectively making the service a universal right,ā per CNN. The effort - a decade in the making, The 19th reports - would pay child care providers more per child, make more families eligible for free care, and give workers permanent raises of $3 more an hour.
Signing off
Thanks, as always, for reading. PleaseĀ sendĀ feedback and decorating ideas for the Upside Down. If you found value in Caregiving Crisis, please share with a friend. See you soon.
Caregiving CrisisĀ is a newsletter written by Emily Fredrix Goodman. We aim to publish monthly but other things may get in the way.
Did I answer texts from my husband about our cleaners while on stage during the extremely beautiful pheras? Yes, yes I did.
I was just at this synagogue a few months ago for an author event with Hugh Bonneville, Downton Abbey Daddy.
This is the first issue that I didnāt publish on a Friday! Pretty sure I have the January blues and ALSO āHandmaidās Taleā reading has taken up my free hours. Yes itās short. Iām slow.
MAYBE? Give or take a few days.
OMG I always thought balloon biscuits were an actual thingā¦ but the top link Google gave me was for my hometown schoolās recipe. Was it a Solon, Ohio delicacy?! Pretty sure Iām making these this week!
ALL of the AI imagery for the phrase āHave it allā that I got included women and children. Shocking. One imagery was particularly terrifying. Iām going to share it with you but please just look quickly and then immediately scroll AWAY. Itās so bad itās good but itās also so so so bad. Here we go. Ready? Ok. It definitely gives off āOriginal Ghostbusters Demon Vibes,ā right?
Hereās a palate cleanser now!