šScaregiving Crisis: Midterms and the cosmos
Pay transparency, are women shifting work culture? Also VOTE PLS VOTE OMG VOTE
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.
Hey everyone,
NASA released new, humbling images of space this month and when this happens, I always have a bit of a 'omg we are but specks' moment. Itās closely followed by a commitment to more dessert1, throwing up my hands and saying āfine, one more TV showā and yes, cereal IS dinner. The new view from the James Webb Space Telescope shows the 'Pillars of Creation' in incredible, infrared detailā new stars forming within clouds of interstellar gas and dust. āThere are just so many stars!" tweeted one scientist who works on the project. I meanā¦ look at this and tell me you donāt feel small.
I had similar reactions when this summer NASA released those first jaw-dropping images2 of the galaxy from 4.6 billion years ago (!!)
No, I wonāt try to come up with some sort of metaphor about the birth of new stars and caregivingā¦ I would hope that some cranky faction of stars isnāt trying to take away support from parent stars who try so hard to shine bright AND raise their wee protostars. āØ
But I will share my quasi-nihilistic reactions and how they are informing my thoughts about the upcoming mid-term elections. TLDRāDoes anything matter?! And Iām not asking this because Iām arguing no one should do anything. The opposite.
If we are but blips, shouldnāt we all be in this thing called life together? Working toward a society where everyone can flourish in the short time we have in this life? Why are some so hellbent on being hateful, taking away rights, and causing suffering?
Abortion rights are expected to be an issue "unlike any other" (Brookings Institute) in the elections. Weāll talk more on that below.
But big picture: I just want to scream at those working so hard and for such spiteful reasons to (takes big breath and spits it out Micro-machines style): deny people the ability to make decisions that are right for them and their families, throw women decades back in terms of equality, victimize transgender kids and their families, threaten the right to legally marry whomever we choose: WHY? The universe has been around far longer than any of us can conceive. How can some people feel so grandiose that their views should be forced upon others when, like, weāre here for a split second in the grand scheme of things. Canāt we all stay in our lanes, support each other and do our best in this life?
I recognize this may be a bit reductionist and pollyanna. And this is as close as I get to religious. It's kind of like the realization that actor William Shatner had when he went into space. In an excerpt of his memoirs published in Variety this month, Shatner wrote that he felt a "profound sadness" looking at the vastness of space and down at a beautiful Earth, knowing how destructive and divided it is. The "grandeur around us" makes us "insignificant," he wrote. He ended his essay on a note of hope, writing that if we recognize humanity's collective insignificance, "That allows us perhaps a chance to rededicate ourselves to our planet, to each other, to life and love all around us. If we seize that chance."
ANYWAY, so midterms. Thatās where my head is these days. This life is short. We all deserve to live our lives as we want and feel like society is collectively lifting us ALL up. Letās fight for what is ours and what we need in the time that we have it.
Thanks for being here. PleaseĀ message with your thoughts for future issues. Our next monthly issue is November 25th. See you soon. And please vote!
What To Know About the Caregiving Crisis This Week
NEWS WATCH: ROUNDUP āĀ Keeping tabs on legislation, regulation and conversation:
MORE PAY TRANSPARENCY LAWS COMING ā November 1st brings New Yorkās long-awaited (by me!) pay transparency law, which will require companies to put the minimum and maximum pay in every job posting. Colorado, Nevada and Connecticut have had such laws since 2021, and California and Washingtonās will take effect in January. The point of these laws is to "shrink the persistent wage gap that divides white men from women and people of color," writes Vox. It's a great step but more is needed to close the gaps that haven't seen much progress in the past three decades, experts say. The gaps begin at the start of careers, persist for years, and deepen with things like the motherhood penalty.
Data from a compensation software company showed employees working at companies with pay transparency make 7% more than those with the same qualifications at companies without transparency. But experts say more is needed including requiring companies to report pay gap data and make it public, raising the minimum wage, make it easier to unionize, and (of course!) offer affordable, high-quality child care so women can fully participate in the workforce.
WOMEN WANT 'SEISMIC SHIFT' IN WORK CULTURE ā Women leaders in U.S. workplaces are "demanding more and leaving their companies in unprecedented numbers to get it," concludes a new report by McKinsey and LeanIn.org that surveyed more than 40,000 employees in professional jobs at over 300 companies. Women, far more than men, said they want real advancement opportunities, flexible workplaces, and for companies to value their well-being and diversity, equity and inclusion. And women leaders aren't being shy about leaving to find what they want. "āItās a disastrous situationā: Women leaders are leaving companies at the highest rate ever" reads one CNBC headline. They feel overworked and under-recognized, especially when they take on tasks to promote DE&I and employee wellbeing. (Sidebar: the first ERG compensation database has been released. This work is valuable and people who do it need to get paid!) The issue, one of the report's authors writes in Politico, is that "work has never really worked" for women because it has been organized around men. And it took the pandemic and national reckoning on racial justice to make clear that these defaults "seem so glaringly unreasonable and outdated."
"As faster changing-women leave slower-changing companies for better opportunities, a great shakeout is coming. In this war for talent, companies that embrace new models of working will benefit.ā - Marianne Cooper, senior research scholar at Stanford and report co-author.
REMOTE WORK = BABY BOOM? ā Researchers say the quick economic recovery of the 2020 pandemic crash and the rise of remote work may be spurring a baby boom. (We'll ignore the fact we're headed into a recession RN.) A new paper says these factors "likely contributed to a mini-baby boom in 2021" among women in the U.S., reversing a years-long decline in the birth rate, Axios reports. The decline from 2020-2021 that was much talked about in the press seems to have been because foreign-born women were blocked from entering the U.S., the researchers say. And meanwhile, having flexible workplaces spurred a 6.2% rise in the birth rate for U.S. mothers (mostly U.S.-born) from 2015-2019, for a total addition of about 46,000 children. Somewhat relatedly, San Francisco has become the first city in the U.S. to approve a "right to request" ordinance for workers seeking flexibility due to caregiving. And more states/cities may follow, write lawyers in HRExecutive.com. (Of course) Countries like the UK, Australia, Northern Ireland, Finland and elsewhere already have such rights. Such an act has been introduced at the national level in the U.S. butā¦š¤·āāļø
Bottom line: The through-line is that workplaces have to step up. Women need to get paid, we need advancement opportunities and we need cultures that are flexible, share our values and can change as we do. And we need care infrastructure to support all of the above. Workers are now identifying more as caregivers, making it the fastest-growing category of employee identity groups. We're incredible talent. Companies should be fighting to attract and keep us.
MIDTERMS: OVERVIEW ā I have been googling my heart out, trying to figure out what the āstoryā is in terms of media coverage for the midtermsā¦ and tbh, Iām not seeing it. Coverage is all over the place. Democrats are turning to Obama for āmidterm miracle, or to stem the bleedingā (Reuters) and Trump is āactively plotting to steal the midterm elections (and the next presidential one)ā (Vanity Fair). Headlines on actual issues arenāt popping up as often as youād think, considering whatās at stake.
So, weāll do this section like my favorite style of peanut butter: chunky! This is of course not an exhaustive list of things to know about the midterms, but things that are worth your knowing:
AT STAKE - All House seats, 35 Senate seats (14 held by Democrats, 21 by Republicans). Control of the Senate is expected to be close and some say it could be decided by the race in Pennsylvania (CNN). Democrats have lost ground in the past two months in states they control (AZ, NEV, NH), along with Wisconsin and Pennsylvania ā widely seen as their two best chances to pick up seats.
And yes, Pennsylvania is the race where celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz is running as a Republican. His confusing statement on abortion at a debate this week turned a lot of heads, saying abortion should be decided by "women, doctors, local political leaders, letting the democracy that's always allowed our nation to thrive to put the best ideas forward so states can decide for themselves."
TURNOUT ā Expected to be high. Over 9.2 million pre-election ballots have been cast across 40 states as of mid-week, and that's putting turnout on pace with 2018 -- which was the highest midterm voter turnout in recent history. Some say the pace could be as strong as presidential elections (MSNBC)
CONTESTED RESULTS ā Expect āturmoil amid legal challengesā (Al Jazeera). More than 100 lawsuits have already been filed around results that havenāt even happened yet, with Republican challenges targeting rules for mail-in voting, early voting, voting machines, voter registration, access for partisan poll watchers, etc. "Thousands of volunteers are ready to challenge ballots and search for evidence of malfeasance." Per the NYT: 28% of all voters, including 41% of Republicans, said they had ālittle to no faith in the accuracy of this yearās midterm elections.ā
VOTER APATHY ā Yes, voters are worried about all the challenges and what that means for our nationā¦ butā¦ thereās also frustrations over the government preventing us from getting too worked up. āVoters See Democracy in Peril But Saving It Isnāt a Priorityā reads one NYT headline. A poll found that the majority of voters in both parties named the opposing party as āa major threat to democracy.ā In all, 71% of all voters said democracy was at risk ā ābut just 7% identified that as the most important problem facing the country.ā
ABORTION RIGHTS - The issue is expected to motivate younger voters to turn up in numbers similar to the 2018 midterms. Five-Thirty-Eight reports that women between 18-29 are more likely than other groups to say they're following news on the topic and that they're single-issue voters on it. "Young women are likelier than their older counterparts to see the Supreme Court's ruling, and the ensuing scramble to ban abortion in red states, as an attack on all women and not just a new set of restrictions on a medical procedure." Still, other polls are saying the issue has lost prominence in the months since Roe v Wadeās overturning, and inflation is taking over as a top issue. Monica Lewinsky, first of her name, writes in Vanity Fair that people must show up and vote for all candidates that favor a womanās right to choice. āWe will be preemptively bolstering our rights over our own bodies against any legislator, executive, or judge in whose election we havenāt participated.ā
STATE BALLOT INITIATIVES ā Five states will have abortion initiatives on their ballots. Those protecting abortion access in Vermont and California are expected to pass easily. Keep your eyes on proposals in Michigan and Kentucky. Swing state Michigan is asking voters to protect the right to abortion, and its vote could be "instructive about what's coming down the line next year, the year after that, five years down the road," one political pundit told PBS News. Conservative Kentucky is considering a measure that would amend its constitution to say residents do not have a right to an abortion, just like the Kansas vote (that soundly failed). The state is already enforcing a near-total ban.
Bottom line: This is going to be a mess. Vote vote vote. Make sure your friends and family do too. Find your polling place. Want to vote early? Hereās a list of states and what they allow.
Signing off
Thanks, as always, for reading. PleaseĀ sendĀ feedback, your Apocalypse Food, ways that youāre interpreting NASAās Webb images into haunting music. If you found value in Caregiving Crisis, please share with a friend. See you soon.
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.
Caregiving CrisisĀ is a newsletter written by Emily Fredrix Goodman. We aim to publish monthly but other things may get in the way.
Confession - and itās something I openly talk about with people: my Apocalypse Food is frosting. When we hear itās all over, the Earth is about to swallow us up, or who knows what is attacking us from the sky ā Youāll find me reaching for a big olā tub of frosting, spoon or no spoon. Probably Funfetti. And yes, I did this over a protracted period of weeks when the pandemic set in in March 2020. Chocolate fudge.
They are my computer backgrounds now. Nothing matters! Itās great!