# 865,000 women dropped out of the labor force in September 2020



## naturalgyrl5199 (Oct 20, 2020)

This is important because this highlights the issues we've always had in the US regarding lack of maternity leave, poor childcare options and/or extremely high childcare and the fact that in black communities, women tend to be head of household income wise. We continue and will continue to have hunger issues in children that will become worse as food lines continue to be longer than ever. Pandemics always expose seemingly innocuous societal problems. 


Link here: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/02/865000-women-dropped-out-of-the-labor-force-in-september-2020.html 


CLOSING THE GAP
*More than 860,000 women dropped out of the labor force in September, according to new report*


As the economy slowly tries to recover during the coronavirus pandemic, new data shows that women are still being disproportionately impacted by today’s crisis. 

Between August and September, nearly 1.1 million workers ages 20 and over dropped out of the labor force, meaning they are no longer working or looking for work. Of those workers, 865,000 of them were women, a number that is four times higher than the 216,000 men who also left the workforce, according to a National Women’s Law Center analysis.




“This is the devastating impact of the ongoing breakdown of our nation’s caregiving infrastructure in the face of Covid-19,” Emily Martin, vice president for education and workplace justice at NWLC, tells CNBC Make It. “As families across the country struggle to figure out how to keep their jobs while also making sure their children are cared for, safe and learning every day, it’s women who are being pushed out of work.”

While all women are undoubtedly feeling the brunt of today’s pandemic, Martin adds that Black women and Latinas are still seeing the highest rates of unemployment, “demonstrating the ways Covid-19 is deepening the already sharp inequities in our economy.”

Black women and Latinas both saw double digit unemployment rates in September at 11.1% and 11%, respectively, according to NWLC data. That’s compared to White men having an unemployment rate of 6.5% and White women having an unemployment rate of 6.9%.


Sherly Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer and Lean In founder, agrees that the ongoing caregiving crisis in America has a lot to do with the high number of women who are leaving the workforce. In fact, in Lean In and McKinsey & Company’s annual “Women in the Workplace” report, released earlier this week, researchers found that for the first time in the six years that the report has been released, women are leaving the workforce at higher rates than men.

Today, according to data from McKinsey & Company and Lean In, mothers are three times as likely as fathers to be responsible for a majority of housework and childcare during Covid-19. Mothers are also twice as likely as fathers to worry that their work performance is being judged negatively because of their caregiving responsibilities during the pandemic. As a result, many working mothers are feeling burned out by the overwhelming demands of both work and home.  


Sandberg explains to CNBC Make It that even before the pandemic, “mothers were already working a double shift,” meaning that many working moms would finish the work day and then come home to do more housework and child care.

“Now with coronavirus, what you have is a double double shift,” she says. “You know, mothers are spending 20 more hours a week on housework and child care during coronavirus than fathers. Twenty more hours a week is half of a full-time job.”

In addition to the caregiving crisis impacting women in the workplace, data from NWLC also shows that the industries experiencing the most job losses today are industries in which women are overrepresented. Last month, for example, the economy lost a net of 182,000 state and local government jobs. While there is no gender breakdown of these job losses, data from NWLC shows that 60% of state and local government workers are women. 

“Those services are critical services that help support women and their families,” Martin told CNBC Make It in July in regards to the teacher, public health worker and case worker roles that fall under state and local government jobs. “So one important policy response right now is to make sure those public sector workers can continue to stay on the job and provide the services that allow all of us to be healthy, that allow kids to go to school and that allow parents to have the support they need to be able to go to work.”


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## Rocky91 (Oct 20, 2020)

The pandemic has solidified my belief in universal childcare and socialized housework  (see: Obsolescence of Housework, Angela Davis). I would like to see a revival of these issues come to the forefront of feminist and woman centered spaces. Let’s pivot away from the somewhat flighty “girl boss” or “women’s empowerment brunch”  era that we are in and force institutions to really reckon with women’s concerns. 

Thank you for posting!


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## Kanky (Oct 20, 2020)

This is interesting. I don’t know a single woman who has lost her job in this pandemic. Most of the women that I know were either stay at home mothers to begin with (a lot of white women don’t work or only work part time) or have switched to working from home. I know a couple of women who’d stopped working to stay home with their babies and were able to return to work sooner than they’d planned because coming into the office is no longer a requirement.

I‘m sure that a lot of single mothers and women married to men that can’t support the family are in trouble, but that situation has always been especially precarious. I don’t think that our society is going to do anything about this, especially since Black women are the face of the problem.


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## ScorpioBeauty09 (Oct 20, 2020)




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## Crackers Phinn (Oct 20, 2020)

I know the story is focusing on working mothers but I'm guessing there is a chunk of the caregiving population made up of women who take care of aging parents.  At this stage of my life, me and all of my surviving childhood friends have all been primary caregivers to one or both of our parents.  I can't imagine trying to deal with all that comes with that during a pandemic.


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## Rocky91 (Oct 27, 2020)

I heard this story on NPR this morning and thought about this thread: 
The framing really interested me here, as it was a stark contrast to how Black women are typically portrayed. The women that were profiled assist in propagating the narrative that Latina women are traditional women who've dropped out of the workforce to prioritize their families. There was a single mother, but her presence was balanced out by a married woman in a traditional nuclear family. Look at all that journalistic care and concern for the collective image of Latinas.


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## brownb83 (Oct 27, 2020)

Rocky91 said:


> I heard this story on NPR this morning and thought about this thread:
> The framing really interested me here, as it was a stark contrast to how Black women are typically portrayed. The women that were profiled assist in propagating the narrative that Latina women are traditional women who've dropped out of the workforce to prioritize their families. There was a single mother, but her presence was balanced out by a married woman in a traditional nuclear family. Look at all that journalistic care and concern for the collective image of Latinas.



This was interesting. I was surprised to hear that it's affecting them more than Black women.


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## Black Ambrosia (Oct 27, 2020)

Rocky91 said:


> The pandemic has solidified my belief in universal childcare and socialized housework  (see: Obsolescence of Housework, Angela Davis). I would like to see a revival of these issues come to the forefront of feminist and woman centered spaces. Let’s pivot away from the somewhat flighty *“girl boss”* or “women’s empowerment brunch”  era that we are in and force institutions to really reckon with women’s concerns.
> 
> Thank you for posting!


My knee jerk reaction is to roll my eyes when I hear this but I couldn't really verbalize why. Flighty is a good word.


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## sheanu (Nov 1, 2020)

Last week I feel like I had to make another one of those decisions to keep from letting the consistent feeling of overwhelm consume me. Finally decided to re-hire a housekeeper and lawn maintenance person. There's just too much some women end up having to take over during this pandemic because a lot of men are NOT going to step up and things just end up spiraling out of control otherwise. It's been tough on both of us but my husband is definitely not as concerned about things outside of work or our daughter so I've had to shoulder a lot of the home stuff on top of work and parenting. At some point it just gets to be too much to take on alone.


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## naturalgyrl5199 (Nov 3, 2020)

sheanu said:


> Last week I feel like I had to make another one of those decisions to keep from letting the consistent feeling of overwhelm consume me. Finally decided to re-hire a housekeeper and lawn maintenance person. There's just too much some women end up having to take over during this pandemic because a lot of men are NOT going to step up and things just end up spiraling out of control otherwise. It's been tough on both of us but my husband is definitely not as concerned about things outside of work or our daughter so I've had to shoulder a lot of the home stuff on top of work and parenting. At some point it just gets to be too much to take on alone.


I'm with you. I'm working on some home interior projects as part self care and sanity and to make things easier long term. However I am probably going to go ahead and hire help for housecleaning come January.


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## naturalgyrl5199 (Nov 3, 2020)

I know a lot of women who jumped into MLM and small businesses---even good old Mary Kay businesses to make ends meet. I see women selling plates out of their home, doing some of everything. This year will be talked about forever.


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## MizAvalon (Nov 4, 2020)

naturalgyrl5199 said:


> I know a lot of women who jumped into MLM and small businesses---even good old Mary Kay businesses to make ends meet. I see women selling plates out of their home, doing some of everything. This year will be talked about forever.



This has definitely become the year of the side hustle. Folks are doing any and everything to supplement. I know a photographer whose business has completely tanked since there were no weddings or events this year. She built a website and started selling prints of her work online. I know another young man who works some menial, low skills kind of job(not really sure what it is) but his hours got cut way back. Instead of crying in his soup he started posting on his FB page that he would give folks rides around town so they can run their little errands for $10 a pop. He lives in a low income area and a lot of people don’t have cars. Basically his own little Uber service. That boy is KILLING it.


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## nyeredzi (Nov 5, 2020)

Not surprising. And though women have been dropping out this whole pandemic, it's no coincidence that the huge spike happened in September, which is when school started. I even considered going down in time myself, but my salary is good enough and my employment situation understanding enough that I can just keep my head above water. But some days I just want to cry. It's too much. There's a toddler here, my ADHD 7 year old is now homeschooled by me (because, amazingly, it's easier than keeping up with the virtual public school), and I'm supposed to be working full time, somehow all at the same time. I mean, with a whole toddler! My husband has never done as much childcare as me (though he does do more housework), but that's really exacerbated now with the kids home all the time. And half the time he's asleep during most of my work day because he works 3-4 nights a week (RN). My productivity is down. It can't be helped, I'm not magic. I have managed to get in-home help 3 days a week for 6 hours each day, which helps. Fortunately my employer and coworkers just know and accept, I can't do what I'd be able to do in other circumstances.


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## naturalgyrl5199 (May 30, 2021)

I had a girl decline a job bc she couldn't sort out her child care situation. This thing is really messing up mother's money. The job is super flexible but she still couldn't make it work.


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## Evolving78 (May 31, 2021)

naturalgyrl5199 said:


> I had a girl decline a job bc she couldn't sort out her child care situation. This thing is really messing up mother's money. The job is super flexible but she still couldn't make it work.


That has been my issue. Having a physical support system is critical when it comes to parents in the workforce. I’m trying to sort all of this out before the fall/next year school.


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## Evolving78 (May 31, 2021)

Crackers Phinn said:


> I know the story is focusing on working mothers but I'm guessing there is a chunk of the caregiving population made up of women who take care of aging parents.  At this stage of my life, me and all of my surviving childhood friends have all been primary caregivers to one or both of our parents.  I can't imagine trying to deal with all that comes with that during a pandemic.


This is a topic within itself...


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## naturalgyrl5199 (Jun 1, 2021)

nyeredzi said:


> Not surprising. And though women have been dropping out this whole pandemic, it's no coincidence that the huge spike happened in September, which is when school started. I even considered going down in time myself, but my salary is good enough and my employment situation understanding enough that I can just keep my head above water. But some days I just want to cry. It's too much. There's a toddler here, my ADHD 7 year old is now homeschooled by me (because, amazingly, it's easier than keeping up with the virtual public school), and I'm supposed to be working full time, somehow all at the same time. I mean, with a whole toddler! My husband has never done as much childcare as me (though he does do more housework), but that's really exacerbated now with the kids home all the time. And half the time he's asleep during most of my work day because he works 3-4 nights a week (RN). My productivity is down. It can't be helped, I'm not magic. I have managed to get in-home help 3 days a week for 6 hours each day, which helps. Fortunately my employer and coworkers just know and accept, I can't do what I'd be able to do in other circumstances.


Circling back,
school is almost over and our 7 YO will start 2nd grade in August. She is going to summer camp full time IN SCHOOL. We have been saving all year. Its hella expensive but her dad was primary with her digital home schooling and its taken its toll on him mentally.  He is pretty tough but she managed straight A's. When he's not there then there is tough mama. We are taking a couple mini state-side vacations (easy here in FL) with 1-2 fully vaccinated family members for our mental health. I can't believe we made it but we did. This year was hard. I just remembered that our 3 YO's day care kept their census low and that's how they avoided school closing all year. The director got COVID at the beginning--March 2020 but she was on vacation when she discovered it and just stayed away for a month. No one else got it apparently. That being said, I remember there had been a HUGE shortage in Day care spots. I had to send her or I would have had NO work done at home.

Starting in about 2 weeks we are all required to report back to work. We can only work from home for emergencies or special circumstances with documentation. I have 2 who meet the requirement but I'll be headed in full-time. Its been a LONG school year. As more return to work and unemployment is pulled, I expect to hear so-called "decreases" in female unemployment since come fall most schools will be open full time. Our district no longer does hybrid learning. You have to dis-enroll from your home school they are zoned for and enroll in the local or state digital platform 100% and give up your child's space. She attends a high demand school so people are gonna give up digital.


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## madamdot (Jun 7, 2021)

Evolving78 said:


> That has been my issue. Having a physical support system is critical when it comes to parents in the workforce. I’m trying to sort all of this out before the fall/next year school.



A support system is huge. We don’t have useful blood family around us. Useful as in emotionally supportive or able to assist physically. We’ve set up a network of parent friends who are like family who we’ve essentially been cut off from because of COVID. 

Both my husband and I have super flexible well paying jobs and it was STILL hard. When the pandemic started my kids were 3 years and the other 7 months. I was still breastfeeding. I wasn’t sure I would survive those first 6 months because there was just no break. So I just don’t know how some people did/are doing this. Especially those that had to leave their house to work or look after family while worrying about a source of income.


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## Evolving78 (Jun 7, 2021)

madamdot said:


> A support system is huge. We don’t have useful blood family around us. Useful as in emotionally supportive or able to assist physically. We’ve set up a network of parent friends who are like family who we’ve essentially been cut off from because of COVID.
> 
> Both my husband and I have super flexible well paying jobs and it was STILL hard. When the pandemic started my kids were 3 years and the other 7 months. I was still breastfeeding. I wasn’t sure I would survive those first 6 months because there was just no break. So I just don’t know how some people did/are doing this. Especially those that had to leave their house to work or look after family while worrying about a source of income.


How did you build friendships/supportive network? I’m starting from scratch.


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## madamdot (Jun 7, 2021)

Evolving78 said:


> How did you build friendships/supportive network? I’m starting from scratch.



We completely lucked out. I have a couple of women from my job (they are not there anymore) and in my grown up life this is the first time I befriended people who I trusted in my home. I knew them before I was pregnant and they were very supportive.

Also when I got pregnant we moved to a more diverse neighborhood outside of DC. One set of parents in my son’s daycare/ pre school created a Friday night get together thing. I was completely unsure at first but the parents turned out to be incredibly kind and supportive. We spent a lot of time getting to know each other. We have get together with the entire group but we also have the moms getting together separately and the dads getting together separately so we are able to bond and talk about interests and problems. There is a subset of us who had subsequent pregnancies so our younger kids are similar ages.

Most of us are older parents (late 30s/40s and even 50s) and professionally mature but without grandparents/family support.

Sometimes you have to reach out and be the supportive person and sometimes others step up. Again, I know this is not easy, takes work and a lot of luck,


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## naturalgyrl5199 (Jun 18, 2021)

States are slowly pulling back on unemployment week by week. Please tell all your folk who are bypassing jobs to apply NOW. Soon there will be a GLUT of people looking for work cause their kids are in school.


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