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Co-written by Fatima Goss Graves
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As millions of women struggle to keep their jobs, keep their families healthy and keep their children learning, the Trump administration and Senator McConnell placed all of their attention on just one woman.
Just last month, more than 1.1 million workers dropped out of the labor force. Of the workers who left the labor force nationally, 4 out of 5 (865,000) were women, including 324,000 Latinas and 58,000 Black women. We are in a she-cession, as the burden of COVID-19 has fallen disproportionately onto women’s shoulders. Families depending on women’s earnings are at risk.
Over-represented as essential workers, women are 75% of hospital workers, 93% of child care workers, 90% of people employed in private homes and two-thirds of grocery store cashiers and retail staff. Women claim nearly two-thirds of minimum wage jobs — many of which were heavily impacted by COVID-19, such as retail and hospitality. It was no surprise that two-thirds of Michigan women of color reported being affected financially by COVID-19, including a reduction of work hours, getting furloughed, losing one’s job and being forced to quit one’s job to care for someone else.
The pandemic has threatened the collapse of our child care system with hundreds of thousands of child care jobs and businesses on the line — where many providers have already closed their doors permanently. Without it, families do not have the necessary support to go back to work or school. Coupled with a lack of paid sick, medical and family leave, women are being forced to leave the workforce to care for their children and their families.
Even during “normal” times, women are still not paid equally to men. Black women who work full-time, year-round earn 63 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men. This drops down to an even more disgraceful 55 cents for Latinas.
Yet, while President Trump bullies Senator Harris, calling her a “monster,” and fans the flames after a terrorist plot against Michigan Governor Whitmer, he and McConnell moved mountains to confirm Amy Coney Barett for the U.S. Supreme Court in record speed. The impact of this disgraceful act will — once again — be a heavy burden for women, especially Black, Indigenous and other women of color.
Based on Barrett’s judicial record, she will surely help Trump and his GOP allies to decimate the Affordable Care Act, which provides access to health care for at least 20 million people and protects those with pre-existing conditions and discrimination. Barrett will help their plans to overturn Roe v. Wade, turn back protections for survivors of sexual harassment and undo decades of progress for LGBTQ+ communities and people of color. And in this hotly contested election, she is poised to help fix the election results and continue to suppress voters. It became all the more clear when she refused to answer at her hearing basic questions like whether the President can unilaterally change Election Day (the answer is unequivocally no). Yes, Barrett may be a woman — but she would clearly jeopardize our fundamental right to equality — in health care, in schools, at work and more.
But we know women of color. You are our family members, friends and colleagues. Strong-willed and determined, you know you deserve more. You deserve leaders who will deliver COVID relief to you and your community. You deserve to have equal pay, a living wage and paid leave. You deserve affordable, high-quality child care. You deserve access to comprehensive health care. You deserve the right to access abortion and bodily autonomy.
Your worth is not determined by political gamesmanship, and don’t forget: your vote is equal in value. Let the elected leaders know you are watching, that you are powerful and, on November 3, you will show up with another four-letter word that is synonymous to hope: vote.
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Eboni Taylor is the Michigan Executive Director of the Mothering Justice Action Fund.
Fatima Goss Graves is the President of the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund.
