{"id":4655,"date":"2020-10-07T16:51:29","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T16:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/pandemicbook\/?page_id=4655"},"modified":"2021-11-14T13:36:38","modified_gmt":"2021-11-14T13:36:38","slug":"10-07","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/pandemicbook\/10-07\/","title":{"rendered":"10-07"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Wednesday, October 7<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUS Cases 7.56 million
US Deaths 212,108<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Oct 7: A federal appeals court rules that Trump’s accountant must hand over his tax returns\u00a0<\/a>to Manhattan prosecutors. Facebook says<\/a> that it will block all political ads through Election Day. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards<\/a> the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Emmanuelle Charpentier of France and American biochemist Jennifer A. Doudna, the first two women to share the honor.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFrom the Cutting Room Floor ...\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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As Statista and the Institute for Family Studies have noted, there are almost 15 million single mother families in America and 2.6 million single father families (the highest in the world). A full quarter of U.S. children live in single parent homes.[1]<\/a> While most single fathers tend to be older, with more solid incomes, and partners in the home, single mothers are in the lowest income bracket in America and are more likely to be raising their kids alone.<\/span><\/p>

Being a single mom has always been hard, but 2020 has made it more desperate than ever. The problems are rooted both in the precarity of women\u2019s work and in the now-constant obligations of child care. Women held 58% of service jobs before the pandemic hit. Among all women, 17% have lost their jobs since the pandemic began, compared with 13% of men, according to the analysis. To put that in real terms, by mid-April, 5.7 million women were out of work, in contrast to 3.2 million men. For single mothers, the numbers are even worse. The number of single moms with jobs is 22% lower than it was a year ago.[2]<\/a> Tim Henderson at the Pew Charitable Trust says that these disparities are rooted in the kinds of work that single mothers tend to do. Eighty-three percent of waitresses lost their jobs in mid-April, 72% of single-moms working as cleaners, 58% of single moms who were cooks and a third of those who worked as personal care aides, were also out of work.[3]<\/a> These losses are at a far higher rate than parents of other families with children.<\/span><\/p>

[read_more id=”1″ more=”Read more” less=”Read less”]<\/p>

These huge job losses are rooted in the crisis of childcare that accompanied the pandemic. Unlike much of the western world, childcare is a luxury in America that must be paid for out of pocket by working parents. \u00a0The Center for American Progress reported in August that\u00a0 millennial mothers are nearly three times more likely than millennial fathers to report being \u201cunable to work due to a school or child care closure.\u201d[4]<\/a> The United States has a chronically under sourced childcare system and a flawed family medical leave policy that makes it incredibly difficult for the majority single mothers to take care of their kids and go to work.[5]<\/a> For instance, in the relief packages that were passed last April, Family Medical Leave (FMLA) was extended to twelve weeks at two-thirds pay for people who had to stay home and provide childcare. It also added $500 million to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). This would provide food to low-income pregnant women or mothers with young children who lost their jobs due to Covid-19. However, as researchers at the Rice University Baker Institute for Public Policy have shown, for women who are already living in poverty, a one-third pay cut can make it impossible to pay the rent or buy food. Even more problematic is the fact that the FMLA relief does not apply to temporary or contract workers and, thanks to a powerful corporate lobby, companies with over 500 employees (like Amazon and Tyson Foods) do not have to offer FMLA at all.[6]<\/a> Sadly, the industries that are \u201cleast likely to offer paid leave benefits– hospitality, hotels and food services, retail, and cleaning services,\u201d are the same industries that employ low-income women. Those same workers have a high exposure risk of COVID-19 and yet are put in positions where they cannot stay home and still keep a roof over their heads. And when the kids need school or they get sick, mothers are over ten times more likely than fathers to stay at home to care for the children. Low-income mothers who stay home to take care of sick children do not get paid.<\/span><\/p>

As a consequence, a majority of single- parent households are either receiving or seeking assistance through SNAP (34.1\u00a0percent versus 13.1 percent for households with children overall) and unemployment benefits (24.5 percent versus 18.4 percent). And even with this support, 11.5 percent of single parents still cannot find enough food to eat or have kids missing meals. A full 21.6% of single moms (versus 15.0 percent for households with children overall) will not be able to make their minimum debt payments in the next three months.[7]<\/a> As Betsey Stevenson, the former chief economist for the U.S. Department of Labor, put it, \u201cThe impact of the child care crisis on women\u2019s outcomes is going to be felt over the next decade.\u201d[8]<\/a> If only we had a funded childcare industry and workers had access to paid leave\u2026.<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Notes<\/span><\/p>

[1]<\/a> Erin Duffin, \u201cNumber of Single Mothers U.S. 2019,\u201d Statista, https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/205000\/number-of-families-with-a-single-mother-in-the-us\/<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

[2]<\/a> Carole Levine, \u201cSingle Moms Hit Hard by Economic Impact of COVID-19,\u201d Non Profit News, Nonprofit Quarterly<\/i>, June 23, 2020, https:\/\/nonprofitquarterly.org\/single-moms-hit-hard-by-economic-impact-of-covid-19\/<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

[3]<\/a> Tim Henderson, \u201cSingle Mothers Hit Hard by Job Losses,\u201d Pew, May 26, 2020, https:\/\/pew.org\/2zWmlKx<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

[4]<\/a> Rasheed Malik and Taryn Morrissey, \u201cThe COVID-19 Pandemic Is Forcing Millennial Mothers Out of the Workforce,\u201d Center for American Progress, August 12, 2020, https:\/\/www.americanprogress.org\/issues\/early-childhood\/news\/2020\/08\/12\/489178\/covid-19-pandemic-forcing-millennial-mothers-workforce\/<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

[5]<\/a> Titan Alon et al., \u201cThe Impact of COVID-19 on Gender Equality,\u201d Working Paper, Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research, April 2020), 19, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3386\/w26947<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

[6]<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>Moore, Quianta, Joyce Beebe, and Zeinab Bakhiet. \u201cHidden Figures: The Economic Impact of Covid-19 on Low-Income Women and Their Children,\u201d April 9, 2020, 7. https:\/\/www.bakerinstitute.org\/files\/15694\/<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

[7]<\/a> Oliver Armantier, Gizem Kosar, and Rachel Pomerantz, \u201cThe Disproportionate Effects of COVID-19 on Households with Children,\u201d Federal Reserve Bank of New York, August 13, 2020, https:\/\/libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org\/2020\/08\/the-disproportionate-effects-of-covid-19-on-households-with-children.html<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

[8]<\/a> Betsy Stevenson and Zach Stanton, \u201cHow the Child Care Crisis Will Distort the Economy for a Generation,\u201d Politico<\/i>, July 23, 2020, https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2020\/07\/23\/child-care-crisis-pandemic-economy-impact-women-380412<\/a>. <\/span> [\/read_more]<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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“Vice Presidential Debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris,” C-SPAN, October 7, 2020.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Randy Rainbow and Patti Lapone, “If Donald Got Fired,” A Randy Rainbow Song Parody, October 7, 2020,\u00a0https:\/\/youtu.be\/5AoY6RRfMZM<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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“PBS KIDS Talk About Race & Racism,” PBS KIDS, October 9, 2020, https:\/\/youtu.be\/_fbQBKwdWPg<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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