Nicole LeBlanc

As we celebrated Women’s History Month and Developmental Disability Awareness Month in March, we recognized the struggles women continue to face in our society under systems of oppression. The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the social and economic injustices that women, especially those with disabilities, face. The COVID pandemic has driven millions of women, especially mothers, out of the workforce due to caretaking responsibilities and layoffs. As of last December, American women lost 156,000 jobs. That is equal to 100% of jobs lost in that month alone. Since the start of the pandemic 2.5 million women left the labor market compared to 1.8 million men. As a society, we must do better to ensure our workforce can accommodate the unique needs of women in general and women with disabilities.

The COVID-19 pandemic offers a perfect opportunity to reset the social contract for all workers, especially women with disabilities and single parents. One of the biggest disparities women face during COVID and beyond is the fact that they often work in female-dominated industries like hospitality, food services, and home care. On top of that, they often have to balance family caretaking responsibilities while also maintaining households. They deal with barriers like poor access to childcare, and COVID has necessitated them taking a more active role in ensuring kids are participating in remote schooling. Our society can and must do better at supporting women in the workforce and balancing the cost of unpaid childcare and unpaid caregiving of seniors and adults with disabilities.

As we begin to dream of a vision for a post-pandemic world, I hope for a launch of an aggressive economic policy agenda to support women and women with disabilities. I hope the agenda enables them to get ahead in today’s world while being accommodating to the challenges of parenting and maintaining a household.

Some ideas for improving the lives of women include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. We should expand childcare support for all so that women can continue to stay in the workforce

2. Employers need to embrace a shorter work-week and flexible scheduling, which is something that can benefit us all. In many countries, full time is considered thirty to thirty-four hours instead of forty. Some countries have shortened the workday and embraced a four-day workweek. Doing this, especially during a pandemic, can enable women to meet daily obligations, and it can protect our mental health from pandemic burnout long term.

3. Pay all women the same wage as men. There is no better time for equal pay than the present.

4. Change funding policies and make an investment to pay direct support professionals, and home care staff a livable wage. Caregiving is a job that must be recognized and fairly compensated.

5. Adopt paid leave and sick days for all workers. No one should have to worry about income loss due to illness or illness of a family member.

6. Adopt universal basic income so that parents can go back to the days when one person worked full time and other worked part time.

7. Outlaw salary history in the hiring process nationwide.

8. Pass the Equal Rights Amendment.

9. In the disability world, study and develop effective ways to address the gender bias in the autism community. Autism is often thought of as a boy thing and girls tend to mask by “passing,” or acting as normal as they can. That is, until social demands of daily living become too much, and they hit rock bottom or have a crisis like I did. I was at Job Corps for one and a half years during my twenties where I developed anxiety and trauma and became more aware of my differences.

10. We need more women on the frontlines when it comes to managing crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, given that women leaders have dealt with COVID better globally.

11. We must embrace intersectionality in all that we do because no movement’s issues are single rights issues. They are all connected one way or another.

LEAD ON!