Hi John,
Two breaking-news updates:
- My roommate has sewn my ripped dress back together; and
- Did you know that, after giving birth, your ARMPITS can become "engorged” with breast milk?
For some engorged reason, I have found myself on the “weird-things-that-can-happen-to-your- postpartum-body" side of TikTok. But even before this algorithmic intervention, I have been terrified of having children.
Not only for personal, armpit-adjacent reasons, but because I know just how deeply mothers are undervalued by our country—which this month has proved more than most.
A National Embarrassment
Tomorrow, billions of dollars that helped keep the child care sector afloat during the pandemic will expire.
Over the next several months, more than 70,000 child care programs are projected to close, pushing an estimated 3.2 million children out of care—and leaving mothers and families in the lurch.
To offset this catastrophic funding cliff, the National Women’s Law Center has been pleading with Congress to immediately pass $16 billion per year in emergency child care money.
Unsurprisingly, we’ve been ignored. That’s because child care is the quintessential example of “women’s work”—work that has taken place not in an office or the marketplace, but behind the closed doors of the home:
Work that is invisible.
Not only that, but child care workers—who in 2021 were earning poverty wages in 40 states despite performing our country's most essential work—are predominately women of color. A group that, because of sexism and racism, lawmakers have historically undervalued, underpaid, and ignored.
It is a national embarrassment that we have told mothers, workers, and families to fend for themselves—and NWLC will not stop fighting until the child care sector gets the money it so desperately needs, and the money it has always deserved.
Seriously, Where Is Your Shame???
Speaking of national embarrassment, as of right now, it seems we are less than 36 hours away from a government shutdown.
While Congress has been trying to agree on a budget by September 30—tomorrow!!!—an extreme conservative faction has held up negotiations by pushing for drastic cuts to critical programs, including food assistance, housing, child care, and education.
Cuts that would harm women and families first.
It is deeply shameful that when it comes to child care—and now the funding of our federal government—a small group of extremists are more than willing to use women as bargaining chips. Our well-being seems to always be last on the agenda, first on the chopping block.
We are sick of it.
Must-Do's:
- Contact your member of Congress and tell them to fund the government NOW without cutting programs for women and families
- Tell your elected officials to prioritize and invest in child care
- ALL of our children should be free to be who they are at school without fear of discrimination or violence. On this final day of Greater Than Hate’s Parents Week of Action, push back against the bigots who are targeting our kids here
Must Reads:
- We asked college students how they feel about starting school. Turns out, they’re terrified.
- As Hip Hop celebrates its 50th anniversary, women rappers are taking over. (And singing odes about a personal fav of mine: ✨Plan B✨).
- “When I needed child care for my family, there was none. I didn’t want anyone else to feel so alone.” I loved this piece by one of our storytellers, Merline, who gets brutally honest about what it’s like being an underpaid child care worker in this country.
Feminist Moment of (Sporty) Joy
Like blooming, postpartum armpits, this might come as a shock to you, but I am deeply uninvested in sports.
That is, until this month when the Washington Commanders played their first official game under new ownership.
This comes after our TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund supported survivors in their fight back against former Commanders’ owner Dan Snyder—ending his culture of sexual harassment for good.
Though true justice was nowhere near served, I am in awe of the survivors who, despite well-founded fears of retaliation, still spoke out publicly—so no one else would ever have to experience the pain they endured.
I would happily endure engorged armpits for these wonderful, selfless women <3
Hope y’all have a restful weekend,
Gemma Simoes Decarvalho
she/her/hers
Writer and Editor
National Women’s Law Center
