Everything you missed at Ms. this week.
Ms. Weekly Digest | May 16, 2020

Here at Ms., our team is continuing to report through this global health crisis, doing what we can to keep you informed and up-to-date on some of the most underreported issues of the pandemic.
If you’ve enjoyed the Ms. Weekly Digest, we ask that you consider supporting our work to bring you substantive, unique reporting—we can’t do it without you.

Dear John,

As some states begin to re-open, while others have announced that much of the summer will be spent social-distancing, new reports have begun to make clear just how much women have borne the brunt of the COVID-19 global health crisis.

Though it hasn’t been a focus for mainstream media organizations, Ms. has been reporting from the start that women—and especially women of color—would be disproportionately affected by this pandemic. The vast majority of nurses, home health care workers and those who look after the elderly in nursing homes are women. So are the overwhelming majority of teachers, school counselors and school cafeteria workers, wait staff at restaurants, retail sales clerks, domestic workers and child care providers.

As we predicted, this month, new unemployment numbers put into sharp focus that women are suffering the greatest job losses as a result of the pandemic. In April, the U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 14.7 percent—the highest level since the Great Depression. And 55 percent of those lost jobs belonged to women. Women’s overall unemployment rate now hovers around 15 percent (up from 3.1 percent in February)—and numbers are even higher for women of color. The situation is so dire for women, in fact, that some are calling it a “shecession.”

I know that it feels like bad news is around every corner these days. I understand, as I feel the same. The dread of a news alert, the anxiety of opening Twitter or Facebook—it can feel easier to just block out the news whenever possible. But I believe that we must face the truth that this pandemic has laid bare: women—and especially women of color—have never enjoyed full equality in this country.

And we must decide that there simply is no ‘going back to normal’ when this pandemic is over. I hope that we take this opportunity as a society to rethink the systems that are not working for us and to build a world that is more equitable and just for all.

BY AUDREY ANDREWS | Women are being disproportionately affected by skyrocketing unemployment—causing some to refer to this as a “she-cession.”

BY MARTHA BURK | Women accounted for 55 percent of the 20.5 million jobs lost in April. Even in female-dominated fields like education and health services, women’s job losses are proportionately greater than those of men.

BY CARRIE N. BAKER | Imagine a world where women could access safe and supported abortion health care without ever leaving their homes. It might be possible sooner than you think.

BY CARRIE N. BAKER | We're in the homestretch of the long-fought battle for the Equal Rights Amendment—but the fate of the ERA rides on the elections this fall.

BY KELLY DITTMAR | Sometimes we celebrate milestones for women in politics without understanding the denominators. For example, many celebrated when the House of Representatives first saw 100 women elected. But those 100 women in the House did not represent equality—they were 100 out of 435 House members (that's just 23 percent of all officeholders!).

BY CORINNE AHRENS | Eighty-three percent of Americans believe the Equal Rights Amendment should be ratified and incorporated into the U.S. Constitution.

BY CYNTHIA RICHIE TERRELL | Our friend, Cynthia Terrell, founder and executive director of RepresentWomen, is back with another installment of her weekly column, rounding up some of her favorite stories about women’s representation in the news this week.

You have received this e-mail because of your interest in women's issues. To unsubscribe, please click here.
1600 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 801, Arlington, VA, 22209 | 703.522.2214 | [email protected]