Dear John,

“This is the moment to reimagine and rebuild a new economy,” the White House announced as it released details of President Biden’s $2.28 trillion American Jobs Plan. The Plan  includes rebuilding the country’s crumbling infrastructure, replacing 100% of the lead pipes and water lines to provide safe, clean drinking water, building desperately needed affordable housing, and making critical clean energy investments—among other long-overdue investments.

Additionally, the President’s plan makes a $400 billion investment in the home- and community-based care economy for the aging and people with disabilities, addressing a critical need while raising wages and benefits for home-care workers. The Plan also dedicates $25 billion in funding to modernize and retrofit schools and increase the supply of child care facilities across the country. It creates a Child Care Growth and Innovation Fund for states to build a supply of infant and toddler care in high-need areas. Through an expanded tax credit, businesses are encouraged to build worksite child care facilities. 

As Julie Kashen, Lenore Palladino and Rakeen Mabud eloquently argue in Ms.: “We all pay the price without a [child] care infrastructure, with the U.S. economy losing more than $64.5 billion per year in wages and economic activity as a result.”

Feminists need to keep pushing and putting forward ideas in order to truly "reimagine a new economy.” And in fact, as far back as 60 years ago, the first federal Commission on the Status of Women under President John F. Kennedy did just that—proposing “a bold and comprehensive plan to move America toward greater equality and well being.” Historian Dorothy Sue Cobble explains in Ms., “The multi-racial, cross-class network of egalitarian feminists who served on the [Commission] … endorsed policies back on the front burner in 2021: paid maternity leave, affordable child care, income guarantees to lessen child poverty, and ending discrimination.” (Sound familiar?)

As the week unfolded, we also followed Georgia’s attempts to suppress Black voters, and reported on similar legislation proposed in at least 42 other states. There is a glimmer of hope, however, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, which estimates there are 704 bills aiming to expand voting access in 2021. In an article for Ms., Eliza Newlin Carney concludes,“At the state level, the outcome may be a patchwork of laws that make it much easier to participate in democracy in some states but much harder in others,” strengthening the argument for passing the kinds of federal voting rights protections in HR1 and HR4—both bills awaiting a vote in the Senate.

In a powerful and important new piece for Ms., former Homeland Security official Mary Giovagnoli explores the forces behind the swell in numbers of children and migrants seeking asylum at our southern border. Characterized as a “crisis” by right wing media and politicians seeking to exploit the humanitarian crisis for political gain, she explains that asylum seekers “in and of themselves are not a “crisis” for the U.S., nor is an increase in the flow of undocumented immigrants generally—as long as the resources are made available [by Congress] to humanely manage the flow of people.”

On Wednesday, we celebrated International Transgender Day of Visibility—not only honoring the strength and courage of transgender people globally, but also shedding light on the need for legal equality here in the U.S. The Do No Harm Act pending in Congress would “ensure that religious beliefs are no longer weaponized against others.” We also explore how trans people—specifically Black trans women—are at high risk of abuse and violence in our newest episode of On The Issues With Michele Goodwin, asking “How Do We Dismantle a Culture of Sexual Violence?”

Finally, we wrapped up Women’s History Month with an inspiring and heart-warming story about the feminists literally stitching the country back together: #CrochetKamala is a woven work of brilliantly colored yarn carrying the message that we are stronger if we come together. You must watch the video of this amazing art project, “I’m Speaking,” unveiled on International Women’s Day in Washington, D.C., and hear the stories of the crochet artists bringing it to life! Enjoy!

For equality,

Kathy Spillar
Executive Editor