With schools open now, mothers and parents feel the burden of working jobs/retail jobs as their children taking part in remote learning require a lot of attention. It is not easy for children to understand how the internet works and how to get into their remote classes, so parents have to choose between that and their job hours, making it a serious dilemma. Looking at some examples, Mrs. Reveles (49) is a single mother and relied on her mother to help and assist with some of her (Ms. Reveles) daughter's needs. Her daughter is nine and needed help as her iPad froze during remote learning, and no one could help her other than her own mother as her grandmother isn't comfortable with technology. Ms. Reveles asked her employer CVS to see if they could lessen her work hours a little so that she could tend to her kid. In response, CVS said that they would work on accommodating her, but nothing was confirmed.
Her and many other parents, especially women, have faced such issues as statistics show that women were three times more likely to leave work due to child-care & pandemic issues. The retail sector is one where hours are not flexible, and thus women working here are torn between parenting and work. The pandemic has affected women's employment massively, and to top, the FED has not offered much child-care relief to parents who work. The FED keeps working towards unemployment benefits, but companies are barely taking any stance towards helping parents who need to help children with online school. Some companies like Amazon have offered subsidized child care, which isn't that helpful as women especially have left their positions. Women working in other companies are also contemplating to leave their jobs. The major problem here is that some of these women are the sole financial support of their households, and thus it is hard for them to make ends meet and keep their children's education up to the mark. Overall, this is just one of the many problems this pandemic has brought forth, and we don't know what the future holds for us as COVID cases are still on the rise worldwide.
5 comments:
This seems like a relevant issue that has not been explored as much as it should. It will be interesting to see how firms respond by offering their own child care services or paying for employees' private child care expenses. Additionally, it is possible that the government could issue relief through fiscal policy by subsidizing the cost of private child care. I think it is unlikely that this will occur, as this is not an issue most people think of as one of the most important problems to combat during the pandemic. No doubt this is an important issue, but I wonder whether private companies, much less the government or Federal Reserve, will offer much help in combating this problem.
It is very interesting to see how this pandemic has revealed many of the issues that exist withing our societies. Women's participation in the labor force is generally lower due to maternity and child care so in a pandemic of course that is even more affected. Unfortunately, with the other problems that the government is trying to tackle most likely this issue won't be at the forefront of congressional discussions or other. Firms and companies however, should try their best to accomodate and find solutions for their employees who are struggling with this problem.
If I had to guess leniency and support will come on a case by case basis going forward. Many employers will be more accommodating while others may give a cold shoulder to the issue. This issue not only hurts families financially, pushing mothers to the limits with their time, but also could severely hinder children's abilities to learn. I want to be an optimist and say the government and firms will tackle this issue proactively, though if I had to guess this may be a back burner issue for most.
What leaves me astonished is that our society deems having children as a personal choice rather than a societal obligation. Without women having children, there would not be another generation. I think there needs to be some sort of federal policy/aid/help put in place not only during this pandemic (although it is needed now more than ever) but for the future as well. It is extremely unfair to place pressures on women to have children and take care of them yet not have any sort of aid/help when hard times come around like this pandemic. Yes, I know there are many people that abuse the welfare system, but people need help now more than ever. We should help bring up children as a society to create a better future, almost like an investment if you want to think about it in business terms.
I definitely agree with Maia that having children during this pandemic is putting way more pressure on mothers than is necessary. If parents aren’t assisting with their children’s education then who is going to teach them? It will be interesting when state testing scores come out to see the progress, if any, that students are making with the virtual environment and how that can affect their futures. Women are losing their places in the job market and some might never return.
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