As a woman who studies economics, this article by Hakyung Kim entitled Paying more and earning less: How inflation disproportionately hurts women caught my attention. Personally, I feel as though there aren't a lot of articles in the media that focus on the issue of women in the economy and how we are affected differently by economic hardship than men are.
In the article, Kim says that this issue mainly stems from the rising cost of childcare. As it is pretty much universally known, women tend to take the brunt of healthcare costs compared to men. This, combined with the rising costs of childcare and with wage growth currently being stagnant, has led many women to either have to reduce consumption in other facets of their personal consumption or to have to leave the workforce altogether to have childcare.
With inflation still steadily rising, there is no relief in sight for women, especially single mothers. Kim suggests that there is a solution to this issue. This could be done in the form of a bill that would set a price ceiling on the cost of childcare. This would provide relief to the women currently struggling to afford childcare due to inflation.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/31/paying-more-and-earning-less-how-inflation-disproportionately-hurts-women.html
3 comments:
I completely agree that there are not enough articles on the economic struggle of women in particular. I, however, do not know that a price ceiling is the ultimate solution to such an issue. I think the issue it is much deeper than that. The wage gap and the way in which our society allows women to take most of the brunt of child care are much more concerning and complicated than a price ceiling would be able to fix. The fact that wages are currently stagnant is also only going to further the issue. I would suggest instead that similarly to the government of Sweden, the United States focuses more on the impact that child rearing can have on the society as a whole, and therefore incentivize parents independent of gender to stay home with their children or to be able to afford childcare through which the government could either cover child care in a typical daycare, setting or provide stimulus packages for those who stay home with their children.
I agree that there should be more coverage of women in the economy! I thought that this was really interesting in thinking about how women are often not compensated equally as men, so therefore they are losing out on more money than men when it comes to large costs of inflation. We can also consider the "pink tax", which talks about the absurd prices that are often associated with feminine products such as tampons, birth control, or other feminine care. Women often have to deal with more economic costs, just to afford the necessary items, let alone in addition to inflation rates rising over time.
Such a unique article Kaylee! The ties into rising cost of childcare are super interesting. This is something I am obviously aware of, but the facts and support you outlined are so interesting.
Post a Comment