Abstract
Mindy Fried on policies to promote women’s economic security.
One thing I know is that, if we had a federal universal childcare policy in the United States, we could tackle the crisis of poverty among women across the age spectrum.
Thirty years ago, I brought my infant daughter to a meeting at the Massachusetts State House. My childcare arrangements had fallen through, so I had no choice. She snuggled against my chest as I walked from the subway up a steep hill to the meeting. In one arm, I lugged her diaper bag, with a few work papers and pen tossed inside; in the other, I held an empty bouncy chair. I felt like a parody of the woman who thinks she can do it all. But when I placed my daughter in the bouncy chair on top of the conference table, she was encircled by a group of legislators and activists. As we discussed a paid parental leave bill, my daughter reminded us what our work was about.
I worked for a progressive Massachusetts state senator who co-chaired the Joint Committee on Children, Family, and Elder Affairs. Among his priorities was legislation to create free, universal childcare for preschoolers. The governor rejected the bill, calling childcare a “Cadillac service, an unnecessary luxury.” Even then, this view was out of sync with on-the-ground reality, since most mothers with young children were working for pay.
I’m now in my 70s, with a career devoted to conducting research about and advocating for family policies across the life cycle. I’ve learned that parental leave, childcare, and flexible work are part of a broader suite of social and economic policies that support women workers throughout their lives. Women don’t just become poor when they’re old. The problem begins at earlier stages and builds cumulatively throughout lifetimes.
Built into the system is a series of inequities that affect women, disproportionately women of color. Through decades of systemic racism and discriminatory labor practices, White women earn less than White men, and women of color earn significantly less than either. Occupational segregation cements a differential wage structure and limits access to other benefits like employer-based health insurance and retirement plans. These factors lead to economic insecurity for millions of Americans.
The problem is most severe among older women of color. In 2019, their poverty rate was more than twice as that of White men. This leads to problems affording basic cost-of-living expenses like rent and food.
Later-life poverty also accrues through a “caregiving penalty.” Women are the primary caregivers for young children and for older adults, including spouses and parents. Providing unpaid caregiving labor results in women working fewer paid hours than men or leaving the workforce entirely. That reduces the amount they will later receive in Social Security benefits.
Social Security benefits, which most Americans aged 65 and older receive, have lifted millions of older adults out of poverty, including lower-wage earners who receive a larger share of past earnings than higher wage-earners (though, as The New York Times reports, “this is increasingly offset by the fact that they have fewer years to collect benefits” and “Social Security isn’t as redistributive as it used to be”). But given the gendered and racialized wage gap in this country, women of color depend more heavily on Social Security income than others. Social Security was never intended to be a primary income source.
We need broader policies that promote economic security across the life span, such as:
A comprehensive slate of work-family policies, including a national paid parental leave policy, flexible work policies, and a federal universal childcare policy. High-quality, affordable child-care not only supports children and families in real time, it can also increase an individual woman’s lifetime earnings by $94,000, savings by $20,000, and Social Security benefits by $10,000.
A strengthened Social Security system that protects the benefits we deserve and includes, in its calculations, the unpaid work of caregivers. Two bills to watch are the Social Security Expansion Act of 2021 and the Social Security Caregiver Tax Credit Act of 2021.
A federal minimum wage that helps close the gendered and racialized pay gap. Support the federal Raise the Wage Act of 2021, increase the number of states that mandate livable wages, and value female-dominated occupations by paying women wages that are comparable to those occupations dominated by men.
Today, in a new era of national policymaking, I urge U.S. readers to find out where your state and national politicians stand on these issues. Ask them to support this suite of family and economic policies, from paid parental leave to child care to social security. Our lives and livelihoods depend on it.