We’re headed into the last week of June, and New York State appears to be one of only a handful of states that has able to bring its coronavirus problem under control, while the South and West, both places that caved to popular and business pressure to reopen, are now realizing that it was a premature decision. However, despite the fact that there is some cause for cautious pride in the tri-state area, the pandemic has and will continue to cause major turmoil, which is going to affect New Yorkers for a long time. And, as we harp on, it will affect parents, workers, and low-income people much more significantly than others. This week we’re looking at how women’s job losses are bad for the hops of a wider economic recovery, New York’s plans for phase three of reopening, and the trend to home birth trends, which we will also be discussing at greater length in a multi-post blog about coronavirus’s effects on pregnancy, abortion, and childbirth, specifically for low-income black women and women of color.
Women’s Employment Under Threat as States Reopen
As we have written about in previous roundups and elsewhere, women have experienced greater job loss than men, due to their presence in industries such as hospitality and domestic work, which were hit particularly hard by lockdowns. Moreover, women have been doubly punished as childcare burdens have shifted from school and daycare facilities to them, with women who work from home describing more than 20 additional hours of work a week in addition to their jobs. Now, as states continue to barrel toward reopening, women may be left behind, as Sarah Chaney reports in the Wall Street Journal. For one thing, many industries that were hard hit and employed many women have been weakened permanently resulting in permanent job loss. Additionally, with childcare and school systems still in limbo, many women will be forced to remain out of the workforce. This is true even in instances where both parents can easily work from home, and researchers are already noting household earning disparities in such homes.
Homebirth Should Not Be Presented as a White Luxury
Since the pandemic started, demand for home birth services, such as midwives and doulas has jumped sharply. And, according to Becca Andrews writing at Mother Jones, the media has portrayed the rise in home birthing as primarily as white luxury, rather than an important, often essential service for poor black and brown women, who experience grave disparities in health care provision both in general and specifically for pregnant women. For example, researchers have found that mortality rates for black women giving birth are three times higher than for whites, even if they give birth in a hospital. Andrews does report that there remains real risk in home births, such as increased infant mortality, but argues that it is important for practitioners, as well as reporters, to present patients, especially those who have been so negatively affected by the healthcare industry, with all their options. We will be discussing this in much more detail in a separate blog post in the coming days.
New York State Issues Guidance for Phase Three
And lastly, New York has issued guidance for businesses set to open under phase three of the state’s reopening plans. While New York City must wait until July, many regions of the state have been given the go-ahead for Phase Three, which includes rules for the food service industry and personal care. The guidance for both industries includes a list of mandatory policies that businesses must have in place as well as recommended best practices to reduce the spread of coronavirus. As summer heats up and more people begin to travel the state will be watching closely. The governors of the Tri-State region have already put into place self-quarantine requirements for people traveling from states where cases exceed 10 people in 100,000 in the hope of preventing the state from going backward or halting progress, which several states, including North Carolina and Texas have been forced to do in recent days.
