Fed chair Jerome Powell has been relatively quiet about the latest round of proposed stimulus, edging back from his cheerleading a year ago when the coronavirus pandemic first started to sweep over the US. However, one instance Powell has not remained silent is the effect a dearth of childcare options has had on the workforce, especially female participation.
In a two-day testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Powell let it be known that improved federal child care programs would have a positive impact on women remaining in the workforce.
At this point, it goes without saying, almost, that the pandemic has had a deep and scarring impact on women, even giving us the undesirable title of “she-cession.” Women have been exiting the workforce in droves, which the Center For American Progress argued would be the result, largely, of diminished childcare. Indeed, women recovered fewer than half the 12.1 million jobs they lost in 2020.
While remaining tight-lipped about specific programs that are part of the $1.9 trillion stimulus proposal, Powell did directly comment on affordable childcare, noting that Congress’s failure to enact strong, or even any legislation aimed at improving access to affordable healthcare may have “put us behind” other advanced economies, further noting that “Our peers, our competitors, advanced economy democracies, have a more built-up function for child care, and they wind up having substantially higher labor force participation for women.”
It should be considered a national shame that the US lacks paid family or medical leave or even federally required vacation time, and doubly so as we watch women forced out of the workforce due to continued pay inequality and a lack of universal childcare.
