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In
celebrating Women’s History Month, we find American women are
facing a major crisis as we recognize them for past and current
contributions in every sphere of American life. This is proving to be
a perilous time for U.S. womanhood.
The
coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact on our nation -
killing over 500,000 citizens, but it is disproportionately tearing
through communities of color via infections and deaths. Even while
the Biden administration is distributing vaccinations for this lethal
disease, ethnic women of color are enduring the brunt of this
negative pandemic fallout.
African
American, Latinx, Native American/Indigenous, and Asian American and
Pacific Islander (AAPI) females are carrying their communities’
burden of infections, sickness, death, job loss, and parenting
responsibilities. Approximately two-thirds of Black women, nearly 50
percent of Latinas, and a similar percentage of Native American women
serve as the head of a single-parent household, and most live in
poverty.
More
affluent women of color have the responsibility of assisting their
less well-off immediate family members and parents who are also
struggling mightily in the course of the coronavirus crisis. Many
have donated their earlier COVID relief checks to buck up their
family members’ finances. Despite setting aside money for a
rainy day, the length of the pandemic has put them in a financial
hole.
At
the same time, AAPI females and males are increasingly routine
victims of hate crimes as some (Whites primarily) blame them for the
origin and spread of COVID-19. During the past year, their White
counterparts have joined these aforementioned women in the
unemployment lines as more than two million women have exited the
labor force since February 2020.
The
most recent joblessness data show that the unemployment rate is
nearly 10 percent for Black women and Latinas while hovering around
five percent for White females. They have had to draw down their
emergency funds, borrow from their 401Ks, or take their children and
move in with parents, siblings, or friends in an effort to ride out
the virus.
Their
unemployment assistance is near its end, and that is why the recent
passage of President Biden’s COVID relief bill is heavily
anticipated as a means for them to get their lives back on track.
Black and Hispanic women who already lagged behind their White female
colleagues in median earnings fear that they may never catch up.
In
addition, many have school-age children and need to support their
education primarily composed of remote learning while juggling their
employment and their children’s schooling. And when they asked
for time off, to which they are legally entitled via the Family and
Medical Leave Act (FMLA), upon their return to work, many lose their
jobs.
Since
those terminations, coupled with the economic downturn they continue
to suffer, they
have tried to maintain their resilience by focusing on their
children’s education.
They have become more involved in making certain that the schools
will have safe and healthy environments when their offspring return
to in-person instruction.
To
do so, many low-income parents have allied themselves with teachers,
especially in low-income districts, as they demand vaccinations,
classroom spacing, personal protective equipment, disinfectants, and
improved ventilation systems in buildings and classrooms that were
already severely lacking in these areas.
Although
parents of color, overall, prefer in-person instruction for their
children, they recognize from previous experience that poverty-ridden
schools are not adequately prepared to educate their children during
this pandemic. Their middle-class and wealthy colleagues are pushing
for school re-openings at any cost because their public schools are
in much better shape.
The
lower-income school districts are figuring out ways to get meals to
children eligible for free and reduced-price breakfasts and lunches -
and their parents - as the epidemic has worsened. And President Biden
has put the weight of his office behind the effort to make teachers a
higher priority for vaccinations. Women of color of all income levels
are supportive of this initiative. They remain the bedrock of their
communities.
Women
of color are surviving COVID-19 as they have the numerous challenges
they have faced throughout their existence in America. Moreover, they
have been at the forefront of ethnic progress for their respective
communities notwithstanding the lack of credit they have received for
their leadership. Communities of color have depended on their
courage, tenacity, and assertiveness for generations.
They
will prevail over the coronavirus pandemic as they have over all
other barriers they have faced.
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