Full-Page Ad Urges Biden to Help 2 Million Unemployed Women

More than 2 million women have left the U.S. workforce since the Covid-19 crisis began last spring—far outpacing their male counterparts—as they’ve faced the daunting, sometimes impossible juggling act of parenting kids, running households and maintaining jobs. It's not a pandemic-related setback—it’s a catastrophe. That’s the message of a full-page ad running today in The New York Times, signed by more than 50 entrepreneurs, advocates, senior business leaders and Hollywood celebrities. The group is asking President Joe Biden to make a financial investment to rebuild the female workforce, not unlike the U.S.’s Marshall Plan that rejuvenated a battered Europe after World War II. The proposed “Marshall Plan for Moms” aims to pay mothers a “basic income” for their everyday responsibilities—often unseen, uncredited and uncompensated—and address parental leave, affordable childcare and pay equity. Spearheaded by Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of the nonprofit Girls Who Code, the open letter to Biden calls mothers “the bedrock of society” and says, unapologetically, “We’re tired of working for free.” “This pandemic has absolutely decimated the careers of working moms across the country,” Saujani said in a statement. “This is not an isolated incident—it is a national crisis, and we can start to address it within the first 100 days of this administration.” The open letter to Biden sprang from an opinion column that Saujani published in December on The Hill's blog, calling for $2,400 monthly "means-tested" payments to moms (the number was based on expanded unemployment benefits). But Saujani told Adweek that the potential task force should decide the amounts and logistics of the checks. Among those signing the letter are actor-activists like Eva Longoria, Amy Schumer, Gabrielle Union and Alyssa Milano; executives such as WW International’s Mindy Grossman, Hello Sunshine’s Sarah Harden and Rent the Runway’s Jennifer Hyman; and organizers like Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs of the Women’s March, Tarana Burke of the Me Too movement, transgender advocate Geena Rocero and Alexis McGill Johnson of Planned Parenthood. “It’s time to put a dollar figure on our labor,” the ad said. “Motherhood isn’t a favor, and it’s not a luxury. It’s a job.” Recommendations include setting up a dedicated Marshall Plan-like task force, giving short-term monthly payments to mothers depending on needs and resources, and passing “long overdue” policies like paid family leave, affordable childcare and pay equity. “Sound crazy? It’s not,” according to the ad’s pull-no-punches language. While not blaming Biden, the letter asks the newly inaugurated president to step in immediately to start fixing the problem. “The first 100 days are an opportunity to define our values,” the letter said. “So let’s start by valuing moms.” The pandemic and subsequent lockdown have layered on more challenges to the disproportionate division of labor in many U.S. homes. Headlines in the Washington Post like "Coronavirus child-care crisis will set women back a generation" and CNN's "Working mothers are quitting to take care of their kids, and the US job market may never be the same" have described the phenomenon. Even women who remain employed "have been forced to cut back our hours or work around the clock to keep our jobs and be full-time caregivers," the ad said. Employment figures from 2020 paint an alarming picture for women in the American workforce, the letter’s authors said. The National Women’s Law Center pegged the female exodus at 2.2 million women during the public health crisis. The situation is particularly dire for Black women, with Saujani noting that 154,000 left the workforce entirely in December. “We need to put in place a plan for moms, and we need it now.”

Adapting to Crisis

Full-Page Ad Urges Biden to Embrace a Plan Bringing 2 Million Women Back to the Workforce

Girls Who Code rallied women in leadership to demand a 'Marshall Plan for Moms'

T.L. Stanley

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T.L. Stanley