As the pandemic has uncovered the inequities in our economic system, we’re seeing how the most essential workers are the lowest paid and least valued.
Women, especially women of color, have been most severely affected by the pandemic. Our society values what we count, and much of our caring work remains invisible, uncounted and undervalued. Many Americans, mostly women, give up their careers, or lose them, to care for children, elderly relatives, and infirm or disabled loved ones. Others pursue caring careers despite the dead-end salaries and lack of respect.
Please take two actions now to help address these inequities:
STEP ONE
As the Biden/Harris Administration sorts out relief strategies and economic recovery measures, the “Marshall Plan for Moms”, is being advanced by the founder of Girls Who Code, Reshma Saujani. Saujani makes a compelling case for additional aid to mothers who have been the invisible ‘essential workers’ in homes throughout this pandemic and economic downturn. Please sign on to their letter to President Biden here.
STEP TWO
A new Resolution (H-Res 121) supports the Marshall Plan for Moms and has been introduced in the House of Representatives by Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-NY). The Resolution seeks support for working moms and calls for a $15/hour minimum wage for all. So far it has 25 co-sponsors and is being reviewed in several committees. Read the full Resolution here. Meng is seeking more co-sponsors in the House for her Resolution.
Please take a moment to email your own Representative in the House to ask him or her to support H-Res 121. Email, phone, or write a letter as soon as possible.
A sample letter below is easy to copy and paste into a document or email.
Thank you for your swift action on behalf of the essential caregivers who are holding together a damaged economy with little to no support.
The Women, Money & Democracy Committee of WILPF US
LETTER TEMPLATE
Just copy and paste into a word doc, then print and mail… or paste it into an email, or both. You can also use this text for talking points for phone calls.
Dear (House Member),
You know this well: Moms are the bedrock of society. And we’re tired of working for free.
Our nation is experiencing a dramatic tragedy with pandemic deaths still raging and with the financial burdens of job losses, home foreclosures, evictions and food shortages threatening the very survival of American families. Women, especially mothers, are bearing an unequal part of the burden to keep the economy going.
I’m writing to ask you to co-sponsor H-Res 121, recently proposed by Grace Meng (D-NY), to make the contributions of these invisible caring workers count. The Resolution supports the Marshall Plan for Moms plan, to aid essential workers who are also mothers. It also supports a minimum wage of $15 an hour to support our essential workers by paying them a living wage.
Like the original Marshall Plan of 1948, this plan would be a financial investment in rebuilding from the ground up. COVID has decimated so many women’s careers: Two million of us have left the workforce, at a rate four times that of men in September alone. Millions more have been forced to cut back our hours or work around the clock to keep our jobs and be full-time caregivers.
These are not isolated incidents; COVID 19 has revealed a stubborn national crisis. No one person created this problem, but we all have an opportunity to fix it, and we must if our economy is to recover. This resolution, H-Res 121, supports a meaningful way forward. Please co-sponsor it.
Your name
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