Joan Michelson, contributor for Forbes, writes: Thanks to the women of 2020; we couldn’t have made it without you!
Michelson is a career coach, public speaker, and podcast host.
“It’s women who got us through this catastrophic year of COVID-19 and its ensuing economic crisis, wildfires that leveled entire communities, devastating hurricanes and record high temperatures across the planet. As we celebrated Thanksgiving and bring 2020 to a close, here’s a toast of thanks to the women of 2020. We couldn’t have made it without you. Literally.
“The nurses taking care of us at tremendous personal risk are 86% women, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Women are 78% of health-care and social assistance workers, and 83.7% of nursing home workers. Dr. Deborah Birx of the Donald Trump administration’s COVID Task Force drummed the message of social distancing, wearing a mask, and washing our hands incessantly, whenever she could, putting her own life at risk by going across the country to push the message directly to the people in person.
“Women have been putting their own lives at risk by continuing to work in our grocery stores, making sure we can get food and supplies we need to manage this crisis. Yet, she persists.
“Moms, sisters, daughters, and friends were hit hardest economically by this economic crisis, dubbed a “She-cession” because they lost their retail jobs due to the COVID shutdown, yet they found a way to keep us afloat. Women are 71% of restaurant servers, 73.2% of clothing store staff members, 71.9% of personal care and laundry services staffs, all decimated by the pandemic.
“As schools shut down from coast to coast, teachers, 75.8% women, found inventive ways to teach virtually, keep their students engaged, battle the technological hurdles and stay connected with their students. Sometimes they drove past their students’ homes just to connect, cheer them up, or check on them. Stephanie Hume, a fifth grade teacher in Sachse, Texas, took it to an entirely new level by continuing to teach from her hospital bed after hernia surgery.
“Working moms did whatever they needed to do to home-school their kids on the fly with no preparation. These women rescued the next generation of the workforce, learning themselves along the way, and finding ways to cope with the added stress.
“These women sacrificed their own careers at four times the rate of men in 2020, too, which reflects the urgent needs both for a resolution to the crisis so kids can go back to school and the need for men to step up much more.
“By early October 2020, four times as many women had dropped out of the workforce as men, 865,000 the Labor Department reported, to take care of their kids amidst the intense pressures of home-schooling and child care with schools and facilities closed due to the pandemic. And, the year is not over yet.
“Here’s a stark statistic: In January 2020, “women held just over half of all payroll jobs, for only the second time in history, (but)…women now account for 49.7% of the workforce,” which NPR put it, based on BLS data in October.
“Yet, she persists.
“Women voters and candidates came out in droves.
“It seems fitting that in the centennial of women getting the right to vote that women voters seized the day and voted in record numbers. A record number of women candidates ran in 2020 for the House and Senate, 583, according to the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University, and vice president-elect Kamala Harris, broke the second-highest glass ceiling in the U.S.,” Michelson wrote.