A recent report shows that more than 865,000 women dropped out of the workforce this fall. However, the news got nary a look from liberal feminists who often complain about the effects of one political party’s policies on women.
Those who did notice used the occasion to suggest that more government services are needed (read: universal free childcare, more stimulus, universal basic income, and a litany of the usual progressive, big-government remedies).
Yet, no one bothered to examine the real root of the problem: liberal leaders’ lockdowns from New York City to California had women running for the emergency exits of their careers.
Naturally, liberals don’t understand business owners in general so it’s understandable how they missed the mark. However, to misunderstand the plight of small businesses owners and working Americans altogether is to misunderstand women, given the significant role that women play in the workforce today.
Women own more than 11.6 million businesses in the United States and represent 39 percent of all privately-run businesses. In 2019 B.C. (“Before Covid”), those businesses employed nearly 9 million people according to American Express OPEN’s “The State of Women-Owned Businesses.”
However, liberals seem to have missed the correlation that with women well-integrated into the business world in the year 2020, a hit to any business is in fact a hit to women. With their anti-business lockdowns, liberal politicians from Mayor Bill De Blasio to Mayor Eric Garcetti, from Governor Andrew Cuomo to Governor Gavin Newsom, haven’t just delivered a blow to white-male-owned-establishments and pubs — they’ve delivered a knockout punch to the class of women they claim to protect.
Yelp reported that 800 businesses closed per day, from mid-March through September. With nearly half of businesses owned by women, women took a nearly equal hit. (Likely more have closed since September as restaurants and small businesses face additional lockdowns in blue areas.) Sadly, Yelp reported that of those that closed, more than 60 percent of the closures were permanent.
Liberals will never admit it but their lockdown policies have hurt minority women as well.
More than 5.4 million firms in the U.S. are majority-owned by women of color, according to the National Association of Women Business Owners. As of 2019, those firms employed 2.1 million people and as of last year, they generated $361 billion in annual revenue according to the American Express OPEN report.
As of August, two out of three (66 percent) of minority-owned businesses expressed concern about having to permanently close, according to a report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and MetLife. That was in the heat of summer, when UV rays were abundant; facing winter months and another round of lockdowns in urban areas and blue cities, that figure is likely to be even higher now.
Lastly, liberal lockdown policies don’t appear to take into account the impact of school closures on working women. There is a unique reason why the largest female departure front he workforce in American history took place in September. That’s when the school year began and so did school lockdowns.
Despite limited risks to young students and just a 0.2 percent COVID-19 infection rate for classroom teachers — lower than the infection rate for the parents actually dropping children off to said school — liberals are on-record supporting widespread school cancellations and favoring virtual learning. In places such as the Los Angeles Unified School District — the largest school district in the nation — children have been away from the classroom more than they’ve been in it in 2020. LAUSD closed school from mid-March through the end of the school year in late May, shuttered its summer operations, then refused to seat students for the start of the 2020-2021 school year beginning the week of August 17. That undoubtedly has had a devastating impact on working women.
Sadly, the damage has not yet fully registered. We are still in the midst of the pandemic, and a fresh round of lockdowns were just issued in blue cities and blue states. The figure of 865,000 women fleeing the workforce were from the last statistics available, as of September. There is another quarter of losses for 2020 yet to be registered, which will surely place the figure for the loss of women’s jobs likely at or over 1 million.
As we head into 2021, the news isn’t any less daunting for women — neither are the new policy proposals from Democratic Party leaders. Just a few days ago, Joe Biden announced that he will keep schools closed during his “First 100 Days” which will once again force parents to choose which parent works and which stays home.
The truth is, liberals’ lockdown policies are hurting women of all races, creeds, socioeconomic statuses and backgrounds. Liberal feminists should be screaming at the sky about this, yet they are covering for their men and — during the worst global pandemic in 100 years — serving as enablers of power-hungry misogynist misdeeds against all womankind.
Jennifer Kerns is host of the new nationally-syndicated show, “All-American Radio with Jennifer Kerns.” She has served as a GOP strategist; spokeswoman for the California Republican Party; strategist for the Colorado Recalls over the Second Amendment; and writer/researcher for the most-watched U.S. Presidential Debate of the 2016 election cycle for FOX News.
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