Time - USA (2020-11-02)

14 TIME November 2/November 9, 2020

TheBrief News

MORE THAN 12 MILLION AMERICANS ARE

unemployed, COVID-19 infections are spik-
ing, and thousands of schools and childcare
centers have yet to reopen in person. The
group bearing the brunt of all that? Women.
From August to September, 865,
women— compared with just 216,000 men—
dropped out of the U.S. labor force, according
to a National Women’s Law Center analysis
of the latest jobs report. Meanwhile, 1 in 4
women are considering downshifting their
careers or leaving the workforce altogether,
per an annual Women in the Workplace study
published in September by McKinsey & Co.
and the advocacy group Lean In. “There’s no
historic parallel for what’s happening here
for women,” says Nicole Mason, president
and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Policy
Research. “We have nothing to compare it
to: not to the 2008 recession or the Great
Depression.”
Some of those numbers can be attributed to
the types of jobs women often hold. Women-
dominated industries, including health care,
education, food service and hospitality, have
been among the hardest hit by the COVID- 19-
induced recession. When restaurants lost their
dine-in business, for example, they laid off
servers—70% of whom are women.
But layoff s and furloughs explain only
part of the picture. Many women are leaving

TECH

Distant dialing

Though you may not get good cell

service in your basement, you might

soon have bars in outer space, with

NASA tapping Nokia on Oct. 14 to build

a 4G network on the moon. Here, other

isolated spots with Internet access.

—Alejandro de la Garza

AQUATIC ACCESS

Researchers in Saudi Arabia

developed a wireless data

connection that works

underwater using lasers,

according to a June news

release. They have used

“Aqua-Fi” to send fi les and

make Skype calls.

COLD CALLING

French wireless-network

company Sigfox took a

cellular network for low-

powered devices to an

Antarctic research station

to help researchers keep

track of one another’s

locations in 2016.

STEEP SERVICE

A Nepal-based

telecommunications

company installed 3G cell-

phone antennae at Mount

Everest’s base camp in

2010, giving climbers

Internet access even at the

mountain’s summit.

the workforce not because their jobs have

vanished but because their support systems

have. With schools and childcare facilities

closed, the job of caring for and educating

kids has fallen disproportionately on women.

And, though the World Trade Organization

has found that the larger trend holds true

globally, with women more likely to feel the

economic disruption of COVID-19, the U.S.

is unique among industrialized nations in the

ways it has failed them. Unlike most other

industrialized nations, the U.S. doesn’t guar-

antee paid parental or sick leave through per-

manent and universal federal laws.

Women’s decisions to exit the labor force

won’t just impact their own professional

lives. A 19-year, 215- company study out of

Pepperdine University found a strong corre-

lation between companies promoting female

executives and their profi tability. In addition,

when fewer people are able to participate in

the labor force, gross domestic product de-

creases while the cost of labor increases. And

if more dual-income families with children

opt for one parent to stay home, discretionary

consumer spending will suff er too.

Nor will the fallout be purely economic.

The pandemic has unraveled years of advances

in creating more equal workplaces. In the six

years McKinsey and Lean In have conducted

their workplace study, men’s and women’s at-

trition rates had always moved in tandem—

until now. “To think that we may lose all the

hard- earned progress we’ve seen in the repre-

sentation of women in a single year,” says Ra-

chel Thomas, the CEO of Lean In, “it really has

us breathless.” —ABBY VESOULIS

GOOD QUESTION

Why are women

being driven out of

the U.S. workforce?

NEWS

TICKER

DOJ fi les

antitrust suit

against Google

The Justice

Department fi led

a lawsuit against

Google on Oct. 20

alleging that the

Internet giant violated

federal antitrust laws,

following a monthslong

investigation. Eleven

Republican state

attorneys general

joined the suit, and

other states said they

may join later.

Socialists win

back power

in Bolivia

The socialist party

of Evo Morales, the

Bolivian President

ousted in 2019 after

protesters accused

him of stealing a

fourth term, won the

country’s Oct. 18

presidential election.

Centrist candidate

Carlos Mesa conceded

after early results

showed Morales’

chosen successor, Luis

Arce, leading him by

over 20 points.

Court allows

Pa. ballot

extension

The U.S. Supreme

Court is allowing

Pennsylvania mail-in

ballots to be tallied if

they are received within

three days of Election

Day. Chief Justice John

Roberts sided with

liberal-leaning Justices

Oct. 19 in a 4-

decision that upheld a

lower-court ruling for

the critical swing state.

ILLUSTRATION BY BROWN BIRD DESIGN FOR TIME; PHONE: GETTY IMAGES; PATY: ABDESSLAM MIRDASS—HANS LUCAS/REUTERS