During the coronavirus pandemic, more thanĀ 38 million Americans have filed for unemployment insuranceĀ — and for the first time in history, the nation’s unemployment claims have a largely female, non-white face to them.
While the two previous biggest economic crises in U.S. history — the Great Depression and the 2008 financial crisis — affected men’s jobs more than women’s, the coronavirus pandemic is disproportionately impacting women in the workforce, data shows.
The bleak job numbers for women and the economic uncertainty women now face have put the American economy in a “shecession,” according toĀ C. Nicole Mason, president and chief executive of theĀ Institute for Womenās Policy Research, a women-focused think tank.
“The way we think about work and womenās earnings is this idea of a 1950s āMad Menā era where men are the primary breadwinners and women are stay-at-home, and any income they earn doesnāt really matter,” Mason told “Good Morning America.” “Thatās just not the case and it hasnāt been our reality for a long time, so when women lose jobs, it not only impacts families, it impacts the economy as well.”