As the past year has reminded us, Mother’s Day is much more than a greeting card or a brunch or flowers. Often, the greatest gifts we can offer are simply time and attention.
Such giving has been difficult in the age of COVID-19. The pandemic has limited family gatherings and human contact, resulting in isolation for many.
As Mother’s Day arrives today, rekindling a tradition that dates to 1907, we are particularly grateful for vaccines that have led to a slight reopening of society. Many families will celebrate Mom today in person, after relying on virtual gatherings a year ago when coronavirus was still relatively new.
We also remember the mothers who have been lost to the disease. In Washington, more than 5,500 deaths have been attributed to COVID-19, and 83 percent of them have been people 65 and older.
The past year has brought a new appreciation for family and human interaction. It also has brought a new appreciation for mothers and the intricate role they play in our lives — a role that has been upended by the virus.
Mothers long have played the role of nurse, counselor, chef, accountant, chauffeur and family manager — and that is not counting jobs outside the home. During the pandemic, they also have been teachers, helping to guide students through the land mines of remote learning.
That deluge of duties has led many women to leave the workforce. The National Women’s Law Center estimates that female workforce participation has dropped to 57 percent — the lowest percentage since 1988. As of February, 400,000 more women than men had left the workforce since the onset of the pandemic, and various studies suggest it will take women longer to regain pre-COVID levels of employment and salary.
As Fortune magazine writes: “While stressors aren’t limited to parents, a massive increase in caregiving responsibilities at home and at work may jeopardize women’s ability to stay in the workforce and progress.”
The pandemic has made the life/work balance more difficult, limiting options for many women and shrinking the labor pool for employers.
“American moms need U.S. society to value caregiving,” Caitlyn Collins, a professor of sociology at Washington University in St. Louis, told USA Today. “U.S. society devalues caregiving because we associate it with femininity — this thing that emanates naturally from mothers. And so it’s not a skill, it’s not something that requires support because it’s just something moms do. Until we think of caregiving as something that men also do … I don’t think we’re going to see well-being equalized for women.”
Men increasingly play a role in caregiving, but women are more likely to give up work when the balance becomes untenable. And a robust economic recovery from the pandemic will require policies that make it easier for women to rejoin the workforce.
For example, the United States is the only country in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development not to offer paid leave on a national basis. The U.S. also ranks near the bottom for spending on early childhood education and care, and President Joe Biden has proposed vast increases to that spending.
Such progress would be an appropriate way to honor mothers and strengthen the foundation of our society. But for today, we are simply happy for a reminder of all that moms do and an opportunity to celebrate them.
For many, the chance to do that in person will be the best gift of all.
