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1/6/2021

Concurrent English 1010

Research Journal Entries

How has Covid-19 affected the progress of the Women's Workforce in the United States?

Bateman, N., & Ross, M.Why has COVID-19 been especially harmful for working

women? ​Brookings.edu​ (2020, October). Retrieved January 6, 2021

Summary: Nicole Bateman and Martha Ross, scholars from the Brookings Institution of public

Policy, write of the severe impacts the Covid-19 pandemic have had on the women’s workforce

of the United States. Bateman and Ross explain the evidence showing the rates of women’s

unemployment increasing substantially more than men over the course of the pandemic; an

increase of more than 12 percentage points for women compared to an increase of less than 10

percentage points for men. Working women have shown to take on more of the necessary

childcare responsibilities throughout the pandemic, says Bateman and Ross, and are more

frequently than men interrupting their own working hours and responsibilities in response to the

needs of their children. Between February and August, mothers of 12 years old and younger

children lost 2.2 millions jobs compared to the 870,000 jobs lost by fathers according to Bateman

and Ross. Bateman and Ross conclude that the solution is to diminish the overreliance on an

unstable childcare system and focus on the support of low wage jobs that many women in the US

fill.
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Source Analysis: This article, written by two seemingly well-informed, thoughtful, and educated

women, offers some good points about the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on women to the

varied audience of Brookings Institute. The article offers multiple reasons and viewpoints to the

issue and leaves the reader thinking about women of all circumstances by the end. Not only does

the article provide information about the position women face mid-crisis, but the article also

provides very helpful information about the employment of women previous to the Pandemics

disruption, which makes it easier to understand the impacts of the pandemic

Source Reflection: While reviewing the article, I was hesitant to fully accept the information

provided because of the way it was provided. While most statistics seemed completely reliable

and accurate, there were some places where I was thrown off by the lack of citations of reliable

sources. While the authors mentioned a recent survey done regarding the unemployment rates of

men and women in the US, they do not provide information about who produces this survey and

therefore how reliable the survey was.

Karageorge, E. X. COVID-19 recession is tougher on women [Editorial]. (2020,

September).​Bls.gov.​ Retrieved January 6, 2021

Eleni Karageorge​, an author from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, argues that the reason

women have been more negatively impacted by the Coronavirus Pandemic is because a majority

of working women occupy jobs in the industry sector which has been more severely impacted.

Karageorge​ suggests that jobs in government and health and education services, which 40% of

all working women occupy compared to only 20% of working men, are the occupations more

affected by the pandemic and recession. Similarly, the occupations occupied by a majority of the
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women’s workforce, says Karageorge, are the occupations that don’t allow the possibility to

telecommute. Enabling flexible working arrangements and enforcing child care obligations from

both genders will help soften the long lasting impacts of the pandemic, concludes Karageorge.

Source Analysis: This article's perspective was very insightful and informative. Because of the

source’s widely known reliability, I believe the large variety of readers will be impacted by its

valuable and relevant information. Karageorge’s inclusion of instances when working men have

been primarily impacted by world and nationwide events was a good addition in perspectives to

the article.

Source Reflection: The source allowed me to think more openly about this issue. While reading

articles on this subject in the past, I have had a sole focus on the effect of the viruon women and

the constant injustices women face. Karagorge’s inclusion of instances when working men have

been hit the hardest opened my eyes to a more open minded approach to these kinds of issues.

Because of the reliability of the website, I had complete trust in the information that was

provided.

Vesoulis, A. 'If We Had a Panic Button, We’d be Hitting it.' Women Are Exiting the Labor

Force En Masse—And That's Bad For Everyone. (2020, October 17).​Time.com.​ Retrieved

January 6, 2021

Summary: Abby Vesoulis, a reporter from ​Time ​magazine, explains the stresses of

unemployment, lack of childcare opportunities, and the loss of progress in gender equality

caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the Mckinsley and Lean In Report, two times as
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many mothers communicated stress about their job performance because of the additional

struggles of at-home responsibilities and only 44% of women claimed to be sharing these

responsibilities equally with their partners, says Vesoulis. Voesoulis concludes with a profession

of potential disappointment if this pandemic ends with a digression of hard-earned progress in

gender equality and opportunity.

Source Analysis: Because of the Pandemic’s worldwide effects on almost every person in the

United States, and because of the influence of ​Time​ magazine on the United States, this article

will be relevant to anyone who reads it. Vesoulis clearly portrays her support of women’s equaily

and the movement against sex discrimination and injustce. Although not all of her readers may

side with her opinions about the impacts of the pandemic on working women, she has clearly

outlined her stance.

Source Reflection: I was able to take this article seriously because of its appearance in ​Time

magazine. I believe ​Time​ magazine is an extremely reliable source with many open-minded and

insightful perspectives which made it easy to review the article with trust in its information. The

way Vesoulis sourced the information she presented definitely added to the impact her views had

on me as a reader. After reading many articles on this subject previous to reading this specific

one, my views on this topic have not changed, they have only been reinforced by the reliability

of this article.

Kashen, J., Glynn, S. J., & Novello, A. How COVID-19 Sent Women’s Workforce

Progress Backward [Editorial]. (2020, October 30). ​Americanprogress.org​. Retrieved

January 6, 2021
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Summary: ​Julie Kashen, ​Sarah Jane Glynn​, and Amanda Novello, authors for the Center of

American Progress, address the long-term effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on women and

families. According to Kashen, Glynn, and Novello, a 5% decrease of participation in the

women’s work force would result in an undoing of the last 25 years of progress for women’s

equality on that front. It is shown that women have fewer alternative sources of income after

retirement, says Kashen, Glynn, and Novello, which makes the forced time away from work

even more impactful when many women turn to social security retirement and disability benefits:

two systems based on lifetime earnings. Building a long-term system of stable child care

infrastructure is one way to keep this from preventing women from facing this issue again in the

future, claims Kashen, Glynn, and Novello.

Source Analysis: Like all of the other articles I’ve read on this topic, this article seems to focus

the attention of anyone who is interested and thinks that the Coronavirus is relevant to them. I

feel that Kashen, Glynn, and Novello could’ve provided the reader with more of an introduction

and background knowledge before sharing strong opinions right off the bat. I think this would

contribute to the article's reliability and effectiveness. The organization that this article represents

seems to be a reliable source of information which contributes to the article's effectiveness as

well.

Source Reflection: Although I feel that the authors’ perspectives and viewpoints are insightful

and well-thought out, I believe the way in which they presented their data and opinions could

have been effectively expressed. The main reason I was able to fully trust the information in the
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article was based on the website's reliability, not necessarily because of the way they gained my

trust as a reader.