The proverbial bottom of American life being brought to light by the upending caused by COVID-19 is the reality that women’s labor is undervalued in and exploited by the capitalist system, and that the system grinds to a halt without women’s unpaid labor.
The question of who will participate in and who will be excluded from the future of work — in times of crisis and the rest — requires a thorough analysis.
The feminization of poverty is the phenomenon in which women experience poverty at rates that are disproportionately high in comparison to men. According to UN Women, as of 2015, a majority of the 1.5 billion people who live on $1 a day or less are women. Of all the people in the world living in poverty, 70 percent are women.