Opinion: SC women, on the front lines in COVID-19 fight, deserve support

Across South Carolina, women are on the front lines of the coronavirus response. In the workforce, they are caring for our sick, filling our prescriptions, taking care of children of front line workers, ringing up our groceries, delivering our packages, and cleaning our hospitals. At home, they are caring for sick family members, checking on elderly neighbors, and educating children who are out of school indefinitely. 

The economic and social infrastructure of our state depends on the paid and unpaid labor of women, now more than ever.

There are three specific reasons why women must be front and center as we respond and rebuild.

First, women are working in some of the highest-risk jobs in our state. More than two-thirds (69%) of the highest-risk jobs in South Carolina are held by women, according to statistics from O*NET and the Bureau of Labor and Statistics that were analyzed by colleagues at the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina.

Nurses, home health aides, child care workers, grocery store clerks, and coroners interact constantly with other people, putting them at great risk of acquiring the virus. In one of the highest-risk occupations -- health care support -- more than 90 percent of workers are women. These workers are caring for the ever-increasing number of sick people, in spite of the significant risks to their own health and welfare.

Second, many women in the highest-risk jobs have the least financial security. More than 70% of high-risk workers in our state earn below-average wages.

For example, the average annual wage of a home health aide or a child care worker in South Carolina is around $21,000. The women who are exposing themselves to risk every day are barely making enough money to get by, and they lack benefits and protections that many people in salaried jobs have, such as health insurance, paid sick leave, and retirement savings.

Our state has benefited from huge growth in the number of women-owned small businesses in recent years. Now, with the economy in free fall, day care centers, caterers, and many other small women-owned businesses are at enormous risk. 

Third, women’s work is essential to the economic security of households and the health of our economy. Before the pandemic hit, more than 66 percent of women with children ages 6 and under were working in South Carolina. With schools and most child care centers closed, many women are struggling to bring income into their households and to keep family members safe, healthy, and educated. If they lose their income, their kids will also suffer by losing access to food, housing, health care, transportation, and education. This will not only be a “right now” problem; it will have economic, educational, and health consequences for generations to come.

We must act now to put the needs of women, particularly economically vulnerable women and caregivers, at the center of the response to this public health crisis.

In the short term, we must ensure that workers in high-risk jobs are protected with essential equipment and have access to adequate paid leave to care for themselves and their families. We must increase access to affordable and quality child care, as well as grants and low-interest loans that will help small, women-owned businesses survive this crisis. We must increase access to social safety net programs to help people make ends meet.

As we come out of the emergency response phase and begin to rebuild, we must invest in rebuilding jobs that provide women with a family-sustaining wage that includes essential protections, such as paid leave, that allow them to balance paid work with caregiving.

The past few weeks have made it clear that our public health system and our early child care system are woefully inadequate. It is long past time for South Carolina to expand access to quality child care and health care, including reproductive health care, that will help women and families stay healthy, educated, and engaged in their communities. 

With remarkable strength and resilience, women are leading us through this crisis by working in dangerous front-line jobs, caring for our families, and serving our communities. Women across South Carolina have long had our backs. It’s time we show them we have theirs, too. 

Ann Warner is CEO of WREN, the Women's RIghts and Empowerment Network, a statewide nonprofit with the mission to "build a movement to advance the health, economic well-being, and rights of women, girls, and their families."