“I believe that we’re experiencing a national reckoning and in this unique moment, I definitely see an opportunity for Congress, but also for our local governments to enact policies that begin to address our country’s greatest ills,” said Representative Alma Adams (D-NC-12) at a recent Wilson Center event on women, race, and COVID-19 in the United States. “COVID-19 has revealed what the Black community and communities of color have known for a long time—health outcomes are further compounded by systemic and structural racism. COVID-19 has exposed what women have known for a long time—gender inequality exists, it threatens economic empowerment, and it increases vulnerabilities.” 

“The pandemic has shown us in the starkest terms how wide the gaps are in health outcomes between Black and White America and between men and women,” said Rep. Adams. Black women, regardless of their educational level or socioeconomic status, are nearly four times more likely to die from preventable pregnancy-related complications than women of other races. “The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among affluent countries because of the disproportionate death rate of Black mothers,” she said. “Black maternal health in the coronavirus era is truly a crisis within a crisis.” 

“The pandemic has completely wiped out the historic job gains women have made over the past decade,” said Rep. Adams. Before COVID-19, women made up the majority of the U.S. workforce. They are highly represented in the sectors most impacted by the pandemic. Women are the majority of essential workers, and non-white women are more likely to be doing essential jobs than anybody else, said Rep. Adams. “The work that they do has often been underpaid, undervalued, and an unseen labor force that keeps the country running.”

While there has been a positive reduction in women’s unemployment since the pandemic’s onset, most of those impacted are mothers. 41 percent of mothers, and close to 80 percent of Black mothers are the breadwinners for their families, yet continue to face wage inequality. “They’re doing the providing, yet they’re not getting the income,” she said. “We deserve equal pay for equal work. You know working hard is not enough if you don’t make enough.”

“We are finding that from the offset of the COVID-19 pandemic there has been an increase in gender-based violence around the world. For every three months of lockdown, there will be an additional 15 million cases of gender-based violence,” said Sarah Barnes, Project Director of the Maternal Health Initiative and Women and Gender Advisor at the Wilson Center.

“As a survivor myself of domestic violence, I know firsthand how important it is that we keep working to pass and strengthen legislation to improve services for survivors like the Violence Against Women Act,” said Rep. Adams. “I see a tremendous opportunity for Congress and our society, as well, to pursue transformational structural change because the system isn’t working for so many people, especially women and minorities, and it really is time to try to do something else.”