The state of women in 2021, in 12 numbers

Your definitive guide to women, politics and power.

Dec 17, 2021 View in browser   By Katelyn Fossett POLITICO illustration/Photos by iStock Happy Friday, rulers! This is the last newsletter before we go on hiatus for a couple of weeks for the holidays. I'm sad we won't get to chat for the next couple of weeks, but I'm also so glad I'll have just a bit more time to finish my Christmas shopping and see my family. Send me your gift ideas. I have a sister who is particularly hard to shop for … Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in late 2019 and early 2020, we've all been in thrall to numbers: positive tests, occupied ICU beds and the bleakest count of all — deaths from the coronavirus, which passed 800,000 in the U.S. this week. Numbers have been important for understanding the state of women over the past couple of years in particular, as the pandemic upended family life, shuttered daycare centers and pushed millions of women out of the workforce. Those who pay special attention to women and gender have kept their eyes on the monthly jobs numbers, and other knock-on effects of the pandemic: the plummeting birth rate and rising suicide attempts among adolescent girls, to name just a couple. I've put together some of the most striking numbers from the past year, which give a glimpse into how the lives of women have changed in the Covid era. They're not all Covid-related; figures on sexual harassment, abortion politics and steady gains in political representation were worth noting, too. Together, they amount to a picture of slow recovery from some of the losses women suffered last year, some indications that other setbacks might be on their way and a few reasons to hope for more progress in 2022. 2.4 million: The number of women who dropped out of the workforce between February 2020 and February 2021. In February this year, 55.9 percent of women were in the labor force, compared with 57.9 percent a year earlier. Still, that was up from 54.4 percent in April 2020. 10 percent: There were 10 percent fewer employed Black women in March 2021 than there were a year earlier. 60 percent: The portion of regained jobs that went to women in March. 1 in 7: Childcare jobs that were still missing in April. $800 billion: How much women lost globally in income, mostly due to lost jobs, in 2020, according to an April report by Oxfam. 28: The number of abortion restrictions that were passed in state legislatures during a four-day span in late April. 3,605,201: The number of American babies that were born in 2020, according to U.S. government numbers released in May. That was the lowest such number since 1979 and a 4 percent drop from 2019. 15: The number of federal judge nominees picked by President Joe Biden that were women, out of 19, by June. Eleven of those were from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. By comparison, according to a November 2017 analysis, 91 percent of Trump's judicial nominees were white, and 81 percent were male. 11: The number of women that former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo had sexually harassed, according to a report by Attorney General Letitia James that was released in August. 59.5 percent: The proportion of college students at the end of the 2020-2021 school year that were women, according to data released in September. Men made up 40.5 percent. 4: The number of weeks of paid family and medical leave reintroduced to the social spending bill in November. The legislation is currently awaiting a vote in the Senate. Biden had initially proposed 12 weeks. 51 percent: The amount by which suicide attempts rose for adolescent girls in the beginning of 2021, compared to those in 2019, according to a report by Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released in December. The figure was 4 percent for boys.   Sponsored by Business Leader members of Women Rule: The Exchange: What will it take to build a new, more equitable workplace? POLITICO Focus connected with members of Women Rule: The Exchange to get their perspectives on some of the critical topics — diversity and inclusion, equal pay, mental health and family-friendly policies — that are driving this debate and will make or break the future of work for women. Read More   MARK YOUR CALENDARS -- The Council on Competitiveness will be hosting its National Competitiveness Forum tomorrow, December 16 from 1-4pm EST. The theme is "Future Focused." More than 20 global leaders — including Secretaries Jennifer Granholm and Gina Raimondo, Senator Klobuchar, CEO of Bank of America Brian Moynihan, Chair of the Board of Deloitte Janet Foutty — will share ideas for policymakers and industry leaders to increase U.S. competitiveness. The forum is free for attendees. Register here. POLITICO Special Report AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin "FDA loosens rules for distributing abortion pills, opening new battle fronts," by POLITICO's Alice Miranda Ollstein: "The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday said it's lifting longstanding restrictions on abortion pills, clearing the way for doctors to prescribe the drugs online and have them mailed to patients or sent to local pharmacies. "Enforcement of the agency's decades-old rules requiring the pills to be physically handed out by a physician was suspended earlier this year following a lawsuit from the ACLU arguing that the risks of traveling to a doctor's office during the Covid-19 pandemic outweighed any potential harms from having the drugs delivered. Now, the agency says it will move to make the looser distribution rules permanent. … "The FDA's move is set to open a new front in the ongoing battle over abortion rights, with activists and lawmakers on the right pushing national and state restrictions on the pills while their counterparts on the left work to get information out about where people can obtain the drugs no matter where they live or what bans are enacted. "'Does Kamala Harris Have Some Challenges Right Now? You Bet She Does.' Here's the Fix," by POLITICO Magazine: "Vice President Kamala Harris is a pioneer, a political celebrity and — as a media-savvy Gen Xer — a natural successor to the oldest president ever elected. She's also in trouble. "Harris' approval numbers have been in steady decline since Inauguration; she has a lower net favorability rating than any of the last four vice presidents. Reports have painted her office as dysfunctional, and several top staff members have left in recent weeks. "It's not all her fault — her boss' numbers are slipping too, and she's been handed a portfolio of friction-filled policy issues like immigration and voting rights. She's also taken heat from the media in ways that her defenders say is unique to the country's first female, Black and South Asian vice president. "So … looking ahead to 2024, or 2028, what would it take for Harris to turn things around? Could she follow Biden's trail to the Oval Office, or is she stuck in Dan Quayle and Al Gore territory? POLITICO Magazine reached out to a group of seasoned political strategists — operatives who've guided Bill Clinton, John McCain, Barack Obama and others through the rocky shoals of politics — and asked: What can the vice president do to get her star back?" – A few of the ideas for the VP: Become a subject-matter expert in the White House, take on one big transformational project and "allow the Kamala Harris the public fell in love with to break free." Number of the Week Read more here. MUST READS DOD Photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Carlos M. Vazquez II "'I Always Think of Poetry as Home for Me,'" by Clint Smith in the Atlantic: "Last year, like millions of others, I watched [Amanda] Gorman step behind a lectern on the steps of the U.S. Capitol — where just months before a violent mob of insurrectionists had attempted to overturn the results of the presidential election — and deliver an inaugural poem that transfixed the world and transformed her life. "She has since published her inaugural poem, 'The Hill We Climb,' as well as a children's book, Change Sings, both of which were instant No. 1 New York Times best sellers. She has been on the cover of Vogue, Variety, and Time. She has read a poem for the Super Bowl. She has Oprah's phone number. In her new book, Call Us What We Carry , her first full-length poetry collection, Gorman grapples with how the coronavirus pandemic has reshaped our lives and further exacerbated America's already deep inequality, how the racial reckoning of the past year is in conversation with history that preceded it, and what it means to live in a world where the climate crisis hangs like a dark cloud over everything we do.   Sponsored by Business Leader members of Women Rule: The Exchange: The pandemic brought corporate America to a tipping point. Business leaders weigh in on the issues that will make or break the future of work for women.   "I recently spoke with Gorman about her new book, her new life, and whether she could have ever imagined that she would be in the place she finds herself. This interview has been edited for length and clarity." "The Anti-Abortion Movement Could Reduce Abortions if It Wanted To," by Jill Filipovic in the New York Times: "Often an abortion happens because a woman is pregnant when she didn't intend to be. It is true that some women terminate wanted but doomed pregnancies and others face serious health complications. But if abortion opponents are serious about decreasing the need for abortion instead of simply punishing women and doctors, they should be rallying around contraception access. Instead, they're largely standing in the way. "As of 2019, researchers found that 45 percent of all pregnancies in the United States were unintended and roughly 40 percent of unintended pregnancies were terminated. This makes for very simple math: Decrease unintended pregnancies and you decrease abortions. "The best way to do that is with easy access to modern methods of contraception, particularly long-acting ones (IUDs, for example), coupled with comprehensive sex education. The U.S. abortion rate is at a record low because of a significant decrease in unintended pregnancies, which Guttmacher Institute researchers say 'is most plausibly explained by more and better contraceptive use.' Though a large majority of Americans, including those who might identify as pro-life, believe contraception is morally acceptable, many of the powerful anti-abortion lobbyists who shape Republican Party priorities and lead the legal attacks on reproductive health are at best silent about, and at worst hostile to, modern contraception." MUST WATCH – Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the First Female Special Agents. Quote of the Week The feminist writer died this week at 69. Read more here. Transitions Pamela Fletcher will be Delta Air Lines' new chief sustainability officer beginning in February. Fletcher was previously the vice president of global innovation at General Motors. … Katie Haun, a co-chair of Andreessen Horowitz's crypto funds, is leaving the Silicon Valley tech venture capital firm to start her own shop. …   Sponsored by Business Leader members of Women Rule: The Exchange: COVID-19 has upended the American workplace — and it continues to shine a light on what isn't working — particularly for women. But within every crisis, there is opportunity. Women Rule: The Exchange brings together leading women in business each quarter to confront these challenges and help find solutions to today's most pressing issues at the intersection of gender, industry and policy. Most recently, this included an examination of the future of America's working women. In this inaugural edition of 'view from The Exchange,' we sat down with a few of these leaders to continue the conversation and get their perspectives on some of the critical topics — diversity and inclusion, equal pay, mental health and family-friendly policies — that are driving this debate and will make or break the future of work for women.   Brandi Hoffine Barr is now senior director of Policy Communications at Peloton. She previously was in policy comms at Facebook. … Emilie Kao will rejoin the Heritage Foundation as visiting fellow in the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society. Kao previously joined the Alliance Defending Freedom earlier this year. … Katie Thomson, VP and associate general counsel of worldwide transportation and sustainability at Amazon, is returning to DOT to coordinate the implementation of the infrastructure law. Thomson previously was DOT's general counsel from 2013 to 2016.   Follow us on Twitter Katelyn Fossett @KatelynFossett   Follow us

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