[ONLINE] – Crisis Conversations — Live From Better Life Lab

The coronavirus pandemic is disrupting virtually everything about the way we work, live, connect with one another and expect from our government, businesses, communities and each other. And it’s exposing the deep cracks and inequities in American society across race, class and gender. We can’t go back. So what will it take to create a fairer, healthier future of work and family? That’s what we explore on Crisis Conversations – Live from the Better Life Lab. Join us on Zoom to share stories, ask questions and make sense of what’s so rapidly unfolding, and imagine together a better, more equitable new normal.

Join us on Friday, Nov 13 at 1 pm Eastern time, for a 30-minute interactive conversation on how the pandemic is setting women and, more specifically, working mothers, back a generation. Without reliable childcare and schools, an unprecedented number of women have been forced to reduce their hours or have had to leave the workforce entirely. As Elizabeth Gedmark, vice president of A Better Balance said recently: “It’s not a question of whether women are set back in the workplace. It’s a question of how far back we will go: 10 years, 15 years, 20 years?” What needs to change NOW to staunch the hemorrhaging and help women and their families achieve economic stability? And how can we design systems to ensure equity in the future?

Host:

Brigid Schulte
Director, Better Life Lab at New America

Guests:

Bryce Covert
Journalist and author, most recently of "The economy could lose a generation of working mothers"

Jessica Calarco
Associate professor of sociology at Indiana University who studies inequalities in family life and education. Her pandemic-related research includes "My husband thinks I’m crazy" and "Let’s not pretend it’s fun"

Kari McCracken
Mother of five who was recently pushed out of the workforce and a career she loved because of a lack of childcare