Infrastructure That Has Long Been Devalued – Women-Dominated Child And Home Care Work Is Critical
A fiery debate has erupted over the definition of “infrastructure.”
Does it mean roads, broadband and other physical structures included in the traditional meaning of infrastructure? Or should it have a broader definition that includes other important parts of the economy, such as workers who care for children, older adults and people with disabilities?
President Joe Biden prefers the latter meaning and wants to use nearly one-fifth of the US$2.25 trillion of spending in his jobs and infrastructure plan to expand and strengthen child care and home-based long-term care.
As a sociologist who has studied the paid-care workforce for over 15 years, I know how critical it is to the U.S. economy – as the COVID-19 pandemic has made quite plain. The problem is, these workers have long been under...