Thread by @WIRED

Covid-19 is more than a healthcare crisis. It's proving to be an existential crisis for working women in particular. In 2020, for the first time ever, there were more women in the workforce than men. Then the pandemic struck. 1/

#InternationalWomensDay
Art Credit: Sam Whitney

Lockdowns, remote work, virtual school, and the day-to-day responsibilities of managing a household proved to be too much. Now, more women are leaving their jobs to care for children or aging parents and sometimes both. 2/

#IWD2021
#InternationalWomensDay

This shift is so monumental that the number of women in the workforce is expected to at least temporarily drop to late-1980s levels. That effectively erases all the gains made in the last 30 years. 3/

#IWD2021
#InternationalWomensDay

On this international women's day, we salute the women who have been forced out of the workplace. We honor their sacrifice. We know this decision comes at great professional and economic cost to the individual, but we all lose when women leave the workforce. 4/

#IWD2021

We're deprived of their institutional knowledge, their propensity for skill-sharing, their ingenuity in problem-solving, and their overall capacity for leadership. 5/
#IWD2021
#InternationalWomensDay

A workforce without women is like working with one hand tied behind your back. Sure, you can do it. It's just not optimal. 6/

#IWD2021
#InternationalWomensDay
Art Credit: Sam Whitney