Why can’t women stop screaming?
Leading Social Impact as a Woman in a Pandemic.
This feels oddly familiar.
I remember the blurry days after the 2016 election. I would stay up past 3am, searching the web for answers. I came across an election-reaction article from a woman of color. Shannon Barber was politely telling the world that we (white people) were all freaking idiots (rightfully so). Oh, you’re shocked he won? Didn’t you hear us?
Why didn’t we listen to black people?
BIPOC peers were screaming at the top of their lungs that race was still an issue (see: police shootings, opportunity gaps, healthcare bias). They told us over and over White Supremacy lives while black people die. “ White men are given a lifetime pass of privilege.”
White people did not listen.
Now faced with Trump’s election results, the racism (and xenophobia) pervading America since 1601, was undeniable, legitimized, sanctioned, and on full view. White supremacy built this house so why would it be a surprise racism was his path to victory?
Clueless white people cried out in disbelief that Trump won. Many lamented, how could this happen? Not here. Not now. We’ve come so far. We who had the privilege to not deal with it daily, decided racism (post-Obama) was cured.
Meanwhile black people unanimously said How could you possibly be shocked?As Shannon said, people of color were screaming to white people that the “mother fucking house is still on fucking fire.”
The summer of 2016, thanks to experiences at the agency I then worked at, I finally truly understood the concept of white privilege. I learned quickly while white women feared Trump and the end to our limited rights, women of color feared far more. After a series of interactions, conversations, workshops and brave women and men of color showing up authentically, my mind and heart were blown wide open, decimating what I thought I knew.
As more white women finally began to understand the concept and impact of privilege, black feminists threw up their hands declaring intersectionality a ruse. They’d been screaming for centuries. Can you blame them?
Now, when learning about racial or gender inequality due to the pandemic, I experience many things. Shock is not one of them.
I still remember at 2:45am, reading Shannon’s words and point of view. As the house was engulfed in flames, despite the warnings from POC that white people had ignored she explained just how not shocking the election results were for her, though they were no doubt terrifying. Exasperated, she took on the emotional labor of educating the oppressors, again. Validated by statistics, mountains of personal experience, the fire alarms went unanswered. She was justifiably over it.
I’m grateful to Shannon and other people of color who patiently educate my privileged white ass. I am thankful they continue to share their perspectives when their voices are tired.
Since 2017, the house that slavery built has continued to drive up death counts for marginalized communities. The house continues to burn because the President is not one to put out fires; he causes them.
Through his rhetoric Trump has made it clear white male lives are held to a higher standard=worthy of living. He sanctioned neo-nazi’s violence murder of a woman, referring to them as “nice people”. He has never once called for justice for police when defenseless black men, women and children, were murdered. Mass murders who are white are not referred to as domestic terrorists, but as troubled. He reserves the term terrorist for muslims.
He removed policies that protect POC and women. He destroyed their worlds with oil pipelines and pipelines to prison. Trump’s of course not the only one. Mitch McConnell clearly has no agenda but to harm POC. As this Post Opinion piece points out: “right now, it sure looks like he just wants the country to burn.”
Data on the Virus’ impact isn’t even being accurately collected or shared. But we do know some statistics that pour in daily about Covid-19: the unfair higher numbers impacting on people of color. The number of confirmed cases affecting POC 3 to 4 times that of whites. And, we do have data that despite men seemingly getting the virus at higher rates, the impact the pandemic has on women is far worse. Is America once again shocked?
I am not shocked in the least; I am heart broken.
Collective voices of warning.
More women’s voices continue to sound alarms, even as their data-informed warnings get challenged or mocked. And women are often ignored.
Jocelyn Frye, a Senior Fellow at the center for American Progress is an expert on women’s issues, continues to shine light on the hardships women face in our economy and in particular from this pandemic.
“Now, the aggressive spread of COVID-19 is creating new obstacles with far-reaching implications for the ability of women of color — and all individuals — to survive, thrive, and participate in an economy that works for all.”–Jocelyn Frye
Moms Demand Action scream that guns are killing our children in schools. Privileged men hold on tighter to their guns, leveraging their money to squash legislation that more than 75% of Americans support.
Mari Copeny and several other female activists screamed about the water crisis in Flint for over 3 years. Right on the heels of one crisis, the Coronavirus comes and hits their community hard.
Greta Thunburg literally shouts to global leaders “Our house is on fire” (quite literally burning); leaders ignore her because they might lose money. The U.S. pulls out of the Paris Climate agreement, mocking that she is just a girl. Never mind that climate change impacts girls the most (we’ll cover that later).
Our leaders would rather start polluting again at all costs, including the costs to human life. The only numbers they’re interested in protecting are the ones in the stock market.
Now as a silver lining to a global pandemic, the planet is breathing a sigh of relief, these same leaders want to get the economy “back to normal”.
“Normal” wasn’t working for most of us before this crisis.
We scream: We don’t want to return to “normal”.
Current policies and the current form of capitalism keep the rich richer, further dividing the haves and have nots. We can’t called them failed policies, because they are working as intended. They are keeping white men in power.
Destroying social programs in the past two years, contributed to the negative financial and medical outcomes that now impact more women and people of color. Any law or system that gave average American families the ability to cope in crisis lie in ashes.
Witnessing the awful outcomes for women and people of color experience in this pandemic, and its aftermath, is it surprising the GOP will do anything to hold on to money and position?
Same scream, different issue
Women have been here, gesticulating wildly to be seen, screaming to be heard. The current U.S. situation with COVID-19 amplifies every issue women have been screaming about since the beginning of feminism.
Some may feel like women have come so far and are equal in most ways. The current crisis shows us just how far we had to go, and how fragile our positions were. It echos the Obama years when some thought the end of racism was a done deal when it was anything but.
As the country enters its 6th week in lockdown, we are confronted with the continued challenges women face every day. Due to the patriarchy, sexism, domestic violence, discrimination, lack of healthcare, lack of childcare, invisible labor, gender wage and wealth gaps, we are fighting for our lives. We are “bearing the brunt of Coronavirus disruption”. If we don’t act fast, things for women and girls will continue to get worse.
“When emergencies strike, vulnerable people suffer most. That almost always means women and girls. Programs that help women and girls need more resources — fast.” -Cheryl Sandberg
In nearly every sector, the Coronavirus (like climate change) hurts women and people of color more than men. From earnings, savings, relief efforts and access to capital and investments, the crisis underscores the need for gender and racial equality in the U.S.
Jobs: Women hold the majority of jobs first to be cut. Teachers are primarily women. Domestic laborers, hospitality employees, medical front line workers: all women. 59% of the rising unemployment applications are women.
Finances: Thousands of women owned small businesses were denied grants. Women lack savings and resources to weather financial storms and childcare to continue to work. Women account for the majority of the lowest wage earners to begin with.
Immigration: Women who need it most, immigrants, were not even considered worthy of stimulus checks (which would not cover 1 month’s food, bills, diapers, clothes and housing for most families).
Healthcare: We’ve screamed about issues with maternal care, especially for women of color, as babies and mothers die. Now women of color are dying from the virus more than white women.
Another non-shocking data-backed fact: women are experiencing the mental health impacts from Coronavirus at higher rates than men. We have shrinking access to affordable healthcare, lowering our ability to survive a pandemic. And they have severely limited women’s access to safe, affordable reproductive care.
Safety: Female employees told big tech that we were getting screwed and paid less. We were rewarded with less job security. We told the Ad industry and the Supreme Court committee the same thing.
We screamed out as our bodies were used and abused. The #metoo movement took a megaphone to the unfair treatment of women. Ending gender based violence is the number one focus from the U.N.’s Sustainability Global Goal #5 for gender equality. The pandemic has increased domestic abuse around the world.
At this point, the Coronavirus is simply fuel for a bonfire that is the U.S. patriarchal political and economic systems. What’s the point of yelling if those in power fan the flames?
Not so silent screams from mothers
Trapped in social, political, personal and professional purgatory from this global pandemic, I’m thankful my lungs still work. I need them for deep breaths too.
As a woman and mother in quarantine, even a privileged one, I am left with few conscious choices about work. I don’t choose when I work or when I am able to have uninterrupted work time or the infrequent phone calls I manage to squeeze in. I don’t choose when I get up, sleep or even get a break.
Domestic employees absence has never been felt more than in this moment. Working moms are suddenly left without the support that helped them thrive.
Personally, between kids and loss of paying clients, I barely hang on to work some days. Many days, it feels as if I have newborns again with so much neediness. Every third day I go from productive and functioning to flat out crashed by 5pm.
The constant feeling that I should really just quit, because, who am I kidding? pops up often. Apparently I am not alone.
Women without partners, barely getting by and who maybe just figured out how to make it work, are suddenly left without any support system, isolated. They can’t scream as they are the only ones keeping their families in tact.
Women that are privileged enough to still have the choice, (those who have partners, a 2nd income, insurance and luckily still have jobs), still feel a silent scream rising in their throats. The choice isn’t really ours to make.
Sometimes being in limbo is the worst part. What will today look like? Will I be able to work or even have a job? Will the kids go to camp or will we be homebound all summer? We’re all collectively in limbo, holding our breaths to see what happens next.
The house still burns.
The Coronavirus threatens to role back every single thing we worked for (that Trump had not already tried to destroy). This is why women are in yet another national moment of jaw-dropping rage and frustration, screaming our faces off.
Many women (some admittedly late to the party), woke up to the smoke and started shouting too. Now in 2020 we understand better how the U.S. economy and society only work if equity exists.
We stand in solidarity with women of color, now more than ever, collectively screaming F bombs.
One thing is clear, whether women band together or not. Under Trump’s, leadership women are fucked. Together, even if parallel, our collective voices can be heard over the flames.
Where have you been? We have to say we told you so, again?
Haven’t you been listening? Didn’t you watch when he put a sexual predator on the Supreme Court or called all Mexicans rapists? Didn’t you hear him make fun of people with disabilities at rallies? Did you hear us scream when he dismantled fair, public education in favor of profits? Remember the day after he was elected, he removed departments, one after the other, that protected our parks and land, infrastructure, and civil rights of this nation.
Has 4 years of this President’s ignorance and misogyny taught America nothing? Evidently not.
Now, in a national and global crisis, somehow there is still shock and debate that he removed a newly-formed pandemic response team, while scientists and billionaires warn pandemics are real.
Instead of figuring out why this administration was not prepared, political debates rise to determine the level of Trump’s screw up. There’s no debating he wasn’t prepared to help Americans.
Those who claim shock that Trump chooses money over people and points fingers to ignore educated professionals can claim many things.
They can’t continue to claim they’re surprised.
Backblaze.
Privileged men in power continue to ignore Coronavirus science and data, pushing to end social distancing early. This of course puts women and girls at greater risk. And under Trump’s leadership, women’s rights are in a 5 alarm fire.
Corporate America run by mostly men continue to expect business as usual in a pandemic, ignoring the greater impacts it’s having on half our society.
When I read that men want to push the economy to reopen because we can’t afford not to, I am outraged. How can we afford to continue operating the country as we have since its inception, on the backs of the poor? Why do we keep heralding an economic system that was built on tenants we no longer hold just?
Those in power and privilege are willing to put everyone at risk because they don’t feel that applies to them. Echoing slavery and every other war, the men in power get to decide who’s life is worth more.
Great balls of fire.
It’s clear we need new leadership.
We must rebuild a system that values the work and life of everyone equally. In this new economy, we will need new metrics. How American’s measure success cannot continue to be based on the wealth of the 1%. (That wealth could wipe out U.S. debt problems nearly 10x over.)
This magical “new economy” will not be measured in dollars, but in lives.
We need women to lead to survive this pandemic and as a planet.
Women will lead a bravely building a new world of equity and safety. We will continue to show up everyday and lift up the marginalized and disadvantaged. We will approach today’s problems with humanity. We will patiently listening to each other, and find the heart of the matter. We will care for the sick and heal the country.
We need leaders who acknowledge the impacts race and gender have on society, in order to create a better path forward. We need to dismantle the system built to oppress women and people of color.
We have to keep screaming about the imbalances. We have to fight for change (and we need men to scream about it too).
We have a plan, which is more than we can say for Trump. Women are ready.
The question remains: Are we too late to put out the fire?
Collective Flow Consulting provides mission-driven leaders the systems, skills and strategies to increase revenue and make a positive impact. coFLOWco’s mission is to achieve equal opportunity and economic empowerment by amplifying the strengths, voices and creative ideas of diverse leaders.
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