evidence: More than 2 million women left the labor force in 2020. Women are now at the lowest workforce participation level since 1988. Job losses in female-dominated industries like hospitality have forced many women out of work, and others, faced with the difficulty of balancing child care with paid work, have quit. And it has now become clear that Black and Latina women have been especially hard-hit. They now face far higher unemployment rates than white women. [...] MARTIN: And Black and Latina women have been disproportionately affected in a negative way. And, Margaret Brower, I'm going to ask you, why is that? BROWER: I would say that the biggest reason is because they are concentrated in the industries of hospitality and services. But it's not just that these industries are laying off Black and Latina women. There haven't been important safety nets in these industries for workers, and so when Black and Latino women are concentrated in them, they don't have access to things like paid sick time or health insurance or flexible work schedules. So it's not just that they're getting laid off. It's also because COVID presents a set of difficulties that these jobs don't provide a good safeguard against.