evidence: Over the course of the first 10 months of the pandemic, women—particularly women of color—have lost more jobs than men as industries dominated by women have been hit the hardest.4 Overall, women have lost a net of 5.4 million jobs during the recession5—nearly 1 million more job losses than men.6 The job losses in December are a stark illustration of these trends: Black, Hispanic, and Asian women accounted for all of women’s job losses that month, and 154,000 Black women dropped out of the labor force entirely.7 This push of job losses, combined with the pull of increased caregiving at home,8 has created a recession in which more women have been affected, leading Dr. C. Nicole Mason to dub it the first ever "she-cession."9 Congress and the federal government’s failure to act immediately has only further jeopardized families’ fragile economic security and has the potential to create lasting harm for women’s careers and the U.S. economy as a whole. [...] Black women have also seen high unemployment rates and signs of a stagnant recovery. They are concentrated in industries with significant job losses, such as the education and health services industry, where 42 percent of Black women were employed in 2019, and in government.53 The unemployment rate for Black women peaked at 16.6 percent in May 2020, the second-highest rate that month after Hispanic women.54 In December, Black women’s unemployment rate was 8.4 percent—still 1.7 times higher than before the pandemic.55 However, 154,000 Black women left the labor force in December, a concerning sign of a lack of employment opportunities and overwhelming caregiving demands.56