ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the failures of the privatized childcare and eldercare infrastructure in the United States. While that system preceded COVID-19, the pandemic provided an opportunity to re-examine the relationship between women's workforce participation and the country's commitment to offering easily accessible options to support care. Women were overwhelmingly the workers who quit when schools closed and childcare and eldercare became unavailable, and they are overwhelming the underpaid workforce—particularly BIPOC women—who staff paid carework positions. Public programs adopted during the pandemic show the possibilities for providing improved support for carework, its workers, and the families who need it.
