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Sociology

How have women in the workforce fared, three years into the pandemic?
A childcare worker at a table with three young children.

(Homepage image) Women take on the majority of work in the care economy, both the informal, unpaid kind and paid jobs in fields like child care, education, and social services. “It might seem like the gender disparity has washed out and, in many areas, we have rebounded to pre-COVID levels,” says Gonalons-Pons. “But the care economy has not yet recovered.”

(Image: iStock/Drazen Zigic)

How have women in the workforce fared, three years into the pandemic?

Despite hopeful signs that this demographic is returning to work, certain female-dominated sectors, like the care economy, still haven’t recovered, signaling there’s more to learn about COVID-19’s full effect.

Michele W. Berger

States with high COVID-19 death rates also saw high mortality from other causes
Illustration of COVID-19, made by drawing in red circular orbs with match-like objects sticking out around all of them.

Image: iStock/hatchakorn Srisook

States with high COVID-19 death rates also saw high mortality from other causes

Research from Penn, Boston University, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows that between March 2020 and February 2021 non-COVID deaths accounted for some 20% of excess mortality.

Michele W. Berger

New York Times journalist Brent Staples and Penn’s Tukufu Zuberi in conversation
Tukufu Zuberi (left) and Brent Staples

Tukufu Zuberi, the Lasry Family Professor of Race Relations in Penn’s departments of Sociology and Africana Studies, and New York Times journalist Brent Staples.

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New York Times journalist Brent Staples and Penn’s Tukufu Zuberi in conversation

At the inaugural W.E.B. Du Bois Lecture in Public Social Science, the two discussed Du Bois’ legacy and influence, Staples’ personal and professional journey, and the importance of speaking truth to power.

Michele W. Berger