The Gendered Shortcomings of Biden’s Economic Record
A good deal of 2024 election reporting has focused on how the Left might win back the young men who have drifted right in recent years. But progressives will need to pay just as much attention to addressing women’s unmet economic needs if they want to build a left-wing populist movement.
As Senior Vice President of Roosevelt’s think tank Suzanne Kahn writes for Dissent, “Despite efforts to address the failures of the care sector for workers and consumers alike, the care elements of Biden’s Build Back Better agenda were compromised out of the final Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). In other words, the parts of the Biden agenda most targeted at addressing women’s economic vulnerabilities never passed.”
The investments that did pass benefited male-dominated industries such as manufacturing and failed to address both long-standing gender wage gaps and cost-of-living challenges that more acutely harm women. As Kahn notes, “Although inflation is certainly felt by everyone, for the vast majority of families women serve as the primary grocery shoppers. . . . Encouraging women to enter manufacturing is not a satisfying answer when the costs that define their lives remain stubbornly high.”
Women’s core concerns must be central to progressive attempts to build a left-wing populist economic movement, Kahn concludes. Rejecting a right-wing economics that relies on “traditional” gender roles requires forging a new path toward a gender-equal economy.
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