Elon Musk is cutting federal spending, but women will end up paying the price.
The putative head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency is laying off tens of thousands of federal workers who help Americans obtain special education services for their children, sign up for health insurance, find financial aid for college, file their taxes and enroll in Social Security, among other things.
This is being presented as a way to trim the federal budget, but it's really just shifting the burden to America's mothers, sisters and daughters, who will have to help their families cover the gap.
In my research as a sociologist, I found that the United States has long relied on women's unpaid labor as a social safety net, especially during times of crisis.
The difference this time is that the emergency is of our own making.
Read Jessica Calarco's full column here.
