Political possibilities are opening up with Coronovirus. In Hawaii, that means a "feminist economic recovery plan"

We often claim that the pandemic can open up political and economic possibilities - but this is one of the boldest examples we’ve heard about.

From the Washington Post’s women’s newspaper, the Lily:

A universal basic income. Special emergency funds for marginalized groups, including undocumented immigrant women, domestic workers, women with disabilities and sex-trafficking survivors. Waived co-payments for covid-19 tests and treatment, including for incarcerated women.

A 20 percent pro rata share of the covid-19 response funds the express recovery needs of the indigenous population. A $24.80/hour minimum wage for single mothers. Free, publicly-funded child care for all essential workers.

None of these proposals have come from the [US] federal government. These proposals instead come out of Hawaii, the first state to propose a what it’s calling a “feminist economic recovery plan.” Rather than restoring the economy to the old normal, the state is looking to seize the opportunity “to build a system that is capable of delivering gender equality.”

The plan, produced by the state’s Commission on the Status of Women, is designed for “deep cultural change” by explicitly incorporating the unique needs of indigenous and immigrant women, caregivers, elderly women, femme-identifying and non-binary people, incarcerated women, unsheltered women, domestic abuse and sex trafficking survivors, and women with disabilities.

The Lily goes on to interview Khara Jabola-Carolus, the commission’s executive director. A few extracts:

At the end of last month, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D), who is leading the response in the nation’s epicenter of the pandemic, called the novel coronavirus “the great equalizer.” Do you agree?

KJC: The death count has determined that is a lie. The virus itself and collateral damage hit certain groups harder than others: Black, Native, and immigrant communities were more defenseless to covid-19 because they couldn’t afford to be healthy in America to begin with.

Even the fact that the virus is more deadly for men is tied to sexism, a form of inequality. Mortality is always higher for men because self care and health-seeking are seen as things that women do; men often don’t want to be associated with women-type behaviors.

It’s well documented that men often don’t take care of their health for these cultural reasons. Meanwhile the impacts of covid-19 outside of the virus itself are more devastating to women, for cultural reasons as well as systemic sexism.

FN: The plan calls out a disparity in the framing of an economic “shutdown” because there’s a lot of unseen — and unpaid — labor that is forcing many to work overtime.

KJC: It’s like “Stranger Things”: There’s the economy we see, and then there’s all this other activity that co-exists and props it up — that’s where women live. This “Upside Down” of women’s work is in overdrive, not slowdown.

Normally, this “women’s work” seems nonessential, but during covid-19, it’s [society’s] only defense from total collapse. If we want a sustainable recovery, we need to formally revalue this work, entice men to do it, and integrate our economy around it.

FN: In many ways, it makes perfect sense that Hawaii would be the state to introduce the first recovery plan of this kind, given its unique, distinctive population, need and character: It has an indigenous identity, a large immigrant population, a large elderly population and a high number of multigenerational households.

It also has the highest cost of living of any state, and two-thirds of Hawaii residents were already struggling financially before the pandemic hit; now, it has the highest unemployment rate in the nation.

KJC: Yes. Firstly, women are caregiving for a lot more family members here — Filipinos, Hawaiians, and Micronesians have two to three times the amount of family members per household.

Hawaii is also unique because it has some of the highest costs for child care and elder care, and the largest shortage of care services in the U.S., so it makes sense that women would point out the need for social care infrastructure as part of rebuilding the economy.

This crisis is ripping the mask off that normally hides the exploitation of women’s care.

FN: The plan also prioritizes elder care, which is one of a few priorities that makes it an outlier among recovery propositions.

KJC: Elders are the collective wealth of our community. They are also majority women, and majority impoverished. Women of older generations were systematically denied the opportunity to build a nest egg because they were forced into low-paid work, homemaking and dependency on their husbands.

Older women cannot take care of themselves even if they wanted to. In a decade, one-third of Hawaii will be elderly people. There is no plan to care for them, other than to dump the work on their daughters. We need an eldercare infrastructure to care for every senior, not just the wealthy.

…FN: What most informed the creation of this plan?

KJC: I have not seen any state or nation propose a feminist economic recovery, a recovery that explicitly centers women or attempts to counteract patriarchy. Even proposals from left movements in the U.S. are missing this. They are bold on race and class, but gender is taken for granted.

People don’t seem to understand the fundamental role of patriarchy, and how to tie gender in with race and class. So, I turned to the people with real power — women organizing in our communities who are active inside and outside government.

This plan provides a blueprint.

More here. And here’s the PDF of the actual plan itself.